February 2, 2010 | Posted in: Miscellaneous, Projects
I’ve been hammering away slowly at the string Or Nué project I started last year. I’d run into a bit of a problem in that I started the whole thing with a ball of string we happened to have in our kitchen drawer… and after about ten hours of stitching was done it seemed pretty clear that thi s wasn’t going to last for the full portrait. So then I spent months hunting around Berlin for string that wasn’t horrible, plastic-coated stuff so that I could continue.
I found a few likely candidates a few weeks ago and started of again. [...]
READ MORE
October 31, 2009 | Posted in: Miscellaneous
Swapping is one of those internet craft phenomena that I previously never really had time for. Plus I know exactly how bad a pen-pal I am (Hello 6th grade Japanese penpal who received exactly one letter from me). So, until recently, I had never signed up for one.
But with the Phat Quarter group on Flickr I decided to give it a shot. And I had so much fun with that one that when it came ’round again I signed up once more. This time with the theme NSFW… ie. don’t be shocked by anything that you receive.
Now I’m waay behind [...]
READ MORE
September 8, 2009 | Posted in: Miscellaneous, Projects
Ahh goldwork. So pretty, so shiny. I mentioned Tracy Franklin’s book yesterday, or just go and check out her website. Tanja Berlin does more flower-type designs and has a lot of kits which are definately pretty, shiny and a great way to get into the technique without having to try and source all the specialty threads (and instructions!) yourself.
I’ve been collecting goldwork threads and books in a very magpie-like fashion for a couple of years and have been slowly incorporating them into my pieces (the threads and techniques I mean, not the books). But there’s one technique I hadn’t yet [...]
READ MORE
August 20, 2009 | Posted in: Events, Miscellaneous
MrXStitch is going to be one year old next Thursday (well, the site is I mean. Jamie, judging by his zucchini, is older) and he’s celebrating with giveaways and new patterns and all kinds of stuff. If you don’t know the site yet, go and check it out – he and his trusty sidekick Beefranck manage to find amazingly cool embroidery from all around the ‘net.
Here’s the full deal on the birthday bash (there isn’t a world-wide video conference call thing organised as far as I can tell, but maybe we can pressure them into it?)…
READ MORE
July 20, 2009 | Posted in: Miscellaneous
You may have already noticed the banner on the right-hand side of this website for Kiva. This is not at all a paid-for ad, it’s something I’ve put on my site because I think it’s a great cause and want to support it in anyway I can.
Kiva is a not-for-profit which enables people to make microloans – starting from as little as $25 – to others around the world who need a little bit of funding to start making their own lives better. This isn’t donating (although you can donate to support the running of Kiva itself), this is lending. [...]
READ MORE
July 15, 2009 | Posted in: Featured, Miscellaneous, Projects
Y’know sometimes, when you just get so damn excited about something working out, that you go ahead and try and expand on it and totally screw it up?
Yep, well that happened to me with temari.
I tried my first temari and it worked out better than I expected (after the first few failed attempts). So then I decided to branch out a little. To get a bit experimental. To just wing it.
my first temari - from detailed instructions
That, I ‘ve discovered, is not a good idea. Especially not with three-dimensional geometries which make even me pause to think about it- [...]
READ MORE