To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

So once again it has been some time since my last post. This does seem to be the way of things with me lately I'm afraid! I am not particularly good at balance, I'm both too focused, and too fickle all at once- once I'm engrossed in something, I have exceptional tunnel vision, so much so that I occasionally get into trouble with my husband for ignoring him when he is speaking to me...well, not exactly ignoring, but going 'uh huh, ummm' as if I'm listening, but then not being able to answer what he's actually asked me. The fickle part of me is having a million different projects and ideas on the go at once, and as a result every single one of them remaining unfinished. Either that or I end up staying up really rather late at night to get things done, and being quite tired as a result...which is kind of the direction I've gone this week. I really do struggle to be a wife and mother, have a part-time job, and run my teeny weeny craft business all at once sometimes- makes me wonder how people with full-time jobs and kids manage- I mean- do those people actually sleep at all?!

My latest delay in completion I blame on Royal Mail. They're probably used to being blamed for an awful lot by now, so I'm sure they won't even notice me grumbling too! It's to do with their price changes- not specifically that the prices have gone up, that is slightly irritating, but as most of my items post as Large Letters, it actually isn't too bad. More annoying is the decrease in compensation- I've worked out in many cases it will cost less to post an order of two items totaling over £20 separately rather than in one combined package. Very silly indeed. Speaking of their silliness- did you also know that it is cheaper to have a parcel tracked all the way to Australia than it is to have it tracked to France?! Bizarre, to say the least. My reason for blaming Royal Mail this time is it took me all that much longer to work out postage prices and my little Hamlet has been sat in my draft listings for over a week. He is now finally listed though, and attracting a lot of attention, I am happy to report- I received my highest number of views on Etsy yesterday as a result of listing him:

Hamlet has a wire armature inside his fuzzy needle felted merino body. His paws are wrapped with pink cotton thread, and the little Yorick skull he is holding is sculpted from polymer clay. His ruff is made by gathering and hand-stitching cotton ribbon, and his hat is made from green stretch velvet and a red feather plume. He is available to buy from my Etsy shop for £50 plus £3.90 p&p in the UK, though for those who fall in love with him but can't quite afford the real thing I will also be selling prints of him.

The other heartening thing that I've noticed in my Etsy stats, along with the increased views from Hamlet, I also seem to be retaining viewers a little longer, and I'm pretty sure it's down to the revamp of my photographs that I have begun. I've recently re-photographed my Konditorei Komisch range, and the tasty new additions in the backgrounds seem to be drawing a bit more attention!

Gingerbread Men Earrings

Fruit Cake Magnet

Pops-icle Brooch

Mr Whippy Brooch

So, now all I need to do this week is re-photograph my other ranges....oh, and finish the special edition packaging I'm working on for some of my items...oh yeah- and make the set to photograph my Big Bad Wolf print....oh, there are those new Art Doll sketches I had in mind too...and get round to felting that swan I'd started...and someone had mentioned to me they think a range of Historical and Shakespearean characters would go down well... certainly not enough hours in the day!

Oh well- first things first- I'll catch up with Handmade Monday before I embark upon my million and one unfinished projects!

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, after weeks of work I finally got round to finishing, photographing and listing my Big Bad Wolf One of a Kind Needle Felted Art Doll (that's one heck of a title!) Sadly, last week I did not get round to blogging about it- but never fear- even though a lot of my dearly beloved blog followers have probably already seen the pictures, I am set to regale you with the tales of what went into the making of this Fairytale fiend.

The Wolf himself is needle felted from merino wool, the claws are Kato polyclay, cooked, varnished and glued into place with tacky glue. Granny's mop cap is stitched from a little gathered circle of cotton and a frill of lace. The glasses are made from a wire frame with gloss varnished Kato polyclay lenses.

Grandma's bedstead was actually something I started a few years ago for a completely different project that I never finished. It is constructed from pieces of balsa wood, glued together to make the frame, and then all of the detail is carved with a scalpel. I used three shades of furniture wax and renaissance wax to bring out some of the grain and detail and to give a smoother finish.

The storyboard patchwork quilt was made by drawing up the storyboard for Red Riding Hood, which I painted with water colours. If you read my previous post on this, you will know I don't like my own painting, so manipulated this with filters in Photoshop to get the colour and slightly grungier finish I was after.

I printed the storyboard onto printable cotton fabric, but being a stickler for authenticity, cut up the pieces of the storyboard and sewed them back together to give them a more genuine patchwork look. There is a sheet of felt inside to give the quilt thickness too.The final touch was to add my brand name to the back of the bedstead- sort of like signing a painting!

Admittedly, this is my most expensive piece on sale on Etsy, due to the immense care and attention to detail. It is currently for sale at £145 & £4.00 p&p in the UK. I'm thinking of making a little 'set' to photograph the piece in- the floorboards in the picture above are to be part of it, and I'm intending to design and create a wallpapered background wall, and probably a bedside table, complete with a photograph of Little Red Riding Hood. I'll use some more atmospheric lighting to turn it into a far more illustrative piece, and then I'll be offering the prints for sale too, for those who love Wolfie, but don't quite have enough spare change for the real deal.

I'm linking up with Handmade Monday this week to see what other crafty fun others have been up to.

Blathnat- an Irish Beauty for St Patrick's Day

It has been a reasonably productive week this week, which is good- I needed one! I have completed a  few projects, started a few more, and got a head full of ideas for a new range that I'm quite looking forward to sketching out. However, I have learnt my lesson, and rather than rushing to share everything with you all in one excitable blog post, I'm going to concentrate on sharing just one thing, and saving some back for those leaner weeks when I have nothing to blog about!

A few weeks ago, I thought that seeing as I still have a couple of wire armatures I made for my 'Heaven Preserve Us' angel dolls, it might be fun to try a slight variation on a theme. Seeing as St Patrick's Day is on the way I scribbled out this little sketch:

As with most of my dolls, this one took on her own direction as she went along, so the finished piece isn't an awful lot like the original idea in the end. I had been reading up on plaquing in Polymer Clay, plaquing is when little half moon shaped opaque spots appear in cooked clay. This is especially noticeable in translucent clay, and I tend to make my dolls with a mix of a lot of translucent and a little brown, yellow and red- I'm not so keen on the pre-mixed flesh tones myself as I find them a little flat and opaque. I read that Kato Polyclay is one of the best brands for reduced plaquing, so I ordered some and had a try. It's been years since I used anything but my trusty Fimo, and I wasn't sure how I'd find this clay. I mixed together flesh tone and translucent clays, I'm not sure if the clay I had bought was old stock, or if this is the texture it is supposed to be, but it was extremely hard and difficult to condition. Luckily I had also bought some Kato Liquid Clay, so was able to use some of this to help with the mixing. It still took rather a long time to get the clay soft enough to work with, and as I'd read that some people believe over-conditioning can cause more plaquing, due to the moisture from your hands mixing with the clay, I was slightly worried of the outcome. Once soft enough to work with I found Kato Polyclay to be fairly similar to Fimo classic to work with, and you can get a lovely smooth finish on it quite easily with your fingers.
Once cooked, I have to admit, that there does seem to be less plaquing, and only one or two very very tiny imperfections- which might just be down to not being quite conditioned enough.

In the end I decided to give the doll a white, green and gold dress, still keeping the shamrock decoration, and adding a green velvet cloak. I thought she would look more effective with some striking blue eyes, off set against her red hair, which I decided would be better flowing with gentle waves.  

 I could not think of a name for her, and asked my four year old daughter what she thought she should be called, she replied 'Flower'. Of course, with me, everything has to fit,wanting her name to be in keeping with her Irish looks, I decided to look up the Gaelic translation of flower, and I came across the name ‘Bláthnat’ (pronounced ‘Blawnit’) which means little flower, and is also the name of the daughter of the fairy king Midir. Bláthnat was abducted by warriors of the Red Branch of Ulster, and falls in love with the warrior Cú Chulainn, but Cú Roí marries her, causing a dispute between the two warriors. Bláthnat betrays Cú Roí by pouring milk into the River Finglas as a sign to Cú Chulainn that he is at home. Cú Chulainn kills Cú Roí, but later Bláthnat is killed by Ferchertne to avenge Cú Roí’s death, by seizing her in his arms and throwing both himself and her off a cliff. I love fairytale and folklore- so I decided Bláthnat is a fitting name for my little Irish beauty.

So, if anyone wants a unique decoration for St Patrick's Day, or their own little piece of Irish Folklore then Bláthnat can be purchased from my Etsy shop for £65 and £4 p&p in the UK.

I'll be linking up with Handmade Monday as usual, for crafts and inspiration.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

After I said I was going to try hard this week to get on with making more, I haven't. I have managed to be a little more productive in other areas though- getting round to photographing some bits and pieces. I'm not sure if I'm inspired by the little bit of sunshine we've finally had, but I decided that I would also start to re-photograph some of my old/already listed products too. So I've been having fun making new backgrounds, vaguely relevant to each of my ranges and taking lots and lots (and lots!) of photographs.

Some of the pieces I have been meaning to photograph for a while are more fabric covered button jewellery pieces, from my 'Cute as a Button' range. I made the button-y background by scattering buttons over my scanner, and playing with the lightness and opacity in Photoshop.

Next I have recently completed a bright pink winged heart for my felted tattoo range 'Tattoos Gone Soft'. I liked the idea of having a kitsch leopard print background, and I like the way it looks with the very vibrant heart, but I thought it might be a little distracting!

So in the end, went for something slightly more subtle...though I will be using the leopard print to wrap any orders from this range!

Finally, I decided to give my 'Wise Thoughts' notebook a re-photograph too, including adding some items to hint at use and scale

It seems it was a good move, as a result it was shared on Grace's Favours facebook page (thanks Simmi!) and I've been contacted by someone interested in buying it!

Off to Handmade Monday, to see what everyone else has been up to.

Oh Grandma, What Big Eyes You Have...

Just a very quick post this week, as I don't really have an awful lot to report, and I'd really ought to be making things, so that I do have things to talk about next week!

It was a lightly surreal and manic week at work last week, so I'm blaming my not being especially productive on that. Princess Anne came to officially open the building that I work in- so you can imagine the running around before hand. I had bits and pieces to help with in the preparation, but really I think just seeing everyone else running round like headless chickens tired me out equally as much as anything I actually did! My daughter was very excited to hear I'd be seeing a real princess, but equally as disappointed when the photos revealed she had neither golden flowing locks, a shining tiara, nor a pink ballgown in sight!

I've decided that the exclusive sneak peek of the Big Bad Wolf is to be revealed right here- unfortunately I decided that when I had very little time to actually take a proper photograph- so it has come off looking like a voyeuristic paparazzi style opportunistic snap shot...which sort of adds to the drama! The piece still isn't totally finished- it all needs properly fixing in place, and I intend to make some polymer clay claws too, but you get the idea. I will of course share him again, with details of how he's made and the ideas behind him, when he's properly finished and better photographed! Can you spot the story board from last week's post? Told you it was a means to an end!

Right- off to Handmade Monday for a little later than usual catch up with the lovely folks over there!

Oh, for a little (uninterrupted) time...

My high hopes for my crafting time on Monday last week were scuppered yet again. I don't know what the world and his wife's problem is, but I just cannot seem to get people to leave me alone on the one day of the week that for a few hours when my daughter is at school I get to focus solely on my crafting.
I was hoping to have the wolf piece nearly finished, but instead I managed to only make a pillow, and a pair of glasses for that particular project. Here's his head again, if you missed him last week!

 I did manage to catch up a little in the week with this storyboard of the tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

 Now, anyone who knows anything about me knows that I don't rate my drawing, and that in my honest opinion I am absolutely hopeless at colouring in.

This piece is actually photoshopped a bit- I wasn't happy with the colour of the original at all, and wanted it all to look a little 'grungier' so I used a poster edge filter too. This was the original for comparison:

Like I said- I'm not great at 2D images, despite my illustration background, so this storyboard is just a means to an end. Any guesses what I might be doing with it?!

I did get a chance on my lunch break to scribble the little idea I had inspired by David Bowie (the hamster, not the singer). I'm planning a felted Hamlet with a little polymer clay Yorick skull-

I'd quite like to dress him in a costume that made him look more Hamlet-y, but so far when I've tried to research Hamlet costumes on the internet, a lot of the pictures are from productions with their own contemporary twist, so are not recognisable at all! Any suggestions are very welcome!

I'm off to Handmade Monday- the folks there are always a good source of inspiration!

Snow, a Glow in the Dark Moon, Fairytales and a Hamster called David Bowie

This week is another week when I haven't actually managed to get anything finished!
Monday is my day off the 'normal job' where I get to indulge myself, spending most of the day making or designing things. Like most of the rest of the country, Monday was a snowy day, and as such, the day my daughter's school was closed for a snow day, so I didn't get anything done. More depressingly- we didn't really even get to go out and play as I was waiting for two deliveries- neither of which turned up because of the weather. Oh well. At least the view from the window looked pretty-

My daughter had also requested a glow in the dark moon to go with the glow in the dark stars that Santa brought her, and I did have a spare block of glow in the dark Fimo hanging round. I haven't tried using alcohol inks with Fimo before, and had just bought some to test out, and decided the moon might be a good excuse to have a play. We sketched some designs together, and she decided on a full moon. Here he is- looking a little blurry as he was on the ceiling when I took the photo! He does actually glow very nicely in the dark too.

I've also been working on a few ideas. Just before Christmas we bought a family pet, a hamster named 'David Bowie' (anyone who saw my post on my daughter's 4th birthday will know about her Bowie obsession) and I think he might make a nice little muse for a felted piece or two! Again- apologies for the blurry picture- it's a screen capture of a video- he doesn't sit still enough for photos!

I'm also planning to return to one of my greatest loves- Fairytales. I've always loved fairytales, they are probably a big part of the reason I went into illustration in the first place. I've started a Big Bad Wolf already- I have a head so far, and have high hopes for this one! I won't reveal any more just yet, as I don't want to spoil any of the surprises I have in mind!

I'm also thinking of making a cunning fox, with the gingerbread man on his back- mainly because I like foxes, and if you're a return visitor to this blog, you'll know how much I like gingerbread men. So much so that, following my gingerbread Christmas decorations, I even decided to make a pair of Gingerbread men earrings- possibly the wrong time of year in the opinions of some, but as far as I'm concerned gingerbread men are too friendly not to enjoy all year round!

I'll be trying to come up with more fairytale ideas, I'm tempted to do some Hans Christian Andersen characters as well as Grimm's, what are your favourite fairytale characters?

I'll be linking up with Handmade Monday as usual this week to see what everyone else is up to.