Make 50: Weeks 41 and 42…. and um… 20.

I’ve been trying to figure out why I had a picture missing in my Make 50 set on Flickr. Turns out I jumped from Week 19 to 21. Oops. So here’s three new things to share…

Gardening cufflinks

Glitter cuff (not available for sale as has been sent off for secret project)

Haberdashery paperweight

Only 8 more to go 🙂 In other news I am working on my own range of moulds, just hoping the quotes for production aren’t too scary! I will also be selling more unusual colour of dye in a new Etsy shop as well as on www.pennydog.com

There’s still a bit of time to sign up for the first Rothley Craft Farm workshops too, including the resin jewellery workshop with me! Have a look at www.rothleycraftfarm.com for more information!

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Make 50: Week 35 and 36

Another Heart on Sleeve bracelet for you this time, and I’ve also had a play with some tiny bezels to make “charm” style necklaces.

Spotlight on… Beautiful Skin

These are gorgeous leather accessories from http://tovicorrie.folksy.com aka Beautiful Skin and have a hint of tattoo style as well as vintage in their design. The graphics are printed directly onto the leather and are original works of art by the shop owner. Here’s some of my favourite cuffs, but there’s other stuff too…

Thank you Miya, Make 50: Week 20 and other stuff…

Sorry this post has been a while in the making- my laptop spectacularly broke and I’ve been working on articles and other stuff as well as going to unsuccessful craft fairs!

Firstly, the garden swaps should all have been dispatched by now, so if you haven’t got your package, you should expect it quite shortly, and please share photos on the Flickr group here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1121311@N21/pool/!

I didn’t photograph mine, so hoping Miya will do when they arrive (any day now!), but here’s what she sent me!

From left to right… Four little stitched notecards- I love these, very simple and useful for everything… A little fition book based around real life photos with a Gocco printed cover (I think- Miya please clarify this one for me I’m a bit dumb!)… A green pouch with seeds as an interesting spin on the edible part of the swap… a biiiig floral bag, perfect for all my kitchen miscellanea… Some fabric to add to my ever increasing collection of interesting designs and some earwires which are always useful!

Thank you Miya!

For my make last week (yes I need to blog another later this week) I actually finished a couple of Heart on Sleeve cuffs. They are completely handstitched, edging, buttonholes and all. If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you probably know this already, but they are a new bracelet concept, here’s the official spiel:

“Wear your heart on your sleeve with a new concept bracelet from PennyDog. This bracelet is made from fabric and backed with felt and designed to fit snugly around the wrist like a shirt cuff. This cuff will fit a wrist circumference measurement of 15cm. The cufflinks are interchangeable with others in the series and create a snug fastening.”

Only available at www.pennydog.com

I also have some new stuff in the shop, so keep your eye out as I’m currently going through a phase of adding new, here’s a few new bits…

And I should probably introduce you to Fletcher, Penny’s great-nephew, who has joined the ever increasing number of animals. Now we live in a bigger house we can have two dogs, though he has caused quite a lot of strife in the two weeks we’ve had him in the form of peeing, vomiting, jumping, stealing, running away for miles- and I haven’t even paid for him yet! Luckily he gets on with the Penz fine!

Make 50: Week 13 – Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve and Rothley Contemporary Crafts!

Something came to my head whilst walking the dog this morning so I knocked up a quick prototype. I was basically thinking about bracelets with heart on with photos in for a “Wear your heart on your sleeve” range and promotion, and I was thinking about a cufflink range for men with a similar idea. Then I thought I could combine the two by making a shirt cuff for a bracelet and having the heart as a cufflink fastener, so I duly learned to sew buttonholes!

This is the prototype, though I plan to go charity shopping for old “real” shirt fabric, and make these to order with keepsakes/photos/stuff inside the resin piece, as well as some off-the-shelf ones. I used a heart piece I had lying around so I am aware the colours don’t go, but what do you think of the concept- will it work?

The outside fabric is cotton, reinforced with interfacing and backed with felt. The cufflink is entirely detachable (so you can swap and change and design your own style within the range once it gets going).

Also, big news- I’m moving house! We are soon to pay the deposit on a part 13th Century farmhouse with pig sty and “cheese roome”, with some milking sheds too, so I am planning on holding crafting workshops now that I have a designated studio and shop/showroom space as you enter the front door! The plan is for the house entrance to be via the courtyard at the rear and the shop to be through the front entrance. It’s all very exciting! If you would like to teach workshops here (based opposite the old green in the large village of Rothley not too far from Leicester) on evenings and weekends every once in a while- or even a one off- in a contemporary craft for either adults or kids, please contact me with your project ideas, how long it will take and hourly wage. Once this gets underway I am happy to deal with the marketing and promotion of your workshop, and discuss material costs and extra facilities necessary.

The sort of thing that I’m looking for is candle making, soap making, kids jewellery, silversmithing, felt jewellery, textile art, embroidery, plush toy making, eco crafts, simple homewares, bag making, tailoring and basically anything else you think I have missed off- I have resin casting covered though thanks 😉

Now for a name, I’m toying with “Rothley Contemporary Crafts” but not sure if this is too boring, so accepting ideas for this too!

Make 50: Week 2

Here’s my 2nd item towards the Make 50 challenge! A custom order for Laura from http://www.glueandglitter.co.uk/

It was cast from an existing cuff that was made smaller with milliput and has inside pieces of a UK map, stamps and watch parts!