Generation Artisan

What this bicycle needs...

2012-01-14T16:48:00.005Z

It's a pity these lazercuts by Katy Beverage have to be filmed to reveal the animation because they are awesome, and it would be dreamy to have such an animation visible on my commute to work.

Via Vélo Vogue

I'm such a Mrs Armitage when it comes to my bike:

"Mrs Armitage sets off for a quiet cycle with her faithful dog, Breakspear, but she just can't help thinking of ways to improve her bicycle. Before very long she has added three very loud horns, a bucket of water to wash her hands, a complete tool kit. And by the time she has also added a seat for Breakspear, two umbrellas, a cassette player and a mouth-organ, Mrs Armitage is riding a very eye-catching contraption. But it is when she finally adds the mast and sail, that Mrs Armitage really runs into trouble. . ."

Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, but bread is a good place to start

2012-01-14T15:04:00.002Z

It's no secret I'm not feeling particularly enthusiastic at the moment. If you know me I've undoubtedly whinged at you about it. It's really very dull, sorry.

Baking restores the soul, and nothing more than bread (successful bread, failed bread is just gutting).

So I made bread. Quick, tasty soda bread (recipe)

My Friday night was spent consuming fresh baked bread dripping in butter and drinking red wine.

I really shouldn't complain, life is filled with truly lovely things.

Shaman

2009-11-03T20:21:00.005Z

I've been easily distracted from my readings the last few days. I think it's a mixture of being halfway through the term, having my parents visiting at the weekend (exciting) and being in a creative mood. It's hard to focus on how Marx thought about environmental issues when all I want to be doing is making stuff!

Current inspiration has arrived in the form of shaman and witch doctors. Well, a romanticised version of anyways, I can't claim any great, in depth knowledge or personal experience of witch doctors.

I believe this has all been triggered by this video, which I currently adore.

Love the song, and the video. In fact I'm really quite into all Fever Ray's songs and videos. Her site is here if you fancy a glimpse.

Anyways, witch doctors and shaman. I've been trawling the internet (between lots of reading) for pictures and am I thoroughly hooked. Both an factual accounts and fictional interpretations.
There are some stunning, if self indulgent, interpretations on deviantart.com, as always.

So after I had finished the minimum amount of reading I could get away with today (not really enough, my tutorial tomorrow is going to be awful), I got stencilling and ended up with this!

The first picture shows the colour more accurately, but the design itself looks better in the second. I'm pretty pleased with it, especially the feathers. I suppose it's kind of gruesome. Ah well. I'm happy.

I'm a worrier though, thus I couldn't just happily craft away. Nope.

I try and not use religious icons for inspiration, because although I'm all about a global, hybrid culture, I realise not everyone is. I also realise that coming from a white, middle class, well educated Brit, while I may see it as embracing others' cultures, others may see it in a much more post-colonial light. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that.

I draw the line somewhere between my African print skirts and dreadlocks. I have used Nigerian fabrics to make a couple of skirts. The type of fabric I used has cultural heritage, and cultural meanings... but I feel comfortable enough using this fabric. The Nigerians (3, hardly a representative sample) I've met while wearing it didn't see any problem with it, so I've assigned this to the small pile of things I don't worry about.

I like dreadlocks. I think they look great (most of the time) on both black and white people (Obviously this doesn't mean I like all people with dreadlocks). However, I do know that some Rastafarians/descendants of black slaves get offended by the idea of other cultures adopting something that has such cultural and historical importance to them. This may be hypocritical of them on some level, but I don't really feel I can pass judgement on their opinions. Thus I, however tempted, have avoided getting dreadlocks. Also because I'm lazy.

Obviously, you can't please everyone all of the time, but I do like to avoid offending peoples' culture if I can. Similarly, just because I wouldn't get dreadlocks, doesn't mean I think that white people shouldn't have them... it's all personal opinion and choice.

2009-09-07T11:54:00.000Z

This week is pretty high stress. I’m trying, really trying, not to get het up about little things that ultimately don’t matter.

It’s not going so well. I kind of want to go and lecture an acquaintance on why suggesting that women are dependant on chocolate and wouldn’t care whether Kraft/Nestle/Mars take over Cadbury’s as long as they keep producing chocolate is not an appropriate thing to say on at least three levels. Although I know I for one lose all my ethics as soon as chocolate is involved, and I’m pretty sure it’s alright to generalise that to the entire female population.

I’m also inclined to put every letter addressed to me personally, yet starting Dear Sir to the bottom of my pile… or in fact straight in the recycling.

Plus, if one more person who I have known and communicated with in writing for over 6 months spells my name wrong, their letters may go the same way.

These things ultimately do not matter one jot. They are throw away comments, bad habits and carelessness, or even genuine mistakes. They do not matter. But they are driving me mad… Could it be that I haven’t had any chocolate so far today?

Untimely - Spring time would have made a better metaphor

2009-09-04T14:51:00.002Z

I've not been very inspired lately. I think my muse got lost for a little bit, probably under a low level blanket of stress. Finding somewhere to live in London, worrying about money, packing, resigning from my jobs and saying good bye to friends has some what dampened my creativity.

I'm still in the middle of a lot of this, but the end is in sight. I'm on the homeward slope now. A week on Sunday I am moving to London, the flat is sorted, my place on my Masters is confirmed and I'm really excited about all the reading I've been given for it. My drive returned last week. Maybe it's the approach of autumn (my favourite season clothing wise), maybe the prospect of a new life.

It's pretty inconvenient timing. At home, instead of packing and cleaning I want to be sewing. At work, instead of trying to finish off my work load and make it ready to handover, I spend my day doodling and dreaming design ideas. But it's really nice to have my inspiration back, to be excited about things again, it was quite lonely without it!

2009-02-27T12:01:00.004Z

The fashion industry confuses, annoys and intrigues me. There is no question in my mind that clothes can be art and hence I feel no shame in taking an interest, but I'm also very aware at how wasteful and ridiculous the whole industry is. Some collections are masterful, and the designers are truly talented... I'm not so sure if my simple mind can determine which ones though. All I can say is that I'm totally smitten with several of the A/W 09 collections, and am still gawping over some of the S/S 09 ones too (I'm just far too slow for the fashion industry).

Things I love include: Earth tones; the texture of wool; a romanticised view of the Middle East/North Africa; being warm. Missoni's A/W collection encompasses all the above. I am going to have to start collecting long scarves and finish knitting my cowl hood before Autumn so I can look like tramp and live under a pile of scarves.

I also adore the cobalt blue with the earth tones... blue and grey is a great combo. I very nearly bought blue and grey lace tights last night but was feeling restrained, then I boot up this morning to find these images in my blog-mountain. Curse you restraint.

The collection also reminds me of Vivienne Westwood's Nostalgia of Mud/Buffalo Girl collection from her early days. I'm still working on replicating some of her over skirts from this collection, but I can't for the life of me find anything thick and woolly enough to use as the under skirt (after all what I really need is another petticoat). I'm even considering trying to acid dye some batting brown, but I'm really not sure that will go down well with our white/beige house/landlady.

I'm as happy as a bird with a french fry

2009-01-20T14:25:00.003Z

I am so excited! Each trip to or from work is a fine balance between chatting with my fellow car sharers ("so have the Natural History Museum identified your parasite yet?", "How's the knitting going?", "Do you want to talk a three hour lunch break today to walk to the Crowmarsh Battle Barns?" - I love how I've been thrown together with people with such similar interests and attitudes as myself, Karma treats me so well sometimes) gazing out the window at the hedgerows in search of a sign.

I am honestly so excited that things will start growing again soon and tiny spots of the acid green of new leaves will start appearing. The bulbs in my window box have started to emerge from the ground and I'm checking them daily to see how they are doing. Its so wonderful to see them, especially as in a few weeks it'll actually be light enough for me to see them when I get home. The returning light is such a wonder. I'm most excited about the hawthorn though. Hawthorn is one of my favourite things in the world. It's green leaves are a joy to see in the otherwise brown hedgerows. Not to mention the young leaves are a free and aesthetically pleasing addition to salads, one of the earliest spring wild foods to be found. It is truly a sign of spring arriving.

Then in May (well, it used to be May, last year it was out in early April! That's changing phenology for you) there are all the flowers. The sickly sweetness of Hawthorn blossom is incredibly evocative (although supposedly associated with death, hey ho), and the sight of all the thorny braches covered in white reminds me of the folklore surrounding the plant. Hawthorn is frequently referred to as May, due to its associations with May Day celebrations, and households used to bring a branch of Hawthorn to their homes, place it outside their door and decorate it with wildflowers to create a May Bush. It was also believed that faeries were often to be found in Hawthorn bushes and felling them was likely to enrage its occupants with dire consequences. Its interesting stuff folklore.

Hawthorn reminds me of home too, because its one of the trees that grows quite frequently up on the hillsides of the Peak District. I much prefer it and its stunted shurb form than tallest of trees. I just love it.

I really ought to get my act together and visit the Holy Thorn at Glastonbury, because I'm just that sort. Maybe I could plan it for when the leaves are just coming out, that would be amazing.

I'm so excited, I love winter and its cold, atmospheric murk but I really love Spring and the how everything seems to be so happy to be growing again after all the darkness.

Just to bring down the tone to the normal level of daily depression, another of my friends has been made redundant. Biscuits, tea and folk music will have to be sent her way.

2008-10-01T14:48:00.003Z

Look, no rants. This post is going to be full of love because I'm having a rubbish day and thus talking about something that makes me happy is A Good Idea.

Resurrection Fern is my newest, favouritest blog ever. I love it so much. A lot of the creations and pictures shared at Resurrection Fern are so in tune with my own love of natural materials and forms, and glorious, simple details that it makes my insides smile whenever a new post pops up on my Reader.

Some of my particular favourites are the matryoshka stones, the ghost trees, and this post about printing with leaves (in an unexpected way), but the forest photography is wonderful as well.

Another I'm full of love for is Autumn. Don't get me wrong, I like the other seasons too, but Autumn is my favourite. Cold foggy mornings that chill my hands and throat in the mornings, that give way to pale, sunny afternoons. Autmun light is the best light, everything feels alight under Autmun sunshine.

Plus, its a great to dig out my thick tights, boots, wellies (who am I kidding, they never get put away in the first place), scarves and fingerless gloves. Yes I love Autumn.

Bohemia and Blargh

2008-10-01T11:47:00.004Z

I seem to be doing nothing but ranting here lately, if its not tea then its phones, and now I'm all upset about a craft swap that going wrong on Craftster. I just hate it when people let others down, espeically where there has been investment of time, effort and money from their partner. I think I'm about to lose £40 of beautiful fabric, trim and sentimental items, and its making me sad.

In better news, I graduated on Saturday (pictures in another post) and spent a lovely weekend with my parents. We visited Blenheim Palace, the birth place of Churchill. It was beautiful. Plus there was a Brompton (a kind of folding, portal bike) race, where all participants wore shirts and jackets. It all looked very British.

I also spent far too much money on Lush cosmetics (my skin is dreadful at the moment, I think its a hormone thing but there is little I can do about that except come off the pill, and I'd rather have spots than a baby) and a beautiful, full length, dusky pink petticoat. Its from a brand called Bohemia who are stocked in a little boutique-y place in Oxford called Next to Nothing. Its my favourite shop ever and sells such wonderful rustic, natural and rich clothes. Just my style.

Unfortunately I can't find a website for the brand as there are several brands with the name Bohemia. Unsuprising really.

Anyway, its beautiful and now I'm poor. Its also not great for cycling in! Also unsuprising.

Next post will wonderful pictures of me prancing round in a (fake) fur trimmed gown and maybe even some craft!

Silk Scarves

2008-09-04T10:35:00.002Z

As I'm sure I've said before, I am eBay's bitch. I'm so weak when it comes to online shopping in general, but eBay is a particularly bad habit of mine. My latest purchases have involved lots of fabric and trim for several swaps on Craftster, plus a load of cheap but beautiful clothes which have found a happy home in my wardrobe. I especially love this crimson, paisley-esk trim. Its so pretty.
I also spied a mixed lot of Indian Silk Scarves. 15 of them in various colours, shapes and sizes for £16. Bargin. Even more barginous when the seller put an extra two in with them upon sending. It was all highly exciting for me. After a quick wash they are looking glorious and now I'm just stuck trying to think of things to do with them. Several have been put aside for head scarves and two have been attached to tank and halter tops as new, silky straps... but there are still many to go!
To this end I've invested some of my pennies in 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Tie & Rock Your Scarf, which hopefully will provide inspiration enough for all of them.
eBay will be the death of me, but how can I resist such pretty things. I plan on covering everything in sight in this blue and bronze trim (well, maybe a pin cushion or something), and my life will be better for it.

Ran-tea - I'm Hilarious

2008-09-03T12:25:00.003Z

I love tea. I struggle without it. As Sydney Smith said Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?-how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. A time before tea, unthinkable.

"If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty."
Japanese Proverb

I also love the position of tea in society (not to mention in the Asterix books) and all the things I associate with it. Warmth and friends and blue & white china.

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.
Rudyard Kipling

Now, I like good tea (love it in fact), but am happy to drink pretty bog standard tea too. This is especially the case at work where my tea may be made by one of the 12 people in my team, most of who produce cups of tea that I enjoy and am very grateful for. However, sometimes I get a cup of tea I cannot bare to drink. This has happened a couple of times when people have accidentally added sugar. Tastes awful but hay accidents happen, also did I mention 12 people? Thats a large round, mistakes are inevitable. I won't drink it though.

The worst tea though is when the tea bag has been left in for 5 minutes of so, and then squeezed, and stirred and pushed about. It not only makes the tea overly strong, but also bruises the tea leaves, increasing the amount of tanin released and the bitterness of the tea. I have theories of correlation between people who put sugar in their tea and people who squeeze tea bags, but they are very judgemental and quite rude, so I won't go into them here :)

Tea making at work isn't helped by the fact we have an urn to provide our hot water, so the water is constantly kept at just below boiling point. This means there is never any freshly boiled water, and thus tea cannot be made properly in my opinion.

Thats just black tea - don't get me started on Green Tea. I just don't let anyone at work brew green tea for me anymore. After several months of tea stress I decided the safest tea to settle for at work is a plain redbush blend. Colleagues can make it like a normalcup of black tea, and no matter how much they squeeze and pound the bag, they can do little harm.

I favour loose tea over tea bags (predictable aren't I), but I feel it would just be unfair to ask people at work, making 12 cups of tea, to use loose tea. I'm not a total tea-nazi.

Gee, this post did get quite ranty. I feel guilty, but my tea-related opinions stand.

Greening

2008-09-03T12:02:00.002Z

I like plants, they make me happy. Unfortuantely I've not had much space for them ove rthe last four years as living in student housing leaves little room for plants. Now we have moved however, there is plenty of room!

When my parents came to visit a couple of weekends ago they took me on a shopping spree to the garden centre as a house warming present. I decked out the window box at the front of the house, which although a minor thing really,makes me very happy indeed. I think it looks glorious and its the last thing I see before leaving the house in the morning and its always there looking splendid when I get home in the evening.

With the winter coming on it'll all die back soon, but there is a suprise for spring in there. Under the ground are 30 minature daffodil and iris bulbs, which will hopefully sprout when it starts getting warmer. Yay.

I've also purchased a large French Lavender plant which is now repotted and happily sitting outside the back door. It smells divine.

Iranian Rugs and Blanket Love

2008-08-26T14:39:00.006Z

I'm currently organising a Middle East and North African Inspired Swap over on Craftster, so have been doing lots of re-research on crafts from the region. There is some stunning stuff, including beautifully woven Kilims and wonderful embroidered mirror work. However, but favourite find so far as been felted rugs, seemingly made in Iran, but I bet they are made elsewhere too.

There is lots of infomation and pictures at Turkotek Salon, as well as information on their construction.

I love felting, I love earthy colours, I love rugs and I love the patterns used. I am literally having fits of awe and happiness at the mere fact that these rugs exist. They are so beautiful.

I'm also pleased to see that there are nice companies making and exporting these treasures, including the very contemporary Peace Industries. There website is certainly worth a look, although I won't be affording any of their rugs any time soon.

While perusing these beauties I was reminded of a rug (more like a piece of art in reality) made from recycled blankets (Blanket love) by a couple of Dutch Designers (More on the Dutch and their blankets later) Tejo Remy and Rene VeenHuizen, see below.

Isn't it lovely. I think that although the blankets will have lost some of their snuggle potential (something close to my heart) by being turned into a rug, they are put to fantatsic use in their new form. I couldn't live with it (not as a rug at least, maybe as a wall hanging?), but by golly I still love it.

I love blankets, I also love The Netherlands - it appears (from two websites, go Kenners with her large sample size - that The Netherlands love blankets. Its a great snuggley, gouda-eating love triangle. As an aside, I also love Gouda.

As a blanket lover I've been admiring and craving one of the lovely blankets by Ladak. Not only do these blankets look wonderful they are recycled and a propertion of profits help the homeless in Amsterdam. Snuggley and ethical.

Cycling Essentials

2008-08-14T09:38:00.006Z

I love skirts but I don't wear them as much as I'd like because I cycle to the bus stop most mornings on the way to work... and cycling and skirts aren't the best of friends.

I've given up wearing my really long skirts on my bike - I just end up an oily tangled mess. Knee length skirts however are very managable, bar their tendancy to reveal my crotch to everyone travelling in the other direction. So yesterday I bought an essential piece of cycling equipment - A garter.

Its not the one photographed, but very similar - black and lacey with a blue bow. The theory is you wear the garter while cycling with your skirt pinned to it. Hopefully this should avoid my skirt ending up round my waist, which although others may enjoy it, normally makes me embarrassed and late for the bus.

The Alice Obsession

2008-08-12T11:27:00.003Z

Its coming back. I'm a bit obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass. I have so many different versions of the story, so many. I've also just bought more. Uh oh.

The Disney version, that my parents have a copy of (it must actually belong to me, but its miles away and on VHS) but that I don't.

Unsuk Chin's opera version. I'm particularly excited and nervous about this one - it could be really heavy going. I trust my Alice love will get me through though.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)

Alice in Wonderland: A Dance Fantasy. The ballet version - Should be pretty!

Alice in Wonderland (1983) - I believe its an American version, and the Alice in it is meant to be exceptionally sullen... I enjoy the difference between different versions!

I'm meant to be saving money at the moment - I fail.

I'm also bidding on an animated version, and I've bought an Alice through the Looking Glass Graphic Novel.

I don't deserve money, I just go through phases and spend everything.

The shoes I bought the other day are gorgeous though. I love them to pieces.

New Toy!

2008-08-06T17:48:00.002Z

Wordle. It makes pretty things from your blog!

Squee

Ball, beetles and birthdays

2008-08-02T09:51:00.002Z

Gah. Has my lack of updating been caused by foolishly forgetting my password for Blogger? Yes, yes it has. Well, that combined with moving house (the packing took weeks) and then having no internet! /me shudders

The new house is lovely though and certainly more restful (unlike my life atm) than the last. Currently it is filled with roses and huge white lilies from Mr Kenners' sister. Beautiful.

Work is a struggle at the moment. Its in chaos. Our lovely-but-useless team leader has left suddenly left, leaving our already-over-worked Technical Specialist to do two jobs. They have also just found out I'm actively looking for other jobs and hence are trying to persuade me to stay with offers of becoming a grade three and working on the planning applications. Not my cup of tea, I can think of nothing duller.

I have been up to many splendid things since May.

I've been attending a few workshops to brush up my identification skills. The first for Carabid Beetles and the second for Spiders (There is a snail one coming up too). The beetle workshop was fantastic, the spiders were less so. I'm not a huge fan of spiders, and seeing them under a microscope twitching away was not my idea of fun. I
did learn many interesting things though - such as there is no point trying to id a money spider, they make up the majority of UK spider species and each species normally only differs in slight changes to their eye area. I'm not going into spider identification as a career, and would advise others against it too.

Mr Kenners' birthday was in June. We went to visit Odds Farm Park. It was awesome. We spent a day feeding goats, stroking rabbits, playing frisbee and racing pigs in go karts. I now crave a pair of pygmy goats though, they are so beautiful.

A few days later it was Worcester Commemoration Ball. A huge, 12 hour, white tie ball that my Oxford college has every three years. Its a pretty impressive occasion. We ate and drank all night, wandered by the lake, went up in a hot air balloon, danced, visited the casino, visited Alice's Wonderland (complete with chocolate fountain), and generally mingled with friends.

So yes, a lot has happened. What with moving house as well there hasn't been much time for crafting. Hopefully that can change soon. I miss crafting.

The product of my day of job hunting

2008-05-19T17:36:00.003Z

I did do some work on job applications. Well, I edited one letter. Printed out too... I'll do more tomorrow at work.

I did do some crafts though! Unfortunately most of them were for the Back to Nature Swap and hence I can't put photos up yet. Oh well, I did take pictures of some of the other things I've made recently, and sorted out photos I took last time I was home... so there will be photos galore!

First of all I re-covered the frankly hideous sunglasses case I bought from Next Clearance for £1.50. It was gold, and foul, however it does protect my sunglasses. I just attacked it with some pretty fabric I had in my scrap bag, some felt and my glue gun. Later adding button and ribbon as an extra closing mechanism/prettying.

I also decided to share some basic (I'm not very good you see) jewelery pictures. I love these bracelets, especially the turquoise lots - so pretty. I do intend to sell them though so I must not get too attached. I'll only get sad. Like I did last night when I watched no more than 10 minutes of Brokeback Mountain and got all sad. All the sadness came flooding back. I cried for days after watching that film, and vowed to avoid obviously sad films from then on. Its so sad though :(

More photos of various creations at some point soon - Right now I have The Archers to listen to.

Update: I hate Ebay

2008-04-28T14:14:00.003Z

So I know have a yoga mat, yoga DVD, felt leaves, felt flowers, multicoloured felt and a felt brooch winging their way to me. I'm so weak. I shall soon be drowning in felt.

I'm having lots of lovely thoughts about doing yoga in the back garden in the sunshine though. The neighbours will undoubtably laugh at my large behind waggling in the air. I shall just have to cope, as will they.

Also, the more I look at that butterfly fabric the more I realise its going to be really difficult to let it go.

Busy times

2008-04-28T11:04:00.004Z

So little craft this week. It makes me sad. I have however spent much money on fabric and beads (see below) from ebay, which I shall turn into beautiful things for my yet to exist etsy shop. That's The Plan anyways.

I did make a prototype for a bracelet idea I had in my head on Thursday, that I'm pretty impressed with. So I need to work on that some more this week, and hopefully get it up to scratch. I also have a vast amount of jewelery to make, and a swap to craft for!

In Swap news, its all going well so far. I'm proud and if I weren't at work would give myself a pat on the head.

Need more felt, and a yoga mat - Ebay here I come!

Fabric Wrapped Jewellery

2008-04-16T11:58:00.004Z

Two posts in one day! Thats because I did three days work yesterday, and foolishly left nothing to pad out todays pathetic offering. Le Sigh.

I made these bracelets and necklace what seems like an age ago, but was actually almost precisely 6 months ago. Now similar designs are appearing in the shops, which pleases me. Especially as I prefer mine!

I've made two varieties. The first places alternate wooden beads inside a fabric tube, with the others threaded onto the fabric tube. I left the internal beads plain but painted the external ones to match the fabrics I used. The second method I use (of which I have no photos) is to place all beads within the fabric tube, knotting the tube between beads or wrapping this section of fabric with embroidery thread.

So simple.

Please excuse my providing free advertising to Neal's Yard Remedies. The catelogue was just lying around and served a purpose. Ironically, I believe these photos were taken even before I started working for them!

Also please excuse the poor photography - as I said, 6 months ago before I was planning on showing anyone any pictures of my crafts!

The Back to Nature Swap

2008-04-16T11:08:00.009Z

As of Monday I have been organising my very own craft swap on Craftster! This means I actually have to be organised, which is an interesting thought and one I shall consider at great length at some point in the future maybe. So far we have 5 participants (inc. me) and I'm really excited.

I created the swap (well the official swap - I came up with the idea of a swap based around Nature and natural materials months ago, but I decided to wait till Spring had fully arrived) on my day off work on Monday. I was supposedly redesigning my CV and hunting for companies to approach/ask them to employee me. I did do some CV work, however I also decorated a pair of flip-flops (they look like green rag rugs now), made a pair of shaker-esk gloves and started a swap. Productive, but not in the way I intended.

I'm all stiff from yoga. This is not new. I still can't do the Crow. This also isn't new. I do find myself enjoying the Warrior more, and some of the various leg stretches. This is new, and quite exciting. I'm also rambling. This is not new, in fact this is a reoccuring problem.

Craft projects this week will be limited as I'm heading home tomorrow for my Gran's 80th Birthday Party. I will however be working on the blanket I'm knitting currently. I had knitted about two feet of loveliness, but then I had a rethink and unraveled it all. Le Sigh.

I will also need to make a Birthday card for Gran. I'm not really very good at cards, I love my Postage stamp cards, but they take very little talent/work and aren't realy appropriate.
I have some beautiful handmade paper, and some Indian ribbon - but neither scream 80 year old Grandmother to me. I shall have to have a think.
I really do love my Postage Stamp cards. I just love stamps. Not as much as maps, but still quite a lot.

Charity Shop Shopping

2008-03-26T21:08:00.004Z

I love Charity Shops. They make me happy inside. This is old news. Please indulge me while I show you some of my recent purchases...

To start with, the Crafting Charity Shopper's dream find - A button tin!

I got the whole lot for £2.50, it was my first purchase of the day and it made my soul shine. At the same time I bought a pair of metallic pink knitting needles that are a little too 'hard' for me but they look so pretty and were only 20p!

I picked these up for the embroidery, which is awesome, but I had little idea what they were! Apparently, according to my housemate, they are towel loops. You put them around folded towels to make them look all fancy. So there you go. I just think they are marvelous!

Finally, I picked these two necklaces up because I'm weak and I love jewelery. I have real issues leaving things in shops. Real issues.

I love charity shops.

Peruvian Earrings and Easter Chocolate

2008-03-26T20:45:00.004Z

Oh My Goodness Me. I feel like I've overdosed on chocolate. I got more Easter Eggs this year than ever before (Six! Six whole Easter Eggs! Its just excessive)... I thought this sort of thing was meant to get less as you grew older. My understanding of the world is falling apart at the seams.

Luckily my thoughts on earrings have not been affected by these earth shattering revelations. I put these together recently, obviously very simply, but I'm still pleased as they are one of my first attempts at earrings.

The triangular beads came from a Peruvian supplier on Ebay, and the silver findings from elsewhere on Ebay (I'm Ebay's bitch).

Simple but I love them.

Apologies for the blurry photo - I'm working on my camera skills

Colour Changes and Cupcakes

2008-03-20T13:53:00.005Z

I had a play with the colours. Most craft blogs seem to go for pastel tones and pale colours, which is undertsandable as they give a very fresh feel to a blog (like freshly washed and ironed sheets - mmm) and compliment many photos. However, I'm not into pastels really. I love rich, earthy, deep colours. I love lots of natural pale colours, like natural cotton/hemp, blue skies, pale stone etc but they are certainly exceptions to the rule. Originally Generation Artisan was all rich burgundy and teal but unfortunately it was too dark and it made text unclear and photos too constrasting so I've had to accept the pastels into my heart and get a bit paler. I like it, hopefully I will continue to like it…

Right now I'm stuck at work with little to do. This is work, its pretty.

What I actually want to be doing is baking cupcakes (I hate to embrace the Americanism - they are called buns where I come from, iced buns at a push - but when talking about this sort of highly decorated bun I think cupcakes sounds better and is generally more accepted) at home, or finishing dying lots of scrap materials green for a project I'm undertaking (hopefully results within a week or two… work doesn't half get in the way of crafting at any speed).

I've been properly craving cup-cake baking recently, there are such beautiful examples out there at the moment and I've found a few recipes that I'm stock piling to try out when I get some spare time.

I'm so envious of how beautiful some talented people make cupcakes - cake decorating is an art form I really want to master at some point in the future and I figure I may as well start with cupcakes as there is so much inspiration out there!

I'm just making myself hungry and depressed at lack of cupcakes now.

Also: Cupcakes = Marvelous. Cartoon pictures of cupcakes, cupcake patterned fabric, knitted cupcakes, twee personified cupcakes, large cakes shaped like cupcakes = distinctly blah. They are cute and girlie and twee and I dislike all of those things. They are not things of beauty. Each to their own and all that.

Felted Flowers

2008-03-10T14:06:00.005Z

Its my lunch break and I happen to have some photos stored on Photobucket of previous projects, so I thought I would make good on my declaration early.

For Christmas presents I decided to make several different women in my life personalised felted flowers. Hardly anything too ingenious, but they kept me occupied and went down very well!

They were made from scratch for a variety of different coloured merino tops. I felted up a square (well, a roughly square shape) for each flower in a combination of colours suited to each of the recipients. Then I made flower templates and created a flower from each felted 'square' before decorating with stitches, seed beads and buttons.

Very simple, but I was so pleased with how they turned out!

In the pictures some of the flowers and incomplete, I had to take these photos so my mum could see them in progress.

I suppose I ought to get back to work instead of battling with Blogger over where I want my pictures.

Tonight I'm starting on a bit of a healthy kick. I feel so toxic and bloated that I'm going to buy nothing but vegetables, salad, fruit and wholemeal pasta at the shops this evening. Nom nom nom. Maybe they'll be some yummy recipe coming your way!

Matchbook Note Books

2007-07-02T09:22:00.002Z

Currently I'm broke, this is unsurprising. Oh well. It does make getting presents for people a problem though. I love giving presents, and not just generic presents either. proper, thought out, personal presents.

Recently my social life has been on an up and I've been producing presents left right and centre. One of my favourites is matchbook style notebooks, an idea shamelessly stolen from this Live-Journal post. Simple and pretty, although I've decided they make better presents if already filled as they don't fit a large amount of paper in them.

A recent house warming present was a set of plain wine glasses, a glass painting set and a hand made note book full of design ideas for the wine glasses. Its safe to say its went down fantastically well. It fact it went down so well I made a selection of others for little emergency gifts, see pictures!

My next social event is a 21st birthday party of a friend who I know through Slow Food. So I was thinking a larger matchbook style booklet full of some of my favourite recipes would make a pretty good present. Might start work on that this afternoon.

Said birthday party should be pretty excellent, the dress code is 'Slick, Smart and Psychedelic'... sounds good to me! Plus there is hog roast.

Anyways, matchbook note books, there's a tutorial here. Its really easy and is a pretty good idea for emergency presents. Thank goodness. Must get a job.

Sea Fever by John Masefield

2007-07-02T09:10:00.000Z

"Sea-Fever"

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

I've loved this poem for years, mainly because I love the sea and "I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide/Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied" has always made a lot of sense to me.

Its not a complex, nor especially deep poem, but then poetry doesn't have to be. I enjoy it and it means something to me, thus it is worth sharing.

John Masefield was the poet laureate, I didn't know that. Also the only person to remain as the poet laureate for longer than Masefield was Tennyson, interesting fact of the day for you.

Next Post: Matchbook Note Books

Featured Artist: Adrian Gray and Stone Balancing

2007-07-02T08:45:00.000Z

While at Glastonbury (yes, I will shut up about it soon) we saw Adrian Gray (at least I think it was him) balancing stones. Doesn't sound too exciting, but it really is impressive.

The first time we saw the balanced stone at Glastonbury we pondered over whether it could be a fake, but the next time we were passing Adrian was actually setting up the stones, we had to stop and watch despite missing the start of a band. It was worth it though, its all real folks.

Adrian's stone balancing website is here, and is worth checking out if you are remotely appreciative of natural art work, or cool seemingly physics defying things.

I love that sort of thing. Andy Goldsworthy (my second favourite artist) does some similar things, plus a huge array of other natural sculptures. Apparently "that sort of thing" is called Environmental Art. Nice to know.

Talking of Goldsworthy, he's got an exhibition at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'm going to see it when I go home next week, even if the whole darned county seems to be flooded, I am still going.

Next Post: Maybe some poetry...

Photo copyright © stonebalancing.com 2006

Recycled Sari Silk Creations

2007-07-02T07:53:00.000Z

I absolutely adore recycled sari silk. The colours are so fantastic and, well I just love it! However, I do run into problems when it comes to what to do with it!

You see I tend to like the look of yarn before its knitted much more than I do once its knitted into something. I feel really gorgeous colourful or textured yarn is ruined by knitting, all the colours get smooched up together, it looks too busy and over the top. I prefer to appreciate some yarns simply as yarns. Sari silk is an example of this.

Unfortunately I can't justify buying yarn just to look at it, I have to actually do something with it. So I've begun creating bangles with yarn that I like too much to knit with. I love the way they turn out. Mind you I've only made two so far, one with sari silk and another with the yarn I span at Glastonbury. I've got a third in the pipe line though.

The sari silk bangle is simply made by wrapping and gluing yarn around an old bangle, and the other from a section of plastic bottle, paper mache-ed to make it more sturdy and wrapped in yarn. Obviously the Glastonbury yarn one isn't particularly great, but considering its made from my first ever yarn, well, I'll think we'll all cope.

The sari silk bangle only used up a small fraction of my skein, and I was still leaning away from knitting with it, so I decided to use the same technique as with the bangle, but on something a little bigger.

I love, love, love this clutch bag. It started out as a very cheap, hideous, Primark clutch bag which I then covered with recycled silk. I think its utterly beautiful, unfortunately I haven't found an outfit that it actually goes with yet, nor an occasion to take it too, so it is as yet not road tested. Still beautiful though.

Now I only have a small amount of silk left, and am trying to conjure up more ideas for it. I may repeat the same technique yet again and cover a pen or something. How unimaginative!

Next Post: Stone Balancing

Aboriginal Lizard Fabric!

2007-07-01T22:43:00.001Z

In our house there is an infamous home decorating book called "The Complete Home Decorator", which I picked up for a quid. Its infamous because once my housemates, our American friend and I got very very drunk playing Risk and then happened across this book. To a group of drunk friends its full of the most ridiculous and hysterical ideas of how to make your house look tacky and naff. Well worth the £1 in laughs alone, never mind if I actually ever glean some decorating use from it!

Anyways, one of the less totally awful suggestions in the book is to print your own fabric and make cushions from it. I don't need cushions, and anyways I don't have any cushion inners, so that idea was out the window, however, I did create some rather funky aboriginal inspired lizard fabric from an old table cloth!

Not complex, great fun and I think it turned out pretty much perfect. Its nicely misprinted in some areas so it looks rustic and a bit ethnic. Just how I like things.

Now, what is one to do with funky fabric? It can't just lay around, that would never do. So I created the hugest, most softly lined shoulder bag ever. I totally cocked up attaching the strap, proper facepalm moment it was, but otherwise I love it! It has a blue lining made from one of Andrzej's old t-shirts and can fit half the city inside. What more could I ask for, except well attached straps. Le Sigh.

Next Post: Recycled Sari Silk Creations

Glastonbury Craft Update

2007-06-29T18:40:00.001Z

So, Glastonbury was muddy. Pictures and talk can be found at my other blog if you're interested!

But Glastonbury was also crafty!

As the previous post mentions I made a recycled necklace for the festival, but decided against taking it due to the weather forecast. Turned out that was a wise move. I also made a patchwork shirt from Fairtrade patchwork squares from the Oxford Fairtrade shop. Some of the more fragile materials caused major problems and hence caused the patching of the patchwork skirt, and a rather large amount of zig-zag stitching to try and keep it all together... but I was still happy with the way it turned out!

At Glastonbury itself my crafting highlight was learning to spin! I'm totally addicted now. We (myself and Andrzej) were taught by a wonderful couple called Dave and Sarah who own a yarn, spinning and quilting shop near Bristol called Spinning Weal. Under Dave and Sarah's guidance we learnt how to spin on both a wheel and a drop spindle, and created the two balls of yarn shown!

The white ball is Andrzej's and the one with more colouring is mine, they are made of wool from Sarah and Dave's Portlands with touches of blue and purple merino. Obviously they are not perfect, but I'm insanely proud of them and have already picked out the wheel I want. Plus I've added two fleece bearing sheep to the menagerie I plan to have later on in life!

If you live in the Bristol area I do recommend you check out Spinning Weal. Dave and Sarah are in all seriousness two of the nicest people I have ever met, and so generous! Even providing Earl Grey for us to refresh ourselves after our spinning. Basically they deserve your custom, or at least a drop in for a chat!

On a less crafty, but still Glastonbury note: I bought awesome socks! See! Love them, love them, love them!

Next Post: Aboriginal Lizard Fabric!

Recycled Ecologist Paper Beads

2007-06-29T18:12:00.000Z

For even more recycley goodness these beads are made of pages from The Ecologist, how green of me! Although maybe I should have kept the pages to re-read in the future for their valuable information insted of turning them into necklaces! Oh well.

Handily The Ecologist also has a rather excellent website, I recommend people check it out. As with everything, it's dangerous to let it dictate your opinions, but I find its a wonderful antidote to most of the media.

I've found my subscription to the magazine fantastically informative and interesting, I would encourage anyone to get the magazine regularly... not only for its crafting potential!

This necklace was originally intended for Glastonbury Festival, however considering the wet weather we had during the festival it was probably a good thing I didn't take it!

Since I made this necklace I've made a whole load of paper beads, they are really rather moorish. Let that be a warning to you.

You can find a good tutorial for paper beads here, although its not really a precise art. For instance, I don't use the same size triangles of paper that they do and I also coat my beads in nail varnish to protect them. I suppose its a case of experimenting and finding out what suits you best.

I really love the colours some of the beads come out, and how magazine pages produce vastly more attractive beads than plain paper.

Next Post: Glastonbury Craft Update!

Raul Speek

2007-06-07T15:47:00.000Z

You may notice, over in the links section, there is a pretty little link reading Raul Speek.

Raul is a Cuban artist that now works in Pembrokeshire, an area that my family and myself have visited regularly for the last 2 decades, and I, frankly, think he work is wonderful. I'm not always into modern art, and I do tend to go for more moody, less bright works, but I find Speek's work generally exceptionally pleasing!

I particularly like his more abstract pieces, my absolute favourite being 'Pembrokeshire Weather Report', if I had a spare £4,000 I would be buying it without hesitation! As it happens I don't have a spare four grand so last time I visited his gallery I had to settle for a pair of rainbow striped gloves. Le Sigh.

However, not only do I like his abstract/impressionist style work, I also like some of the others, especially 'The Carnival' and 'Guantanamo Seascape'... not as much as 'Pembrokeshire Weather Report'... but still, I think they are worth looking at, and they make me happy.

The begining...

2007-06-07T15:32:00.001Z

So, I've just finished my final exams and now have an abundance of spare time to fill with Generation Artisan! Its not much at the moment, in fact its empty but I am working to change this sad situation!

I set up this blog as somewhere for me to dump all my crafty and arty thoughts, ideas and projects... to record what I've done and just generally collect all my creative bits and pieces in one place. So in the future there should be crafty projects, both the final results and the ideas and progress, hopefully a few tutorials too, also discussions* about artists and arts I like and possibly quite a large dollop of 'things I just find interesting' that I feel would be appropriate for Generation Artisan.

I seem to have written a specification of what I want Generation Artisan to be, so I suppose I ought to get on with achieving it.

*Discussion rather implies someone (anyone?) will be reading... we'll have to see how that works out.

Disclaimer: My spelling and grammar are poor, I try to correct my mistakes (and in fact not make them in the first place) but I apologise for those that do appear.

Also I over use ellipsis dots, you'll just have to cope.