Cardorama!

(last cheesy title, I promise :P)

It's finally done: the last of the big projects I needed to finish before the craft fair:

lots of fibre art cards!

- I love looking at these once they are finished but boy do they take up the most room and time to make!

That's everything major finished now - my last decision is whether to make up a few more kumihimo rings and earrings.  

The earrings were popular at the last craft fair but don't sell well on my Etsy shop - and the rings are a fairly new idea so they weren't around last time.  To be honest I think I have enough to cover the table (!) but maybe people would like the option of matching bracelets and earrings/rings.... what do you think?

Fibre art cards

My series of fibre art cards is one of my favourite ideas I have come up with this year.  Each one is like a mini-fibre art piece, but small enough for some relatively fast project-completion satisfaction!  They've happily been pretty popular on my Etsy shop, so I've recently made another set of cards, which I'll start listing later today.


Here's how I make them:

First of all, I make small pieces of felted fibre using my embellisher.  I use all sorts of fibres - silk, wool, bamboo, soy, flax - as well as scrim, scraps of velvet or cotton fabric, ribbon, nepps and threads.  Here's the latest batch hot off the embellisher:

I use plain square white cards, to set off the colours - but I mount each fibre piece on a small background square of paper or fabric.  I choose each one according to each fibre piece:

I've used hand-dyed cotton fabric, mulberry paper, mulberry tissue paper, abaca tissue and scrim.

I mount the paper or fabric backing onto the card first, and whilst that is drying I embellish the fibre piece.  I used hand embroidery, beading and couching working with the individual characteristics and contours of each piece.

Here's a couple of pieces before:

and after:

Glass bugle and seed beads, with seed, colonial knot, detached fly and buttonhole bar stitches:

again glass bugle and seed beads, this time with drizzle, seed and colonial knot stitches and some couched thread:

13 in total in this lot - phew!

Current projects...

I've been quite busy over the last few weeks visiting friends all over the place, and finishing my biggest ever project (see my next post!) so I haven't had much time for craftiness. Here's what I've been fitting in in spare moments...

Another Paisley-shaped brooch in the making

Some linocutting (now turned into fabric prints - thanks Thomas!)

Some wee button-y cards to send as little extras with Etsy orders

I've also been given a really interesting idea by one of my Etsy customers (thanks Rosemary!) which I'm looking forward to exploring... watch this space!

Progress update..

Here's what happened next!

The kumihimo bracelet (top) and felted, beaded and embroidered fibre art card (bottom) are now up in my etsy shop.

I'm not sure whether I've finished the middle project yet - think I'll mull it over for a while and see...!

Current works in progress...

Some sneak peeks at some of the projects I'm working on at the moment...

Using beautiful handdyed threads from Sassalynne

A linocut print onto cotton made with help from my friend Thomas

Wee pieces of embellished felt for more of my fibre art cards

I'm also going to have my first shot at some free machine embroidery today, having equipped my old sewing machine for the task... I'm quite excited but totally clueless, so we'll see what happens!!

Various projects and another 'helper'...

I've been very busy recently making various Christmas presents, and cards.  Although I don't want to spoil any surprises, here are some sneak peeks!

A Birthday card for my niece...

An embellished, felted and embroidered fibre art piece for someone's Christmas...

Various pieces of jewellery being finished up...

A card to celebrate the birth of my friends' first baby, Holly...

Oh, and I also got around to sorting out by fibre stash.  So many goodies!!

And last but certainly not least, a wee photo of my other 'helper'.  This is Bruford aka Brufybundle aka Mr Brufus McTavish.  He loves to eat thread, hide things, and usurp my crafting chair.  Don't be fooled by the adorable fluffy tummy.

Etsy update~!

Well, over this last week I have finally gotten around to updating my Etsy shop with some of the things I have made recently.

I'm always a bit apprehensive about listing on Etsy... it's the photos, really. As an avid Etsy buyer (!), I really appreciate what a difference good photos make to a listing, and I feel that I'm still not quite settled on what I want the 'look' of my own items' photos to be. Good light is always a problem in my flat, and getting an opportunity to find an outside space to photograph things can be difficult.

I made a light box from instructions that I found via Etsy, and I have to say that's helped a lot with eliminating shadows, and achieving diffused light... but I still don't feel I've found the perfect backdrop for the items. This time around I've used handmade paper. I'd really like to use slate, or perhaps some very fine matte emery paper (I'll need to find some first!) instead at some point - all the backgrounds I've used before have been quite light, and maybe I need to try something darker.

I've also been using the scanner a bit for some items, like cards, but I find it doesn't always do the colours justice, and if there's too much texture (for example on my beaded pieces) focus can be a problem too.

So, I'm still working on it - but I feel that each time I update my shop I learn something new!

This week I've added...

...some fiber embellished cards that I made with my embellisher - quite simple, but they really show off the beautiful threads (again courtesy of Sassalynne and Therainbowgirl!) to good effect.

...some jewellery I made with vintage findings, kumihimo braids, and felted pieces (again made using my embellisher, and then finished with handsewn beads and hand embroidery).

This necklace was made using a piece of a larger blue piece I had felted and beaded. It's mounted on a vintage brass tag, and strung on a lovely vintage brass coloured chain. I really like the texture of the pendant - it's very touchable!

I made these earrings from one of my 8-strand kumihimo braids. I have been trying to work out a way of incorporating the braids into earrings, in a way I like. This is the best I have come up with so far! I tied the braids into Chinese flat button knots, which I think shows off the texture nicely. One braid end is fed into a tiny bead cap so that the earring finding can be attached.