Has it been quiet around here?

Hello fellow crafters! Bones here! I know, I know... Bones, you ask. Who's Bones?

Well, yes, I have been very, very, insanely quiet recently... but I have a good reason! And that reason is that I've been up to my eyebrows in crafting and networking and posting and selling my jewellery! Yep, that's right! In these times of economic difficulty and unemployment, I decided (with lots of help and good advice from good friends) to start Autumnal Skies, my jewellery persona, to start selling some of my crafting!

 

It's not been easy, and it's definitely been slow-going, but slowly and surely, I'm getting the word out there and people are looking at my work! I've been very lucky to meet some amazing people along the way too, and I'll be writing a 'Shop Spotlight' post every other week (in collaboration with Munchkin, who will be doing the other weeks!) about some of the fantastic people I've met so far!

 

You might also wonder, what's with all the photos?

 

Well, to make up for my lack of craft talk on here, I thought I would take the opportunity to bombard you with some of my work so far...

 

Most of which appears to be earrings...

 

Which is really bizarre as I don't wear earrings! But I seem to be able to make them more than anything else right now, so who says I can't!

 

I am trying to branch out more into necklaces and bracelets... slowly but surely, so watch this space!

 

I'm also hoping to do more work with semi-precious gemstones and sterling silver chain so that those of us that can't stand silver-plate because of the nasty reactions we have to it don't feel left out. But I do make sure that ALL of my earrings are on Sterling Silver earwires! No manky ears here please!

 

I've also recently gotten more interested in Polymer Clay jewellery and I'm currently experimenting with Millefiori cane techniques, so that's going to be another branch that I'll be getting into soon!

 

Other than that I've been promoting my work wherever I can...

 

All of my work is availiable for purchase on Etsy

 

You can also find me and my work on Facebook

 

I'm ALSO around on Twitter!

And if I've not scared you all off with all of that, then do feel free to swing by the website for Autumnal Skies here where I post updates every so often about my crafting and other items I want to share with people! Never fear, I'll still be around on here for general craftiness mischiefery though!

Goodness me! So... now you know why I've been so quiet! Is it any wonder...? Happy crafting!

All images are copyright of Autumnal Skies and may not be copied without my (Bones) written permission.

MauveMagpie

One of the things that we have decided to do this year is highlight the work of other crafty people, in terms of blogs, or projects, or shops.

The first of these is MauveMagpie, who turns out to be a very nice lady in Scotland who is also called Lauren (we're awesome, I'm telling you!). She has a very nice shop on Etsy, where she sells her custom handmade jewellery, which is how I found out about her.

You know that thing where you shouldn't go on Etsy if your only other companions for the evening are a bottle of wine and a debit card? Well in this case, it turned out to be a very good thing indeed. In my semi-drunken optimism, I stumbled across a stamped metal bookmark that made me smile, and immediately got sucked into the rest of the shop.

MauveMagpie has a really good eye for design, particularly when it comes to metal stamping (and I just love her Gummy Bear charms!) - her use of empty space to emphasise a design is really effective, and makes for some stunning jewellery. Her strong sense of humour is often at the forefront of her work, and I'd highly recommend her to anyone looking for a gift or treat :)

'Rawr!' Bookmark

Gummy Bears galore!

Dandelion and Fluff Earrings

'Eat Me' Fork

Marauders Bookmark (one of which I am now the proud and happy owner)

You can keep up to date with more of her marvelous creations on her website.

(Images: All images belong to MauveMagpie, no infringements of any kind intended!)

Luna Lovegood Scarf

One of the many things I put together for people for Christmas was this gorgeous crocheted scarf. I haven't crocheted for a long time, and I thought it high time that I re-learn the skill, particularly as I have Krystyna around to give me a hand when I get stuck on the whole US/English mis-translations.

It's one of the reasons that I haven't done any for a while - when I was teaching crochet to my fellow crafters at our University Craftiness Society I got entirely confused because the size of my projects never turned out right. Krystyna has since informed me that there's a completely different notation system for England compared to the US, so I'm re-reading all of my patterns carefully to see where I've been going wrong.

Anyway, Krystyna introduced me to a beautiful pattern for the Luna Lovegood scarf from Harry Potter, created by pinkleo. It's such a pretty scarf, and I thought it would be perfect for my friend Rowena, and for my Granny. I decided to make the scarf shorter than the original pattern, partly because of time constraints, and partly because my Granny prefers shorter scarves; pinkleo's pattern calls for a starting chain of 383, I used 290 for my shorter length version. In the end, I ended up making it from one 50g ball of King Cole Galaxy, which has sequins woven into the yarn for extra sparkles, and knits up as DK, with a size 4.5 hook. I used 'Mercury' since it fit so well with the original colour - though I'm considering trying it out in 'Venus' (black) or purple at some point.

It turned out to be beautifully soft - I was a little worried that the sequins might be scratchy, but they really weren't - and looked great! The pattern was easy to follow (once I'd translated it from US to UK), and one of pinkleo's friends, ariaya made up a chart for it, which was great to refer to when I got stuck. It's a pretty good pattern for beginners who are looking for a bit of a challenge. I'd very much recommend both the pattern and the yarn.

If you need a good hook size converter from US to UK or back again, try Yarn Forward's helpful guide; they also do a decent stitch converter, too.

Happy crocheting!

Happy New Year! (2012)

A brilliant and belated happy new year to the lot of you!

It's been a busy year, what with blogging and writing and looking for work, and not all of it good, but it never is, really. Still, it's been a reasonably good one, and hopefully this year can only get better :)

To business: the new year welcomes (or rather, welcomes back) the lovely Krystyna, who will be blogging with us on a more permanent basis (on the basis that she does more craft than us anyway ). So give her a warm, crafty welcome!

Many crafty things, are - as usual - afoot. You've got all the weird and wonderful things I made for friends and relatives over christmas to look forwards to, along with several new projects to add to the list. My wonderful Mum, JacAbsolute, sent me vouchers for Collinette, which were immediately put to good use in the form of a massive bag of ends for a scrap-blanket and the wherewithal to make a lovely perugino throw, but more about those later.

I wanted to kick the year off with a minor personal celebration (I finally finished one of my long-standing projects) but I appear to have temporarily mislaid said project, so that will have to wait. *facepalm*

Instead, I'm going to wow you with two amazing blogs that I've been following. These ladies are exceptionally talented (as you'll see) and are well worth a look, for inspiration and good humour.

The first blog is The Sunroom, which is run by a veritable goddess of crochet. I found the blog in November, and managed to lose most of a day simply gaping at her many and magnificent designs, many of which have very good how-tos. As an independent fibre artist, many of her patterns are for sale, and well worth the

price - though she very kindly includes a fair few for free on the blog (one of which I hope to be trying out this year), along with the odd tasty recipe (the toffee apples were amazing). I cannot recommend this blog enough. If you love crochet - and intelligent use of vibrant colour - then go right over there and have a nosey!

Here are just two of her creations:

Granny Stripes Traditional Shawl

Tutti Frutti Granny Blanket

The second blog I'd like to recommend is Kneurotic Knitter. I've been following Kneurotic for a year or so now, and I've seldom seen so much patience and ingenuity put into knitting. Every project that this lady produces seems to turn out perfectly - I am so jealous of her talent. If you want a look at how good knitting can get then I highly recommend that you pop over to see her. She seems to have tried her hand at every kind of knitting going, and is not afraid of a challenge, as her most recent post affirms. Definitely one to watch :)

Here are some beautifully put together items:

Autumn Rose Pullover

Three Lacy Bridesmaid Shawls

(Images: Granny Stripe Shawl and Tutti Frutti Blanket both belong to The Sunroom; Autumn Rose Pullower and Three Bridesmaid Shawls belong to Kneurotic Knitter. No infringement of anything intended)

I'm with Eeyore on This One...

First, an apology: Bonesy and I are doing NaNoWriMo at the minute and have therefore been concentrating all our available words on our novels, hence the lack of updates. So, sorry! We've still been crafting away of an evening, though, so expect a flurry of posts come december (since mine are largely christmas and birthday related, they're likely to be really cryptic) - including a couple of extra special ones about Bonesy's new shop, and our new partner, Krystyna.

But for now, I'm afraid you're stuck with my mini-rant :)

Do you know what I hate?

This:

I mean, how difficult is it to join two pieces of yarn together without using a knot? Particularly raw wool fleece, and particularly when the culprit is a professional textiles company. And the sad thing, it's not just them - I've found knots in yarns from all manner of companies, and they all know how to fix it. I suppose it's just simpler not to.

So if you get a knot in the middle of your yarn (and it's wool, rather than cotton or acrylic) this is what to do:

Splay out the fibres at the ends of the yarn, and get wet (preferably using water); then overlap the two ends and rub them together between your hands in order to felt them. Easy.

See? :

Much better.

Ok, rant over :D

Gemma's Wand

As part of her birthday present, I made Bonesy a wand.

You will need:

A stick (should be roughly the right length and feel good in the hand)

Cutting tools

Knife

Sandpaper

Ribbon (optional)

Charm (optional)

Glue gun (optional)

Common Sense (always be very careful when handing cutting tools and blades)

1. Luckily, I have access to an oak tree (planted by my Uncle), so I cut a couple of sticks from one of the branches and left them to dry for a couple of weeks, but found sticks are just as good. If you don't know what wood it is, it might be worth stripping the bark off part that you don't intend to use and seeing what colour it turns as it dries. The wood I chose was white oak, which looks really pretty when it dries, and a little (creepily) like bone, which seemed appropriate, given that this was for Bones :).

2. When the wood was dry, I chose a piece of stick with a helpful knobbly bit in the middle that looked like it would make a good handle-top. Then, I cut the wand to a good size, which more or less means 'a size that feels right to you, and doesn't look too silly when wafting about'; I made sure that it was slightly bigger at the 'magic' end to allow for further shrinkage through drying and shaping.

3. Next, I stripped the bark from the 'wand end', up to the knobbly bit at the top of the handle, and shaped the tip of the wand to be slightly pointy.

4. I sanded the top of the wand to make it smooth, and to remove any remaining bits of bark. The wand looked pretty good at this point, and I'm all for servicable wands, but since this was a special occasion, I decided to personalise it a bit.

5. Cutting a length of ribbon (matching the ribbon I used for the Witch's Writing Set), I secured one end of the ribbon to the top of the handle with the glue gun and wrapped the ribbon tightly around the handle. I threaded a silver leaf charm onto the ribbon and continued wrapping until I ran out of ribbon, tucking the end in and securing it with the glue gun.

And there you have it, a white oak wand, for a white witch :)

Witch's Writing Set, Part Two

This part of the recipe is all about decoration; for the first half of the Writing Set, see my earlier post.

You will need:

Ribbon (in a colour of your choice), I chose green

Decorations (that go with your colour choice), I chose keys and a chinese coin

Glue gun

Damp cloth

1. The letter holder thing that I started with had a slightly wider base than its walls, so I decided to add my trim just above that to accentuate the shape. I measured a length of green ribbon against the perimeter of the box, and glued it in place with the hot melt.

2. Next I had a rummage around my local bead shop for some large beads that would work as accents. I found two sort of Steam-punky keys (which are a symbol of knowledge, and therefore appropriate for a writing set) and a silver Chinese coin with dragons on (for good luck). First, I measured the middle point on the front of the letter holder, marking it with a bit of tailor's chalk, then glued the coin to the front (making sure that it was the right way up). It looked a bit strange on there on its own, so I added a sort of tassel of ribbons to the centre of it.

3. I lined up the keys on the sides of the box, slanting slightly, to cover the edge of the seam, and glued those in place.

4. Using a damp cloth I cleared away any excess glue from around the box and finished smoothing out any remaining wrinkles in the fabric.

Voila! The finished writing set. I thought it turned out rather well, and from her reaction I'd say Bones appreciated the effort :)