~crafting~

well we have had none of the heavy snow that most of the country has been having~we are at the southern most point of the country and so tend to have rain instead of snow.

however it is bitterly cold and damp...oh and grey.

i don't think i would mind the cold if we had some sunshine with it.

i have spent the day in my room having fun with some new ceramic beads i ordered a few days ago for the wylde apothecary.

i love ceramics of all kinds and one of my greatest wishes is to have a small kiln...one day maybe!

anyway this is what i have been making...

i love the big round ceramic bead...

this picture shows the lovely shades of green...

i also experimented with a much thicker wire...

yesterday i ordered some more ceramic beads which i hope arrive soon as i have so many ideas and keen to get the all up for sale.

~wool against weapons & mug~

 

you will know from my post yesterday that i was feeling a tad stir-crazy with the utter need to get out and buy yarn to start my small part of wool against weapons so i had swampy take me out for a bit of yarn buying and this is what i came home with...

 

 

i aim to do a sort of striped 'patchwork' type piece with swatches of the pink and single rows of the oatmeal.

but i also came home with this...

 



 

to make a 'cosy' for this...

 

 

i have to say my photo does not show just how beautiful this mug is, it doesn't show what a gorgeous green glaze it has nor how wonderful the shape and feel.

 

this was actually a commissioned piece based around a mug i saw on the crafter, dave green, site.

 

i wanted something very specific...a good sturdy mug but without a handle that would be good for either hot or cold drinks...the image i had in my head, and one that i sent him in an e-mail (the poor man must have thought he had a loon contacting him!)was sitting around a campfire outside of a thatched roundhouse with a mug of something in my hands...now my older readers will not be too phased by this idea, they know me too well now.

 

it is oh so perfect and the yarn is to make a little 'cosy' for those drinks that are too hot to hold or to keep them warm when i am sitting around a camp fire.

 

i actually have it sitting here beside me as i type and i keep taking little surreptitious glances at it instead of typing because i love it so much.

my plan now is to keep adding pieces of his work to my stoneware collection...but not so much to have it as part of my collection to be looked at but a living, working collection of plates and bowls.

 

i like love...no adore anything that is rustic, organic, sturdy, mis-matched, things that make me think of the ancient ancestors and how they might have crafted drinking vessels and how they might have sat around a fire listening to stories of their ancestors.

 

so i am a happy happy soul right now...lots of new yarn, a gorgeous mug and now i am waiting for the delivery of my cloak...

 

 



~waxing moon ideas~

well the dark moon has slipped by, this month my body welcomed this period of the moon with headaches and the days running up to it i was furiously working for a week to get my latest essay finished and to my tutor.

so now as she slips into waxing we enter again the time for new beginnings, new ideas, so what i ask myself will be new for me?

again i find myself thinking of time, my time and what i do with it. i find myself realising that with my studies i don't allow myself time for other things~i am so concerned with keeping ahead i do nothing else and that the day passes me by. so i have resolved to spend the mornings with my books and the afternoons free.

i want this time free for i have had a new idea, well not really a new idea, i am returning to an idea i had a few years ago and never really did anything beyond thinking about it.
well now, whats the point of ideas if i don't carry them through, i ask myself? no point at all i reply to myself.
a few years ago i registered with etsy with the aim of opening my own little etsy store...and that's as far as i went! about as useful as a chocolate fire guard don't you think?!
well the last few weeks i have been thinking about it again and thought...is it time now? yesterday i thought about it even more and i think its time.
i discussed it with swampy, because he has been working on a project for someone using the artistic skills he has and he seems to think its something we can both produce work for.
my ideas are varied but revolved around useful, interesting items.
in the past i have knitted little merino wool mobile phone and ipod holders for me and my sister, merino wool wristbands and bracelets and i have ventured into jewellery making, bag making and ceramics which i have given away to people over the years, or just kept stored away.

these have been stuffed in my knitting bag, although i made my sister a thick red wristband with a pewter dog charm attatched...

i love to make necklaces and bracelets with leather thongs and using pewter charms and beads...

my own well handled and worn ipod holder, i made a blue and grey one for my sister and a lilac mobile phone holder for her as well...

i have a few pages in my moleskine devoted to sketches of my new ideas...i just now need to bring them to life.
i am especially excited about some new jewellery ideas and cant wait to get out and buy my supplies (although typicallly, the camper has broken down and the replacement part will not be with us from france until early next week!) and i have asked swampy to get out his inks and other art supplies to make me up a few things...talk about crack the whip!

speaking of cracking the whip~time for me to get my books out!