Playing with Silver

 In between making scrubs bags as mentioned last week, I have been giving myself craft and gardening breaks to ease the monotony of bag making!  This week I decided to have a play around with some silver clay.

I've been wanting to make a silver ivy leaf pendant for a while now, and so using a selection of ivy leaves from the garden and an ivy leaf veiner I found in my cake decorating kit I got stuck in!

This is what my desk looked like during the week.  First a plasticine model of what I wanted to make - this is always a useful thing to do, it gives an idea of whether the design works and also the technicalities of putting it together.  It was then made in clay and left to dry (at this point I had added the bezel as I knew I wanted to add a decorative stone).  Once it's been sanded and then fired it's time to polish, and this is my favourite bit!  It's hard to see in the last photo but the two right hand points of the leaf have started to be polished and are turning from a white matt to a lovely bright silver colour.  It can feel quite magical.

Finally the stone was added and after a lot more polishing it's ready to wear.  I chose a pale moonstone to blend with a lot of my spring/summer clothes.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.
Hope you are all keeping safe and well. 

A Gold and Silver Tag

The theme over at Tag Tuesday is Gold and Silver. 

 Although not easy to see I started with a silver wash over the Kraft card tag but unfortunately the camera has had difficulty picking up the shimmer from it.  

Sew Busy and WOYWW

I completely missed Wednesday last week!  Somehow the days are melding into each other and I'm losing track of doing all the regular things like WOYWW and putting the bins out!

I do have a good excuse as I've been busy sewing laundry bags for front line NHS staff - they will hopefully help reduce the risk of contamination by allowing scrubs to go straight into the washing machine while in the bag, therefore reducing the amount of handling needed.

My dining room table is now my desk and someone kindly donated a huge pile of old cotton fabric that can withstand a 60° wash - here are the first dozen bags I made.

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week -

I hope you are all staying safe and well, and managing to be busy and creative!

Bunnies and Butterflies Tag

The theme over at Tag Tuesday is Bunnies and Butterflies.  So here is my Spring offering - a little more pink than planned but I struggled to work the colours around the stamp, which I was determined to use!

Gardening Card and WOYWW

 I made a birthday card for the Hubs this week and decided on a gardening theme.  He's spent most of the week outside preparing the vegetable tubs, making bases for them to stand on, sowing seeds and generally tidying the patio ready for vegetable growing.  I thought the card was quite apt!

I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

A Little Winter Garden in a Tin

I'm working my way through some half finished projects and came across this tin with a couple of half made cocoons in it.   I think the idea might have originally been for a midnight garden last summer, but I decided it was perfect to round off the winter and get another 'work in progress' finished!

The backdrop is a piece of old rust printed cloth that is lying on my desk waiting to be used in another project, but I thought they went quite well together!

  I hope you are all staying safe and well in these challenging times.  I have been amazed at the selfless acts of kindness from the folks in my community - it lifts the spirit and renews my faith in mankind when I see such a supportive group of people on our local self-isolation support group pages.  I hope you are all getting the support you need and are coping fairly well with this horrible situation.

Sending virtual hugs to you and linking up via Julia over at WOYWW.   

Winter Weaving

Whilst having a sort out in my studio I came across a piece of weaving I did last winter - the original idea was a frosty garden with hibernating seeds buried deep and starting to come alive.  It's been lying in the 'winter' box untouched, and although it's rather wonky because I used different thicknesses of yarns and ribbons in the weaving I felt it needed to be finished and filed away!   This week I've added pleated silk, bits of old lace, pearl beads and lots of embroidery as surface decoration.   

 I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW today.

Stay safe, and if anyone gets stir crazy or overwhelmed by the whole process of self isolation and social distancing please do contact me and I'd be very happy to 'chat'!

Guitar Gift Box and Card and WOYWW

My youngest nephew is very much into his electric guitar and is saving for a good quality amp, so for his 15th birthday hard cash was his gift preference!  Here's the guitar themed card and gift box that I made for him - the box was trickier than I anticipated and looks much better from afar!

 The card was stencilled and I used silver foil to highlight some of the guitar parts - the strings were sewing cotton.  The box was covered in Glossy Accents to give is a high shine with Liquid Pearls and Enamel Accents for the extra bits. 

  

And on a completely different note sitting on on my desk today is a patchwork pin cushion I made - I was taught the technique this week by a very clever friend.  The pink ribbons are only pinned on for effect - a bit too much pink for my taste - but I'm hoping to find some suitable green ribbon at Hobbycraft this morning! 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.