I’m sorry for being a bit quiet recently, I’ve had a few problems with suppliers, etc and then on Friday last week I went to the Hobbycrafts exhibition at Birmingham NEC and have been obsessed with a big cross stitch ever since- I will have to show you some photos!
Anyway I also finished a whole set of chess pieces, so I just have the black ones to go (though I do need to sand the bases flat on these still). This is good because for all of May I plan to get everything ready for the Patching Festival, and I want this to be centre of my homewares section!
January 7, 2010 – 12:45 pm
I have finished cutting all of the (wonky) black squares and am currently casting two pawns for the white side of the chessboard. I think my band saw blade is at a slight angle as it’s really struggling with straight lines. I now have a plan in action thanks to Blackberry Crafts, which I will unveil piece by piece later! The plan for next week is to have 4 pawns and 2 bishops finished, as well as some of the white (well, opal) squares cut.
December 31, 2009 – 12:06 pm
I am undertaking a large project in 2010 as already mentioned a few posts earlier. I am making a chessboard complete with two sets of chess pices. The pieces will be the popular Staunton style, and whilst I haven’t decided opn whether to go for glittery, marbled colour or button inclusions yet, they will be all made from resin with felt bases. The board will be made up from 64 50mm squares of 3mm acrylic in black and opal and gelcoated onto a sheet of 2mm frosted acrylic.
So far I have 10 squares cut, though the saw hasn’t cut them perfectly straight. I’m hoping this can be fixed with a bit of gelcoat “grout” when put together, otherwise I will be on the grinder machine for some time!
December 30, 2009 – 9:02 pm
Firstly- and most importantly- I need to let you all know that the price of the moulds in my shop will all be going up 50p on 1st January because of changing exchange rates and customs charges. But the good news is that for the whole of January you can get 15% off everything (moulds/jewellery/homewares…) in my January sale with the code “jansale09”. I hope that makes up for it!
I thought I’d show you a custom order I made for Chelsea on Etsy. It’s a full size king chess piece made from pearlescent powder and blue resin, cut in half with text applied and a bail attached. The idea was for it to be a good luck pendant for Eric’s chess tournament, but I think the King piece is a little on the large size at 12cm, so it will possibly be used as some other kind of ornament.
In other news I have started making resin buttons, but not a clue on how to price them! Do you think 80p-£1 each (depending on size and shank vs holes) is too much?
Also you can see Fletcher is back to normal after his ordeal- he interrupted my photo session as it was what we like to call “Fletcher-time” where he gets upset if you do not devote 100% of your attention to him! He does still look a bit spaced in the pic but it was the angle I took it on, saying that he looks dopey most of the time to be fair!
December 21, 2009 – 2:06 pm
For a while I’ve wanted to0 make something BIG, some kind of centrepiece for when I go to fairs to draw in the crowds. I wanted to make an electric guitar body and then add the components to make it a fully working model, but the cost of the silicone to make the mould was just too scary. Now I have decided to make a 40cm square chessboard and staunton pieces! I think I would make the board from acrylic squares mounted on a slightly bigger sheet of clear/frosted acrylic, though I am toying with the idea of making the squares from resin. The pieces would then be made from resin too! It’s just knowing what colours to do, whether I should embed any objects, etc. Have you any thoughts?
Here’s my first trial piece!
Also lined up for next year are selection packs of buttons by colour and also improved knitting needle packaging and manufacture to stop the issues that have arisen with some of my Christmas orders! I plan to supply them in clear tubes with pretty fabric ends, and instead of making to order, only selling those that have had at least a week to settle and solidify. In addition there will be two new designs to the range which will be available for Valentine’s day!
I will also be having a “spring clean” on the website- taking out any slow sellers or items I don’t feel like making anymore to make it more concise and less overwhelming, and there will be a 50p price rise on resin moulds from January 1st too, so lots going on- better buy now to avoid disappointment!
Have a great Christmas (and it’s my birthday tomorrow)!
PennyDog Patchwork (and illustration, recipes, other crafts...) 