Month in Makes - October

October has been such a busy month, full of hat making and pompoms for the Big Knit, as well as a bit of Christmas Robin making, but I've managed to find some time to experiment with some cross-stitch jewellery, first playing with some Cath Kidston patterns, and progressing onto my own little bee design! I like the frame brooch, but I think the necklace maybe needs a little more work... 

Of course I have continued with my Granny a Day blanket squares,  I've just passed the 300 mark, and my favourite make of the month - my special Halloween Pumpkin Brooch!

My Studio

My beautiful little studio is taking shape, starting to feel like a work space, wearing a little of my personality and becoming comfortable and homely. My name is on the door, my work is on the walls, my lovely magazine bits and bobs are framed and my desk is starting to look busy. 

My little corner is full of pretty pictures, postcards, colour samplers, and jewellery bits that I've been working on. It is bright and inspiring, I have my notebooks and crochet and my head is full of ideas. 

I introduced the first visitors this week - I hope they will be the first of many. 

My Week

Wowee, this week has passed in a blur! I've had lots of work things on - teaching crochet, visiting the Loudwater Studio in Ludlow, Make on Monday in a lovely cafe with fabulous cake, a day in my studio making everything pretty, and my usual days in my little stall. This time of year is always so busy, but I managed to have a little bit of time off too - we had a night out in Manchester, at an Anti-Austerity gig and saw Public Service Broadcasting, who were ace. Their new song "Go!" is just amazing. The highlight of the week was that we had a little visitor, a little hedgehog, he was so cute. 

My Month in Makes... September

I've had a very busy month of making, I think encouraged by my excitement for my new studio, I feel renewed making-enthusiasm! I'm still plodding along with my 2015 blanket, my squares are up to date but I have fallen behind somewhat with my joining... I'm sure I'll soon catch up though. I've managed to find a little bit of time to make some things for me too, I knitted a tiny gnome from the pattern from Mochimochi Land, and I've been cross-stitching roses from the Cath Kidston "Stitch" book on to a gingham tote bag. For my little shop I've been making Christmas Robins, lots of new jewellery and spent lots of time playing with my lovely new badgemaker! I've been using vintage sewing patterns to make letter badges, and some with sewing instructions, and illustrations from the cover envelopes, as well as some with vintage floral fabrics and embroidered linens. 

It's been a jolly productive month! 

My Week... mostly a studio update...

This week has been totally focussed on my lovely new studio. I've made it pretty and I have tried to find snazzy ways to display my work, and in turn been inspired to make new jewellery to display. It's wonderful to feel so creative, I think I've been distracted for a little while now, but I think I'm back on track now. I read something somewhere about staying creative, how you never run out of creativity and how being creative leads to more creativity (that's a lot of "creative" in one sentence, my apologies) and it's something that has stayed with me, and I'm trying to live by that idea. 

My next job in the studio is one that I'm very excited about - I will be putting up my peg board above my desk. It's so exciting because I've never really been able to put all of my bits of paper, postcards, jewellery experiments, fabric samples, knitting swatches etc in one place before. It will be a place for all of my inspiration, and I'm so excited - when I was at uni, the Fine Art students all had their own allotted wall space, but over in Applied Art we were much more nomadic, we couldn't really leave things around the place, and these days I have my stall, but it's not really private enough for me to feel comfortable with customers coming and going, so this will be a first for me. 

My Month in Makes - August

I seem to have re-located my making-inspiration this month, and have been ever-so busy with lots of different things. I've made a few new pieces of jewellery, as well as working on a couple of designs that aren't quite ready to go out into the world just yet. I also acquired a new toy that I had been coveting for some time - a badge maker. I am utterly smitten and have been making lots of tiny badges. 

My crochet blankets are coming along well - I am working on my fifth large square for my cosy big-square blanket, and I'm up to row fifteen of my 2015 blanket, although I'm falling behind a smidge with my joining. 

I've been making teeny three-round granny squares and pompoms which are for something new - I will be getting the keys to my very own studio soon! So it will need prettifying with yarny goodness. It's a little bit scary (terrifying) but very exciting too. I'm going to be painting the place soon, looking forward to moving in. 

My Week...

I'm not entirely sure how July passed so quickly, but here we are in August, and the first week has flown by in a whirl of fabulous adventures! We started the week harvesting the lovely ripe summer fruits - yellow and red raspberries, giant rhubarb, gooseberries, blackcurrants and even a couple of juicy cherries. We made a crumble with the raspberries, and put most of the rhubarb in the freezer ready for treats in the winter. We ventured to Shrewsbury for charity shopping and lots of tea and cake, and I found myself the most beautiful carved Lucite brooch with pretty roses. My other fancy purchase this week was Marimo algae, little green pompom-plants that live on my shelf, they're settling in well. 

On Thursday we celebrated our Tenth Wedding Anniversary with a little trip to Oxford, and we had the most wonderful time. In preparation for our visit to the Oxford Natural History Museum I made myself some dinosaur jewellery - I chose to wear the Diplodocus on the day. I also made some goldfish jewellery which I am rather in love with. It has been a week to remember.

Ruthin Adventure

Our first Summer Holiday adventure was a little trip up into the lovely Welsh Hills, visiting Ruthin Craft Centre. I always leave with a head full of inspiration, they really do show amazing objects. 

The main exhibition is "Not Too Precious", and there are some wonderful pieces of contemporary jewellery. 

Top Row - Zoe Robertson and Felike van der Leest
Middle Row - Christel van der Laan, Mirei Takeuchi and Mariko Sumioka
Bottom Row - Michiriro Sato, Lina Peterson and Catherine Truman

So often beautiful work seems to be overlooked because of the inherent worth of the material. This exhibition was so refreshing, seeing how makers interact with materials and how they are so inventive, being freed from the restraint of rules and obligations of materials and processes associated with "precious" materials. The colours and textures were amazing and I felt a renewed enthusiasm for my own design process. 

The other exhibition was "Welsh Collection II" and was mostly ceramics, as well as a little bit of metal and wood. I love beautiful ceramics, but I was never very good at it myself, so I appreciate the work that goes into it. 

Top Row - Julia Griffiths Jones and Lowri Davies
Bottom Row - Anne Gibbs and Jin Eui Kim

Such beautiful work. 

Treasures of the British Museum...

The British Museum is one of my most favourite places. Ever since my very first visit I have been amazed by it's collections, the scale of the wonders of the ancient world and the ability to travel through every continent by simply moving from one room to another. As time goes on, I find myself looking less at the monumental sculptures and statues, and taking more time to look at the little things. Each room is full of tiny treasures, beautiful objects that have been made with such skill. 

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours pottering around, as always I stopped for a look at the Chinese Ceramics and the Japanese rooms, they are full of some of my favourite things, and I spent some time looking around the European art, the painted ceramic tiles and jewellery in particular caught my attention. 

During my degree I spent such a lot of time looking at how things were constructed, in particular how different brooches worked, different ways to fasten. I suppose I had a geeky moment in the Iron Age European room, looking at the beautiful brooches, admiring their elegant shapes. 

I really could quite happily spend days looking around the museum, I always feel like my creative batteries have been re-charged. 

A Brooch A Day in May - A Plan

A little while ago I decided that since I both make brooches and have an abundance of lovely vintage brooches, that I really should make more of an effort to wear them more often. So I percolated on that little thought and it became a plan - A Brooch a Day in May (because May rhymes with day, obviously...) 

So that's the plan - a handmade or vintage brooch every day for a whole month. I'll be sharing my daily choice over on Instagram and regularly updating here, I hope it will help me to make the most of my lovely collection!

My Month in Makes... March

March has been a busy little month of making, here are my finished bits and bobs, as well as the "still in progress" things...

Row four and five of my 2015 blanket are finished and attached, my granny square blanket is at the edging stage, and I have two pairs of socks on the go, as well as a second sock that needs casting on... I finished the knitting bit of a Miss Marple bow scarf but it needs fancifying, and I knitted a Ravenclaw scarf for my special adventure to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I also had a go at the Mollie Makes cross stitch jewellery free-gift, although I adapted the patterns a bit and played with the colours. I also made myself a bunch of laser-cut brooches, ready for something special I have planned (I will share more about that soon!), so all in all I've been a busy bee. 

Have you made anything nice lately? Please share some links, I'd love to see!

My Week...

A little bit late, but this was what last week looked like. It was full of small things, quiet moments. The winter-blues have done lots of coming and going, so I've been crafting my way through them. My proudest moment of the week was finally finishing my chevron blanket, which has been a Work-In-Progress threatening to be an Unfinished-Project for a jolly long time. But now it is done, and cosy on my sofa, with a selection of vintage florals and crochet cushions. It is a pretty happy feeling. 

My window-sill garden has been added to, there are new socks on the go, and there's been some new jewellery in the making. It's been a productive sort of week really.