Thursday 26 June 2014

Literaly literary beads

These are some of the new beads I recently added to my Etsy store. I'm in the mood for all things Indian at the moment and was inspired by paisley patterns to make a few in pastel colours. The others revolve around literature - Edgar Allen Poe beads and Charles Dickens beads. Along with my Shakespeare beads anyone wanting literary themed craft items have some new beads to work with.




Monday 16 June 2014

Sketches

Just a quick note. A couple of sketches that I painted recently - a fallow deer, a fox and an oystercatcher. I'm working on some little detailed drawings for the local summer exhibition at the moment so no doubt they will pop up on here soon too. The deer and the oystercatcher are on Etsy, the fox has been sold and has gone to a new home.




Sunday 8 June 2014

Creatiframe samples

The beauty of working for Gina B Silkworks as part of the design team is that I get to work with quality products that make my imagination run riot. Gina has recently released some great new products that mean I can try out different techniques - from weaving to embroidery, from rug making to needle lace, from macramé to... OK, OK, you get the idea. Lots of different crafts. Yay!

The basis of these new craft kits is a product called Creatiframe, a wooden frame with slots or holes to allow you to try new techniques and then display your hard work. There is also a range of accessories which allows you to display your work in a functional way. Brilliant! I don't want to come off like this is a sales pitch. The purpose of this post is to show you photos of what I've been up to. However it is a really ingenious idea. How many times do you try a new craft and then it just sits around in a box or gathering dust on a shelf?

Anyway, on to my creative efforts:

The first photo is of the mobile phone/tablet/e-reader holder - which works great with my Kindle.


Next is a steampunk ATC box for storing your ATCs. Gina also sells ATC size Creatiframes which you can work up and then trade - or just hoard in the box.


The following photos are of various sizes of the frames (they also come in rectangular shape). The bright yellow one uses a mish-mash of techniques from Teneriffe lace techniques, beading, wire wrapping and a hand made button.


The pink weaving is done using flat bamboo yarn that really catches the light - although not very well in this photo. Of course, I had to add more buttons.


Finally, some embroidered pieces (the two on the left) and one wrapped with silk thread and an acrylic square suspended from it


These are just a tiny proportion of the samples i have made. I just can't help myself. There are so many different styles that they can be used with all kinds of crafts. I've even used one to frame a little painting. To see more of my samples check out my very own design team member gallery page.