Happy Birthday

I have made this very delicate necklace for Jill for her birthday. The stones are peridot's which are her birthstone. The lighter stones are freshwater pearls. I kept it very simple as the stones are so pretty.

 

 

 

Kidney Wires

I have been playing with very long kidney wires to make earrings. The black ones are for Nora and the blue are for Maggie. I think I might use some of my acrylic flower caps to make some summer ones for me. I like the length of these.

 

 

Felting with Annie

Annie came to me for a days felting so we had a go at some landscapes. This is my first time at a landscape so I was a bit apprehensive. My first layer of merino was turquoise and I mixed dark purple on the 2nd. I did the design on the 3rd layer. I mixed lots of different greens and browns with a shot of purple along the mountain ridges  and mustard. I put various shades of blue and purple in the sea and some other fibers like angellina. I was pleased with the end result but it was so much better after doing some needle felting to define some of the contours and add some waves to the sea with white merino. I have decided to leave the shape organic.

 

Annie was inspired by the wild flowers in the hedgerows on the way over. She too needle felted hers.

 

Mine is titled South Kerry and Annie's is called West Cork Hedgerow.

 

I think we will do more together!    

 

 

 

New Designs

 

 

I spent a day beading with Zara. I made a necklace for my sister using acrylic leaves, flowers, beads and pearls on a length of chain. I also made a necklace using some 1mm waxed cord in a dark blue. I had two strands of cord and joined them at the centre, using knots to hold the beads in place. You need lampwork or silver foiled lined beads as the holes are bigger. The best bit is that the length of the necklace can easily be adjusted to suit the wearer. I think this might be interesting with some little crochet flowers so maybe next time?

 

Zara used the chain technique and my stash to make a very colourful necklace.  

 

 

 

 

Gift of Time

My lovely friend Annie gave me a "Gift of Time" for my big birthday. I spent the day with her learning how to paint a silk scarf. I enjoyed learning about the process and really enjoyed seeing how the paints did their own thing. Annie is a very patient tutor and gets firm when needed. She took the paint brush from me in the end as I just wanted to keep blobbing - less is more!

 

The flowers in Annie's garden - how could I not be inspired?

   

The different layers of colour are added. I love the way the colours bleed into each other



Getting ready to steam the scarf. It is wrapped around a layer of plastic pipe and covered

Steam for one and a half hours to set the colour. The plastic pipe is inside the metal tube and set on a trivet. Cover each end with foil so that no water touches the scarf



Dry the scarf then iron it