Crafting the Journeys animation

These guys were made for an animation workshop I did through November & December with Croydon Council to promote their Journeys project. I’ve never had so many funny looks on the tube as I sewed them together, grabbing whatever moments I had at this crazy busy time to get them made.  


Check out the finished animation here...

A Christmas Gift

I made this apron for my Mum's birthday earlier this month and thought that I would share it here too. She is a florist, so it can get quite crazy near to Christmas. I imagine that is how she is feeling by today!

By the end of January I will be escaping the winter and heading off on a trip of a life time around South America. Our Frizzle circle group will be paused for a while until I'm back in May 2012. I'm sure that I will return inspired! Well here's hoping that I do...

'Tis the season for block printing

There is nothing like receiving a personalized one of a kind hand made gift item. So on Saturday we were all busy little Santa's elves creating hand printed t-towels and canvas bags for the giving season. 

By carving out individual designs on a pink speedy cut block with lino cutters we were then ready to ink up and print to our hearts content. The versatility of block printing is amazing, from printed cards to t-towels. It's fantastic! You only have to remember to heat-set the fabric ink with an iron or else you loose your design in the wash. 

There is a cupcake and teacup obsession with our crafty group it seems! And there was even time to do some embossing with the heat gun to create gift tags to go along with the presents!

Candles for bonfire night...

In keeping with our seasonal theme after the monster making Halloween workshop, we got making some candles on Saturday before we all headed out to see the fireworks.


We were creating cup-cake candles and teacup or container candles using two different kinds of wax and lots of interesting scent too. The chocolate candle scent made us all very hungry!

And you really do make the cup-cake candles like the real thing...well almost. You start off with a base cake and then have a whole lot of fun icing it with fluffed up wax 'frosting'. It's a very strange thing to whisk up the wax with a food mixer, but it really does become like proper icing. We did two batches, some white and some pink. And then went a bit wild with the glitter!

While waiting for the wax to cool on the cupcakes we started to melt the soy wax to fill our teacups. The all very important heat gun used to keep the wax nice and runny as it is poured from the metal jug and the thermometer is another super important instrument for monitoring the wax temperature. 

And here is the final result, with the wax nicely poured and cooling down, the chopsticks come in handy to help center the wick so there is no wonky burning candles once they are taken home.

So...anyone for a cup of tea and a fairy cake then? 

Meet the monster family...

Plenty of cups of tea helped along the making of this monster family at the end of October. They all turned out so fantastically well and not so scary...well the blanket stitch seemed a bit scary at first, but everyone mastered this in no time. 


There were some crafters that had to vamoose a bit earlier than the rest of the gang. The wee green and red monster below actually got made into a Christmas decoration, sacrilege! two days before Halloween, I tell you.   

And I think this cutie was going to get completed at home, then eventually end up in the mouth of a baby. Perfect! 

I really have to create a post workshop photo gallery so that we can see where everything ends up...


Some work in progress shots, and what perfect stitching...and stuffing...

And finally some close-ups of the completed creations, frankenstein eat your heart out...erm, well maybe not quite yet.

the making of a monster

This is my favourite time of year, especially around Halloween or the feast of Samhain and All Souls' Day. And to celebrate just a little this Saturday on October 29th we will be getting the needle and tread out to create miniature monsters and you never know we might even try apple dunking...and share a ghost story around a cup of brew...

Check out the details here if you want to come along. 

I'm so excited about this that I even created a one minute horror (ahem) animation...well more like attack of the killer pin cushions, or something along those lines. 

See how the wee orange guy got made by the hand of the creator.

My monster inspiration comes from many places but I can't help being inspired by these cardboard cut outs a friend gave to me all the way from California. They are aptly called Kamisabi - in Japanese it's the term for an item given a second life as a ghost. The paper comes from trimmings so they are recycled into a new life. They make me smile...

But the pincushions have the last word, in case you are interested to see the final scene of the animation, a bit like extreme acupuncture? eh...the poor thing

joyful fabric printing

I should be wary about posting too many pictures of the results of the fabric print workshop that happened on Saturday, because I'm sure that what was made might all turn into presents! It should be inspiration to make more though. 


It was very exciting to be printing on tea-towels and canvas bags, and how professional the designs looked too. There is nothing like a functional piece of fabric on which you can admire your creative splurge. 




We were using speedball speedy carve or the 'pink stuff' as it's known as with lino cutters. It cuts like a dream so it's really easy to work with. We then used a combination of acrylic paint with some fabric medium and stamp ink pads that adhere to fabric once you heat set with an iron. 


I think that I'll be running this workshop again soon, such was the enthusiasm for the whole thing. I for one am addicted to printing whether on paper or fabric.  


Check out the processes involved below, from inspiration to creating the block for printing and then the printing process itself. 

I also foraged my neighbours' garden for leaves and we used them to create prints with. Simple yet effective...

The craft taster day

After a nice long summer break, we returned to making last Saturday. There wasn't only one craft to try but three! 


Felt making, cross-stitching and beading with wire were all at our disposal. Once you get in the making zone, time seems to disappear rather quickly. 

That is until you stab yourself with a felting needle. I forgot the plasters, oh dear... 


Busy crafters in this picture are carding and needle - felting. The colourful results of their labour can be seen below. 

Fantastic intricate designs can be needle - felted, a great example below...

And then there was cross-stitch... 

...that I love to do on the train, or any other sort of transport, well maybe not my bicycle... We were putting some of the designs onto cover buttons too. The one in progress above ended up as a butterfly and it was taken home to complete. 

Making something on the commute to work prompted conversation about the kind of things that you can make while watching the telly, or in this case waiting for the plumber. One of the crafters got busy making so many beaded wire flowers... 

Crochetoholic

I started crocheting these hexagon shapes three years almost to the day and I've only recently started sewing them together, hence my excitement. I think there is a case for using your hands to make something as a way of not going mad, well especially if you are waiting for a delayed Ryanair flight.

There has been much more of a debate surrounding this, especially with the publication of Matthew Crawford’s The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good. This is pretty much the ethos of Frizzle Circle and why it exists in the first place.

I've crocheted the hexagons on the tube, train, and at any time when I’ve started to feel manic, or when I’ve been on the computer too long. So the hexagon shapes are all different tensions depending on how I’m feeling. It’s a great conversation starter; I’ve had old ladies telling me their crochet life stories and people ogle my hands maybe because I crochet left-handed. There is no pressure to finish it either so roll on another 3 years!

It's a pattern by Erika Knight from her book Essential Crochet . I’m using a cotton acrylic mix (Kool Kotton) and a slightly larger 4mm hook. My sister helped me figure out the not very straightforward instructions and I think I can now make a hexagon blindfolded anywhere. My aunties who taught me how to crochet all those years ago would probably be amazed that I’ve stuck at it this long…

Art in the Park -Brockley Max

I thought that I would share some pictures from the Art in the Park workshop I did as part of Brockley Max festival on Saturday. The weather was amazing and there was a great atmosphere in Hilly Fields park. There were many very creative finger puppets made by a lively gathering of children. I was glue and goggly eye covered by the end of the day! It never ceases to amaze me the freedom and inventiveness that can be had with some card, glue and scissors.   

Here were some of the creations. 

This is actually a finger puppet, they come in many shapes and sizes!

The wonders of Batik

After an alarming (!) start we got down to creating some vibrant batik on Saturday.
We were in the studio space of Action Space the charity I volunteer for, which is also amongst the studios at Cockpit Arts. It was the perfect venue to get very messy with dyes and wax.

I'm showing some of the final pieces of fabric after the wax was removed. We had to leave them overnight to dry up and also for the dye to fix itself to the fabric. 
I have to say that they all turned out rather brilliant. The light is shining through them in this picture so it makes the colours even brighter. But the dye held rather well, ironing helps too. I got everyone's fabric in the pictures! Let me know what you think...job well done I'd say. 

And now for the processes involved...some waiting for things to soak, the magic of science and then applying the wax and the dyeing of course. 

This was the waxing table and below a batik tool close up called a tjanting, it helps make finer lines as you are drawing with the wax.

After the wax was applied, the fabric needed to sit in a 'fixer' (water and soda ash) so that the dye would stay in the fabric once washed out. 

Next up the dyes, probably the best part, mixing different colour dyes together on the fabric and experimenting. A psychedelic colour range to choose from.

After this, it was a waiting game, covered in plastic so the pieces didn't dry out. They had to soak in the dye for at least two hours. Perfect time to head out for a well earned glass of wine!

And I can't resist another couple of pictures of them all together in the afternoon light.