Stamping

(click image to go to Flickr page and see bigger picture - opens in new window/ tab)

I have recently got into making rubber stamps. My first attempts were not great - the tools took a while to get used to - but I'm really pleased with a couple of more recent efforts. I've always been a drawer-of-girls, in a very stylised way, and it's good to be able to reproduce some of the better ones!


(click image to go to Flickr page and see bigger picture - opens in new window/ tab)

This girl + balloon (and I swear I did this before the Storque article on girls & balloons!) was a good learning experience in several ways. But before I launch into the 'what went wrong', I'd like to say that I'm really pleased with it overall! :) On with the list:

Firstly: trying to be too complex (or too complex too soon, anyway) is a bad idea when stamp-carving. For example: on my original drawing, the girl has ribbed tights. However, with my skills and the tools I have, the legs on the stamp are just too small to have made this practical. I tried to do it anyway, which is why there's a disjointed line on one of the legs.

Secondly, and this I suppose goes for pretty much all creative endeavours but it's worth repeating: once the work is mostly done, be very very careful about how much 'tweaking' you do. I decided to alter one of the eyes slightly, but it made the girl look like she was falling asleep. So out came both irises and now on every print they are drawn in. I've been using charcoal but might branch out into different coloured markers!

Thirdly: materials are important, and what's good for some people is not good for others. I'd seen lots of people using erasers and eraser-like white polymer carving materials with good results, so that was what I tried first - cheap erasers, then a larger block of material specifically made for stamping. It wasn't terrible (the stamp used to print the image at the top of this post is made from it), but I found it a little bit too easy to carve, and a bit too bendy. When I used this pink material (Speedy Carve by Speedball) for the first time on this stamp it was not quite revolutionary, but certainly a change for the better. It's just slightly stiffer than the rubbery material I'd previously used, slightly harder to carve but the results are far better for me.

Of course, lino is probably the logical next step. Last time I tried that was at school, GCSE Art and Design about.. ooh, 11 or 12 years ago (yikes). It was not a success, but perhaps now I'm older and (?) wiser, the results will be more pleasing.

Finshed, and started

I finished the scarf I was making for my aunt. It's 4-ply chocolate brown merino and navy blue mohair-blend, and quite skinny. Using yarn that fine really did my head in! Such slow progress - and for someone with as little patience as I have, it's a miracle it ever got done. It was a week late arriving to the recipient as it was...


Speaking of slow progress: I absolutely SUCK at knitting! After an abortive and rather insulting* lesson from my mother over the holidays, I've given up on the English method and switched to Continental. I'm left-handed, so this way is easier, apparently. But I still absolutely cannot do it! YouTube has helped somewhat, especially with casting on, but really I just need to practice, and practice, and practice. Unfortunately, I hate being bad at stuff, so learning new things - especially new crafts and, in the past, stuff like learning musical instruments - tends to lead to a lot of swearing and giving up before I've really begun. Unless I'm instantly amazing at it, of course! (Um, can't actually remember the last time I was instantly amazing at something, though.)

So, for today, I'm not doing any more knitting. Instead I'm trying to catch up on some swapsies/ birthday presents which are overdue, and pretending that I'm not also really behind with my PhD.

* (she called me a really really un-PC name when I didn't pick it up immediately. One can only hope she was more patient when she was teaching primary school kids...)

Hello again. Anyone still out there? :)

Four months since my last post, I've decided to at least attempt to revive this blog. I did think that perhaps I'm just not the type to be able to keep it up; I've never been able to keep a personal journal/ diary for more than a few months at a time. The very mundane truth is that I'm incredibly busy and the blog has fallen by the wayside. But, I've been given some encouragement (thanks Beth!), and I enjoy it in a weird kind of way, so here goes nothin'.


In the last month or so, most of my crafts have been gifts. For the women in my family, I made hats to the same pattern as the one above (which I left on the bus yesterday, extremely annoyingly). They were all different colours, made from variegated Twilley's Freedom Spirit yarn. Also made from that yarn - which I am apparently addicted to! - is this scarf


It's from a pattern available (to buy) on the fab blog of mk carroll. I've already given two of them away and am about to embark on a third. This time, I'm branching out into different yarns. I'm planning on a plain wool for the main part and a fluffy mohair-blend for the ruffly bits, but it remains to be seen what that looks like; the yarn should be arriving on Monday, and I will attempt to keep you posted!

(the octo is made from a pattern by futuregirl, available here)

Slight Return

Hello there. Would you like some cake?

I've decided to try to start this thing up again. I'm getting back into a study routine (or trying to), and can always do with something to distract myself from reading! As enjoyable as it is, breaks are definitely needed.



I'm starting my Christmas present crafting - so I can't post pics (in case my family discovers this blog. Why won't I tell them about it anyway? It's complicated & probably boring...). So the underside of a toadstool it is! I wonder, am I the only one who makes silly, whimsical things because it's fun, but then doesn't know what to do with them? I mean, is there really a place for a crocheted toadstool in my little flat?

I'm not abandoning my blog! I've had some technical difficulties (my laptop broke) and i can't upload pictures directly from my camera onto the computer i'm borrowing because .. well, it's too old and rubbish. I'm thinking of ways around it and hope to be back up and running soon.

In the mean time... as you were!

I made these yesterday - not the most original idea, but they're fun, easy, and quick to make and i was feeling lazy! They're also very pretty, i think. I often forget to put anything in my hair, but maybe i'll remember now. There's got to be one there for any outfit..

It's been a beautiful weekend, lovely weather. I went on a little touristy trip into Brighton with a friend. I live in Brighton, of course, but don't tend to do the tourist stuff normally. I'm sure it's the same wherever you live, perhaps especially in resort towns? We went down to the seafront, walked along the prom, and two firsts for me: we took a ride on the Volks Electric Railway, and went for a play in the Penny Arcade. No link for that, but it's really fun - it's a fairly small museum of old arcade machines (some Victorian, i reckon, up to some that i think are 1940s). And most of them work! You swap your money for big old pennies at the door and can have a go on the table hockey, the palm-reading machine, the big grabby claw thing.. even a peepshow or two. Not that we looked at those, though, because we are nice young ladies. Hmm.

I seem to have a reputation as a baker (or maybe as a greedy cake lover.. yeah that's it). I got a set of cookie recipe cards and a cupcake baking book as presents for my birthday. Barney went through the cookie cards and decided Chocolate Almond Macaroons sounded good, so i made 'em:



And they are good. I'm not sure they're exactly as they're supposed to be - even though i followed the recipe exactly - but they taste yummy so it doesn't matter. There're way too many for the two of us to eat on our own, we'll have to have some people over for tea or something.

Next week i have a four day weekend. I hope to get some more substantial making of stuff done - the Heather Ross print fabric from ReproDepot is first up for the cutting and if the weather holds out (please let it not start raining again!) i'll be needing summer skirts.

Twenty-seven

It was my birthday last week. My brother got me a Reprodepot gift certificate, and with it i bought some of this, and some of this! For skirts. It arrived today, which is pretty quick seeing as it had to come all the way over the Atlantic; something I ordered from a UK-based company the same day still hasn't got here... I would have taken pictures of the actual fabric, but i washed it and it's still wet - draped over the furniture because the weather's too dodgy to leave it to dry outside.

I haven't done any refashioning. I don't really need new clothes every five seconds, even if they are home-made/ thrifted/ altered.. though today, i spent a couple of hours charity shopping (getting out of the house - they're renovating next door and it was LOUD). Maybe i'll do some customisation of the stuff i bought. A denim skirt, a few t-shirty tops, an outrageously expensive but very cool silk scarf. Sometimes i wonder if 2nd hand shops in this town know that the things they sell are used and therefore should be cheap!!

I made another kitty though!


Fluffy huh?

(the slippers in the top photo were a present from my parents - cool huh? They're brightly coloured and crazy, i love them. My feet, by the way, do not reach the end!)