Origami...

When I am not embroidering, felting, beading or sewing, my other favourite craft is origami.  I find it mind-bending and fascinating, and very satisfying (when it finally works after many practice runs!).  It was my birthday on Sunday...

(We went up Arthur's seat for a picnic... here is my friend's dog, Jackson, looking longingly at my cake!)

...and I was very lucky to recieve some lovely non-traditional origami papers, as well as a fantastic rare book called 'Origami for the connoisseur' by Kasahara & Takahara. I heard about this book through Flickr, where there are so many photos of people's amazing origami projects which are very inspiring.  Most of the projects in this book will take some building up to... but I'm looking forward to the challenge!

In preparation I've been practising some 'modular' origami - where you make a compound shape using multiples of a base 'unit' made of one folded sheet.  I've been working with 'Sonobe' units with a lot of help from a wonderful book called 'Marvelous modular origami' by Meenakshi Mukerji.

30 Sonobe units folded and ready to be assembled:

I am fascinated by all the permutations that are possible using the same basic units.  

These are all built from the same base unit, but in different multiples or sizes of paper sheet:

(6 pieces for the cubes, 12 for the octahedral assembly and 30 for the icosahedral assembly)

These are the smallest ones I have managed!

Brooches...

I'm working on some more brooches using the beautiful wooden bezels made by brightcolorart.  Hoping to have them all ready in time for the Magpie Market!

Here are the first few I've just finished: 

Moonshine, Islet, Guava, Pomme and Flamenco.

Jonquil...

I managed to finish this today.

'Jonquil'

Another attempt at a more 3D beaded and embroidered felt brooch, this time inspired by the beautiful narcissi and daffodils that are blooming all over Edinburgh at the moment.

Here are my preliminary notes - I found out that 3 of what I thought of were petals are actually sepals!  The corona posed a particular challenge.

The felt is made from wool roving, silk velvet, cotton scrim, organza, soy silk, bamboo fibre, silk noil and silk tops, embellished with glass beads and colonial knot, seed, bullion knot, detached fly, detached chain and Algerian eye stitches.

Work in progress...

Trying to get this finished before all of the inspiration finishes flowering!

Maquettes...

Some paper maquettes for more 3D brooch experiments...

Unexpected...

I tend to work in a rather intuitive way (maybe that's just a nice way of saying completely unplanned and disorganised!) - I felt first with my embellisher in a sort of spontaneous mess, and then I bead and embroider along contours whispered to me by the felt.  I rarely, if ever, plan layout in advance, and although I usually have a rough idea of the finished overall shape even that sometimes takes me by surprise...

Two cases in point, finished today:

'Cephalopod' - somehow became reminiscent of an octopus!

'Meteor' - some sort of pomegranate asteroid fallen to earth?

Kindlecase...

I've been very excited this week at the arrival of my Kindle e-reader.  Of course the first thing I had to do once it arrived was to make it a protective case...!

I decided to make a two-part case - a padded protective one for everyday storage and a 'hardback' case to protect the screen when I'm carrying it around in my bag.

For the inner soft case I used some of my precious vintage Japanese kimono fabric that I got at a temple market in Kyoto back in 2007 - this is one of my favourites with stylised Japanese clouds in cream on burgundy.  I sandwiched in a layer of wadding, and lined it with beautiful hand-dyed viscose felt from Sassalynne:

For the 'hardback' case I padded pieces of very thick card with more wadding, and then slipped them into a fabric case made with wonderful hand-dyed cotton fabric from AngelicaV.  

I added a lovely big coconut shell button, and some couched threads, hand embroidery, tiny 2mm sequins and glass beads.

I braided a thin 4-tama kumihimo braid and added this as a tie for closing the cover.  The inner 'cloud' cover fits into the hardback cover for extra protection if required!

My first ebook is 'Frankenstein'!

Bosket and Namida... and believing in your own work!

I'm beginning to gear up for fully reopening my Etsy shop with revised photos and pricing.  It's something I've been thinking about (and struggling with) for a long time - the different ways to value one's work and having the confidence to do so.  After some while, and many helpful discussions with myself and other friendly ears (you know who you are - and thank you!) I have decided that it's time to support my own work more strongly.  


One of the main ways to do this unfortunately involves money - price often being construed to equal value (although often not actually the case) - but when your work is in the public sphere I do think this has to be taken into account.  There is so much information and advice available on the internet regarding pricing - what factors need to be taken into account and so on.   By the time you have factored in supplies and time often the numbers just don't add up to a feasible amount.


When I first started out, I couldn't believe that anyone would actually want to buy my work - I loved making it, but the process was the goal for me and the end result it was sort of extraneous in a funny kind of way.  Now over the months and years, I feel my skill has developed and so has my confidence (in myself and in my work) which means now that I can better value the time, care and skill that I put into the pieces that I make - pieces that I feel are beautiful and original.  This isn't meant to sound like blowing my own trumpet (so apologies if it does!) but rather it's an understanding that is very significant for me personally as well as for my work.  If I don't believe in it, who else will?!


It still feels all rather nerve-wracking though, particularly as another goal that I have set myself is to approach some galleries and boutiques in Edinburgh to see if they would consider selling some of my jewellery... *gulp*! I plan to do this after my shop is sorted out... and I'll let you know how it goes!


So anyway, back to the crafting - amidst all of this soul-searching I have actually been making things too :P - today I finished two brooches:

Bosket 

(loving this word - just learned it today - it means a clump of small trees or bushes :D)

and Namida (which is Japanese for 'tears')

Terrain...

Recently I had an experimental session felting onto upholstery linen for the first time, using small scraps left over from other projects.  ... although slightly tricky and needle-bending, the linen is very satisfying to work with, and I feel the muted natural colour of the fabric brings out the colours of the fibres.

I was working with a wonderful selection of hand-dyed fibres that I picked up at the Festival of Quilts (called a  'texture pack'), made up of scrim, viscose felt and other goodies.

I was quite surprised to find that the linen took to the felting quite well:

Then of course came the beads, couched threads and embroidery:

It measures about 11cm x 8cm. 

What I learned this time was that yes, I really should have used a hoop for the beading and embroidery (I hate using hoops but linen this thick is just such a nightmare to get flat...), and that next time I would use a slightly lighter-weight linen to felt onto.

I got a bit carried away during the linen felting session though, so I have a few heavier-weight pieces to finish first - details to follow!

The reel thing...

When my Dad visited recently he bought a rather large box full of interesting things, amongst which were several pieces of driftwood.

We have been collecting driftwood in one way or another for as long as I can remember, so now there is quite a stash in my Dad's workroom.  We have been trying to think of a good project to use it on but hadn't had many viable ideas.

Then, recently, whilst trying to tidy (!) my own crafty stash I started thinking about all of my thread spools and whether there would be a way to store them more accessibly and visibly - to see them all at once for colour inspiration.  I started thinking about some sort of wall-hanging-spool-tidy, and drew a few sketches which I sent to my dad for suggestions (thanks Dad!).  The idea gradually developed, and then we realised we would finally be able to use some of the driftwood!  Hurrah!

Here's what we came up with:

(it was my Dad's idea to call it 'the reel thing', honest)

I really like the mishmash of different types of spools and it's great to see all the colours together.  I'm hoping it will inspire me to develop my machine embroidery skills!