Wrap it up! Recycle match boxes...

A friend gave me a book with old maps to play with. Since I love to wrap "stuff", I just had to make some boxes! I cut long stripes as broad as the match boxes (uhm... I know have a lot of single matches... ^^) and glued the strip around the box. Simple.

I have some old stamp pads that I only use to age and antique boxes. It is a 4 colour stamp pad collection with brown and black. At first I go with the brown over the edges and then with the black. Just have a look at the effect! 

Some crochet lace, some cord... finish! Three are already gone, I used them for my butterfly copper wings to send them on their way! ;)

On my worktable...

On my worktable right now!

Maybe this needs to be clarified: On a part of my temporary worktable also known as living room table in a lot of piles and boxes lying and standing around. Also the term temporary is used in a very broad definition. It started somewhere and it might end sometimes, that could be called temporary, or not?

I drilled some plastic toys a long time ago. Time to wrap and use them finally! I like miniature animals. They are as weird as they are cute!

I found some old crocheted rings I made years ago. I made a lot of earrings with them and then I got bored of creating them. Now I may be tempted again. Or I may even find some more already finished rings ;)

I also bought a box with copper wash rings. Difficult to get, I had to order them online! Nowadays they are mostly not made from pure copper anymore. 

After annealing I played with texture, oxidised them, polished them again... Aren't they all ebautiful?!

Look at all the pattern made with only two hammers. All the not roundish ones are made with a simple household hammer. My favorite hammer ever!

In my hand you see my absolute number one textured copper ring! The secret? More force, less control ;)

I also can show you a lot of necklace UFOs...

This could also just be a bead assembly for a market ;) But I combined some cermaic beads from Karen Totten with some of my polymer clay beads and a pendant. Actually I love how they work together. Just the worst to come: What kind of chain/string/necklace to add?

This is an older polymer clay pendant I made. I love the bird and the bright blue but until now it was just colelcting dust. So, I had to start somewhere!

I made a pendant from a uglibead headpin made by Julie. I could wrap it after making a double loop! The golden leather and a lot of the czech glass beads are from several Curiosity kits Rebecca is selling at her Curious Bead Shop.

I also started using one of my bird skulls! Oh, I just love all of them! With crackles and metallic spots... 

Here you can see how I actually start: Randomly assembling beads that are just telling me that they belong to each other. I don't know how the elefant jumped into the imade. He was not meant to be there... but you have to see how well he looks on the numinosity bead made by Kimberly (the etched glowing one)! Is there a organic rustic playful style? I don't know but he will stay ;)

Uhm... the picture of the new wings is actually not very good. They reflected the evening sun to well and were still on the paper towel drying. But I made some more! I used one for myself (one of the small ones at the top) and will start adding some of the other to my shop. I was asked for these and so here we go. They will probably also be my last for a long time. I can't stand too much repetition ;)

Advent calendar - 7th

For the 7th gift in the advent calendar I put a little collection of rings together. They are made from different materials, pressed paper, rubber gum... I bought these at the hardware store and I really love to use them for crochet jewelery! 

Bright and shiny! More of crochet earrings...

You could think someday I had enough of crochet earrings... but sure, that seems to be still far away! The ones in pink are with embroidery thread (the 8 threads cotton one) and you see it is quite big and just a few crochet stitches are needed to fill the whole ring.

Normally I don't recommend embroidery yarn for this kind of earrings. But the colour... there was no pink like this pink and I wanted a real pink! Yes, I used the word pink a little bit too often... but you see, this were meant to be a pink "thank you" for a very good friend who helped me in the last years when everything was difficult for me (yes, the same one which gets the pink advent calendar every year!).

And some in violett... with my new crochet yarn! Another friend asked about some crochet earrings in violett. You see how thin and shiny the thread is? Beautiful! Love it... and already bought new colours! ^^ But more about this in the next days.

Little vintage treasures - crochet earrings

Yes, I love them! I still can't get enough of creating more crochet earrings and I hope you still love them too ^^

Even if this light pink / rosa is not my personal colour, I am really into it in combination with the cream coloured wax beads and the copper metal parts! Strange how just the combination of materials and colours can make something attractive (like a colour in this case) which normally is not a favorite!

Colours of summer!

One of my friends (one of them with a growing collection of earrings made by me, thanks for that! :) ) asked me whether I could go for more bold colours with my crochet earrings. You know me, I had to try how this would work! 

I searched over some days for the perfect crochet yarn / threat. The problem is that with all the fine and thin crochet yarn they just come in some kind of (what I would call) old fashioned colours. Some of them I like, don't get me wrong! But I didn't want to use pastells, I wanted real bright summer colours!

It took me a while until I stumbled at the bead section of my craft store over a bright and shiny and colourful crochet yarn (it was even written on top of it!). It is not cotton, sorry for that, but I make jewelery and not clothes out of it. And I love how shiny it is! On the good as well as on the bad side: They were on sale. I got them for a nice price, normally this crochet yarn is expensive. But they just had some colours left... sniff. And there won't be any stock anymore to use in the future! (beside the basic colours of black, white and grey... they were also not on sale... so I didn't buy any even if the grey is so beautiful!)

And here we go with my first results! I love the violet and I adore the blue / turquoise! Trust me, it is really bright and for me it is - even if I expected it - quite surprising how modern crochet can look just using the right colours. 

And also some black ones just with a colour accent due to the added bead. Maybe a little bit more on goth style... or evening wear? But hey... I prefer goth, I am still one deep inside my heart! ^^

The black crochet yarn is 100 % cotton so you can see the difference: It is not as shiny as the other yarn. Also it is thicker (still tin ;) ). But I love the effect both kind of yarn creates!

All of them together... more are on my table to finish. I just need some more beads!

PS: And of course I'll add some of them into my dawanda shop! :)

Crochet bracelet

Another one, this time more simple. As closure I used a frosted green glas bead. I love how it looks but on the down side, this makes the bracelet not wearable for everyone. Still I love the little bead at the end! 

Black cotton thread with a dark green satin ribbon. My colours! :)

Crochet earrings

There is not much that I can (or need?) to write about these earrings: I just took small metal or plastic rings (whatever you can find!). I crochet around the ring at least one row and then I added some more. I just played with simple stitches. After that I added some beads... or crochet with some beads (count the rows around the ring, this is the amount of beads you should put on your thread). 

Here are my first trials, some of them already in their new home! 

No end to possibilities... different yarn size, colour, beads...

Try it! Play with it!

And of course, I'll have some of them in my shop soon ^^

Crochet lace - and the winner of the sms giveaway!

Here we go! I don't like blog entried without any pictures so I just combine the crochet lace bracelet I made with the announcement of the winner of the sms giveaway (the sea urchin earrings and -what makes even more fun for me! - some crafting stuff as surprise :) ).

 

The little bracelet I made with cotton thread and a 1,5 mm crochet hook. It is really easy to make, just several rows of single or double stitches and some little knots. To get the pink satin band through the crochet lace proved to be way more complicated... at least to get it even throught the holes! I love the effect and to crochet this kind of bracelets... but the (absolut necessary!) satin band is always... arghhs! If it were not for the satin band (or ribbon) I would make a lot more of this bracelets!

But enough rambling about crochet bracelets...

(we have a big festival here in leipzig, the wave gotik festival or short WGT and there are still two days of music and dancing and fairs to go to!)

The winner is:

Maureen Hayes

I like the sea urchin ones, although your lace is beautiful as well. I do all sorts of crafting, from stamping to art journaling to mixed media, so if you threw in any kind of art supplies I would probably be thrilled with it. I love all the Tim Holtz stuff by Ranger!

Thanks for the chance to win!

 Congratulation! I'll send you and email! The package will go on its way as soon as I have your mail adress and the post offices are open again :)

Thanks everyone for participating in the sms giveaway!

Visiting Lachafa in Münster

This blog entry is full of inspirations! 

At least for me but I hope you'll also find some inspirations. And please tell me, because Lachafa is my little (no not so little anymore) sister and I am just sooooo proud of her and her stuff (and ideas and creativity... okay, I guess you got my point ^^). But I think it is the in the rights of a big sister to be proud of her younger siblings :) (for my little brother search for tophino in my blog, he makes great music!).

Just have a look at this collar she made! With hundreds of tiny beads sewn on a piece of felt! And all what she said was: Oh, that was easy...

This are long paper pieces she pinned on her wall. Her plan is to change them from time to time to change the decoration in her room (she is a student now, sharing a flat). 

She cut a lino stamp and printed it on the paper. You see that only a quarter of the ornament is the real stamp.

She made a combination of a pillow and a plushy! 

You remember my polymer clay buttons? Take a closer look at the eyes of the whale! :)

This one is a crochet scarf... 

...you can just tighten it. But she told me just some days ago that she used the scarf as a skirt! 

Some pictures about Münster... 

Giant geckos (a Tokkee! I had some a few years ago! Love them :))...

...climbing up and down the houses.

The same time you can find miniature versions of the city...

...would all suit into the mouth of the gecko ^^

I always love this kind of facades...!

Lachafa :)

From every point of the city you can see steeples...

...but don't believe you could sue them as a help for orientaion. Way too many!

And she made me also a crochet cap like hers! (and will make me another one.. just a reminder sweetheart! ;))

You see the cages? Behave!

Yes... this one is frightening!

The light was just magical...

...and the ducks too cute ^^

Oh, every city needs water!

The street art Lachafa and I found... and the ruins of their train station I'll show you in another post :)