Cat notebook and finishing an old project

In spring I've made a couple of felt notebook covers with a picture of a calm black cat sitting next to a houseplant. These turned out to be a success, so this week I've made some more:

It was a pleasant experience to take them to our new local arts and crafts shop SewArty.

Thanks to «Coffee and crafts» mornings at Sew Arty I've also been able to get on with my other project, which has been neglected for years. It started as a crocheted flowery poncho for my daughter, who was, I think, 4 at that time. I modified the design for a shawl found on one of the Russian blogs; unfortunately, I cannot remember which one (it was 6 years ago), but recently I found the description on several other blogs. 

So I began to crochet the motifs. After about 20 I got really bored and stuffed the bag with the motifs and yarn somewhere out of sight, not to give me bad conscience. Then, two years ago, when we went on a driving holiday around Scotland, I took the bag with me and crocheted another 20 or so motifs. I can now recognize the motifs made there – soft, stretchy and relaxed in every aspect. 

Two months ago, the wait for the car to be serviced resulted in 5 more motifs. Finally this week I took what I had to «Coffee and crafts». Showing the pile of crocheted flowers to other people and talking about how it is going to look like when it's finished really got me inspired again (and added that healthy bit of pressure to be able to show the finished poncho in a week's time). 

2 1/2 still missing - that was yesterday!

I am now half way through joining the finished motifs together!  The ambitious goal is to finish the poncho this weekend. Pictures to follow!

Felt and crochet flower brooch - experimenting with photography

 Now that my crafting corner is much more pleasant to use, I finally got to make something here. It's a brooch made of crocheted flower, an orangy-yellow ball (a circle of felt gathered around the edge and stuffed with polyester wool) and grey and blue-grey felt. 

Now to the photography. 

I've looked through all the photography books in the nearest two libraries in the past year while learning to use my DSLR, but there were no books on crafts photography. I considered buying a book, such as "Crafter's guide to taking great photos" by Heidi Adnum. The reviews on Amazon are excellent. On the other hand, I try to watch my craft-related expenses and not to make any unnecessary purchases. I might still buy the book at some point, but there is so much free information on the internet, including tutorials on how to make a light-box, advice on background  and other great photo tips.  

 I used to photograph all my creations on a plain white background (the back of the children's map of the world - it's huge!). But some of the photos on Etsy, Folksy and other handmade marketplaces, where a piece of jewellery is placed on an antique book, or a map, or a seashell look stunning. So I decided to experiment with the background. Seashells and fluffy yarn and felt didn't go well together at all.  I haven't even taken a photo, but now I think I should, just to compare.

Here I used our family heirlooms, an old Russian fairy-tale book and an old Danish book about Marie Curie:   

Not sure whether this is any better than plain white background:

This one is a bit out of focus - needs to be replaced

In the next few days (given sufficient light and time) I will photograph some of my other creations on different backgrounds and post the photos to compare how they look on the screen.

Phoenix

As promised, here is what I've made for darling husband for his birthday. It's a picture of a phoenix, a firebird that dies in fire and is then reborn from ashes – to symbolize picking oneself up after various life difficulties, such as grant rejections, bad reviews, etc.  The Russian equivalent is Жар-птица, so I used my memories of beautiful pictures from the fairy tale books (although I haven’t heard any stories about Жар-птица burning and being reborn, but never mind).

 

The picture is not very big; the frame size is 25 x 25 cm. The felt that was used for the bird is from the Fabric Guild; as far as I remember, it contains some wool, but mainly viscose. I am definitely going back for more, as I found it much easier to work with for an applique than the acrylic felt from Hobbycraft and the eco-felt from Kunin (actually, from Coventry market) that I mainly used before.The black swirly-whirlies, which were to fill in the empty space around the phoenix, are made from the abformentioned acrylic felt from Hobbycraft. In my original drawing the bird looked peaceful and serene, but here it came out... different. It's interesting how a fraction of a millimeter difference gives a face a very different expression. Something to experiment with!  

A night owl's diary

One evening a couple of weeks ago I got such a strong itch in my hands to make something RIGHT NOW that I couldn't get to sleep. A picture of a city at night came to my mind, something one would see out of the window. And it was partly inspired by the recent Venus-Saturn display:   

Although I don't live an a city anymore, I thought I would combine my rural view from the window with the memories of the city: 

 This is what came out of it:

It is a cover for a diary or a journal, A5 size. I've got a stash of very nice hardcover lined notebooks with ribbon bookmarks, so this is what's inside the cover. Once I finish with this post (and, judging by the time, with the dinner for the family), I will list it in my Etsy shop!

Doorstop "Poppy cottage"

The party weekend went well, everyone seemed to have enjoyed it, especially the birthday girl. She received a crafts kit as a present – to sew little bags and purses out of foam sheets. With the help of her sister, all the projects were done in a couple of hours. The next thing I saw was them carefully arranging and taking pictures of each of the pieces they made. I am really happy they are picking up crafts skills – whatever they do in life, it's very satisfying to make things with your own hands!

Now back to my unfinished projects. A friend of mine asked me to make a doorstop for her in a shape of a house. The house was to be with poppies, to match her favourite tea set.

I started with cutting out and machine-stitching together «the walls» and «the floor». 

 After that it was the time for the windows and the door. I really enjoyed making them! I tried different colours of felt for what would be the inside of the house as seen through the window. Black didn't look good, light grey also didn't really create the right impression, so I settled on mousy-grey. Next layer - white curtains, and on top of them – brown window frame, machine-stitched to keep everything in place. The door was made as a real door would be assembled from wooden planks, except instead of wood and nails  I used  strips of brown felt and machine-stitching.

 

Then, of course, there was the turn for poppies: the flowers and leaves were cut out of felt and glued onto the walls,  and the stems were embroidered with a chain stitch. 

Next – the inside. I looked for the cheapest clean sand to buy in reasonable quantities, and the best price I found was from Tesco - £2.26 for 10 kg. The sand in a bag was wet, so it took several days for it to dry before I could place the fabric bag with sand into the doorstop.

Then the roof trouble began. I made it by stitching four triangles of brown felt into the pyramid shape – that didn't take long. But then I couldn't figure out how to attach it to the walls. I thought and thought about it, and looked at it, and turned it this way and that way...

And so the house sat on my table for weeks, waiting for my engineering eureka moment.

This is a lesson I've learnt from several of my previous projects: it's better to let it sit and wait for the right technical solution, then to rush and finish it in a way I am not entirely happy with. 

Finally it struck me (luckily, it always does, eventually!). So today I cut out an additional part for the roof, stitched everything together, stuffed it, and voila – it's finished! 

I am considering using this process to make my first proper tutorial, with patterns and photos of the process, so any feedback on how useful this would be is very welcome!

Purple owl bag charm

Another bag charm, with soft felt purple owl, glass beads and silver-coloured clasp and chains.

Brooch "Life stages"

Inspired by my previous work - the life stages of fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a view under a microscope. A GFP-tagged and, let's say, an mCherry-tagged nuclear proteins - pick your favourites! Some dirt in the field - let's be realistic. Charcoal-grey felt, green and red seed beads and embroidery.

Large flower brooches

These were made a while ago, they now belong to my girls. Large felt flowers with a covered button in the middle, diameter 15 cm.

Sea buckthorn (seaberry) pebble brooch

A pebble-shaped brooch with a sea-buckthorn design. Felt applique decorated with seed beads. Size 8x6 cm.