Month: November 2012

Amber necklace

Mum's amber pendant

This is a little amber pendant, made for my Mum.

It replaces one that I made for her several years ago, although I think this one’s a little bit smaller. The pendant settings and stone all came from Kernowcraft.

I don’t quite know what to say about this one.

I made it because my parents’ new house was broken into, and almost every single piece of my Mum’s jewellery was stolen. She still has the matching earrings to this pendant only because she happened to be wearing them. Unfortunately the rest of her jewellery can’t be so easily replaced, but at least for now she’ll have one matching set to wear.

Spoonflower Scarf

Portwrinkle

This is a photo that I took in Portwrinkle, Cornwall, in June 2010.

Spoonflower scarf

This is how a part of it looks printed onto silk crepe, by Spoonflower.

Not as saturated as I would have liked, but given that the original image wasn’t quite at a high enough resolution for me to be able to mess with it too much, I’m really pleased with the way it’s come out!

Next time (and there will be one), I’ll have the image printed onto Spoonflower’s silk cotton blend. It’s much lighter, with a higher sheen, and I think it’ll show the colours better than the crepe which has a matt finish.

The image is 36″ (96cm) square, which is about the smallest size that works as a neck scarf once it’s folded in half. I think this will be better in the silk cotton too, as it’ll drape better around the neck. The silk crepe’s a bit bouncy! If I was a sensible, patient person (stop laughing at the back!) I’d have sent off for swatches first, but then I wouldn’t have had the finished scarf back before Christmas.

Now I just need to decide on the best way to hem it, and then I’ll take some photos of the finished scarf!

Claire the Conservatrix

Little starfish

Aren’t these little starfish adorable? Pictured larger-than-life, they’re actually about the size of a 10p piece. So cute!

And in case you’re wondering what a jar full of preserved starfish are doing on a crafty blog… well, they won’t be here for much longer. You know I volunteer at the Cole Museum of Zoology? And I’m hoping to train in the conservation of natural history objects? Well, I thought it was about time that those subjects had a little blog of their own.

So, here it is:

claire the conservatrix
adventures in natural history conservation

 

I’m going on a course in London next week, learning more about the preservation of specimens in spirit, like these starfish. I’ve also applied for a voluntary position at another local museum, cataloguing beetles, so fingers crossed for that.

It would be lovely to get some discussion going on at the new blog, so please feel free to follow me. However, I’m aware that many people find pictures of wobbly things in jars a bit unpleasant, so there’ll be no hard feelings if you’d rather not look!

 

I will, of course, still be updating here with all of the things that I make. My extra hours at work finish at the end of this week, so once I’m back from the conservation course, I can get on with making a few things!

Hop pillows

25 hop pillows, waiting for the ends to be sewn together by hand...

25 hop pillows, waiting for the ends to be sewn together by hand…

Just doing a little experiment with short-and-sweet Instagram posts on the blog, in between the “real” ones. We’ll see how it goes!

Fuzzy Feet

Dilemma of the day:

My feet have pins and needles and a burning sensation, which makes it quite difficult to walk without a walking stick.

My hands also have pins and needles and a burning sensation, which makes it quite difficult to hold a walking stick.

Tricky business.

My list of ridiculous and frustrating symptoms is getting longer and more annoying as the months go on. I do have an appointment with my doctor next week, but I don’t honestly expect anything to come of it. (Although I’m hoping for a referral to a rheumatologist, who can at least arrange for some tests I haven’t had already.)

Hey ho.

At least it’s a bit easier to put up with having very uncomfortable feet when you get to put them inside some lovely comfortable shoes. Fairysteps Holly, in case you were wondering. I wear mine with the ribbons around the ankle rather than across the instep.

Just as well I sold my entire shoe collection in order to buy these, really. I can’t imagine I’d have been able to wear a single pair of my old shoes right now!

Hops and Walks

Hop flowers

This morning I have been mostly separating dried hop flowers from their stalks. I found out the hard way that hop flowers contain a great deal of pollen, which is very sticky and dyes your fingers bright yellow. Apparently the stems can also be an irritant, so I’ll definitely be wearing gloves next time!

The hops were harvested by Sarah from the Skycarrots allotment, and now that they’ve dried, they’re destined for little hop pillows. I’ve made the insides for nine already, and should be able to double that with this crop.

I didn’t want to show you the unfinished hop pillows, lying around in their underwear, so more photos will come once I’ve sewn up the outer bags. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d show you a couple of random photos I’ve taken on recent walks.

Cat

Here’s a cat, who I often meet on the way to the Post Office. The trees that he usually hides amongst have been recently chopped down, so he was watching the squirrels from this excellent vantage point on top of a fence.

Twilight on campus

This is what the University campus looked like at 5pm last Wednesday. I came out of the Cole Museum to see this amazing sky, and thoroughly confused a number of students by stopping to take a photo of it.

I’m really enjoying having a camera with me at all times. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to afford a new copy of Lightroom soon, so I can get back to using RAW files with a bit more room for editing. Still loving the automatic square format though. I know it’s just an affectation, but there’s something about it that I really like.

Beaded scarf – sneak preview

gemstone beads

Remember the Blackcurrant Surprise fabric I dyed back in August? The one that came out a lovely shade of grey? Well, it turned out to have another surprise in store for me. I’d folded it up and put it away while I decided what I wanted to do with it… and when I got it out, it had changed colour again! It’s now a pretty neutral beigey shade, and it still smells very faintly of blackcurrants.

It’s destined to be divided into three little scarves, each measuring about 50 x 150cm, with beading on the ends. The beads in the photo are all semi-precious stones. Smoky quartz on the left, moonstone in the middle and labradorite on the right. The sterling silver ring in the middle is set with a 12mm labradorite cabochon, and it’s adjustable so the scarf can be styled in different ways.

I chose the smoky quartz because its brown tones blend nicely with the fabric, but now I’m not sure whether or not it’s too dark. Perhaps once the beads are more spread out, with all three colours sprinkled in together, it won’t look quite so dramatic.

These are going to be Christmas presents, so  won’t be able to show you the finished scarves for a little while. In the meantime though, I do have some plans for these pretty little adjustable rings, so watch this space!

Rose Tattoo bow tie

Rose Tattoo bow tie

I spent yesterday drawing out a new bow tie pattern, and here’s the result! It’s made from quilting cotton, “Rose Tattoo” by Alexander Henry. Not that you’d know it, from the way this one’s folded, but I think it’s rather nice this way.

Rose Tattoo bow tie

As you can see, it’s both freestyle (self-tied) and adjustable. That means you get the classic self-tied look, but you don’t have to tie it yourself every time you put it on. The slider that you can see just below the collar is hidden once the tie’s fastened, and there’s a hook at the back.

This tie’s quite a long one, adjustable to fit 15″ to 21″ collars. (For reference: a ladies’ shirt in a size 12 has a collar around a 15″.) Next time I’ll amend the band a little bit, to make it a bit shorter and ever so slightly wider.

I’ve popped this one into my Etsy shop, and my plan for this afternoon is to start work on a few more to follow it!

Tumblr: October Archive

Here’s my Tumblr archive for October…

You can see the archive in more detail, here.