Felt Typewriter...

I came across this brilliant felt typewriter by Blythe Church recently. She makes the most amazing stuff including a hand sewn Guggenheim Museum which you can see on her blog.There's a link there to her Etsy shop too so you can buy your own soft sculpture.

Funky advent calender

I was blown away by the gorgeous advent calender my daughter made for me this christmas - I am going to try to develope the idea for next year as I just love it! The one disadvantage as it stands is that the forest must be destroyed to access each day's treat....

We Make London | The Great Exhibition 2012

We Make London | The Great Exhibition 2012

I am voting for We Make London for The Greats of Great Britain Exhibition 2012 in the hope that they get chance to have a space to promote and sell the work of other crafters and makers from the uk at this fun sounding event inspired by the original Great Exhibition of 1851 and The Festival of Britain in 1951.
Credit to The Dabbler for the image above - abit of a contrast of styles I think you'll agree!

Sponge cake anyone?

A shortage of separate storage in what I call the futility room recently led to this interesting arrangement of window cleaning quipement and best high tea crockery.

It took me right back to my last attempts at a Victoria sandwich....

A manifesto to work with.

I attended an Etsy seminar on marketing yesterday as part of my ongoing effort to get more traffic to my shop and generally get my products more `out there'. Everybody says the more online presence the better and so despite a slight aversion to the whole concept I have been trying to link up Facebook with my shop. How I get `likes' and the like to manifest themselves on the page has so far eluded me but trying to distill ones interests and philosophies gets you thinking. I love this manifesto from aardvark especially the keep it wonky part...

One blind mice!

Its nice to have an ice-breaker conversation starter when running a stall and little mice and tiger slippers always seem to get attention.

The ones I am working at the moment are still `blind'....a bit of gentle eye embroidery will be quite a nice relief after frantic felting.

Barbara Keal

I have been enjoying the beauty and sheer delight of Barbara Keal's wonderful felt creations today.

She has an exhibition at The Susanne Wolf Shop in Lewes from 21st October to 19th November - well worth a visit I reckon.

Flower fever for NSPCC!

I have a stall selling my felt at the local NSPCC Christmas fair on 19th November at St Stephens Church Hall London N1 10am to 4pm. They always have lots of great stuff for sale including the gorgeous Quinton Chadwick Knitwear plus lots of delicious cakes and sandwiches.

So I have been making a few batches of felt flowers to fashion into necklaces and the like. Come along if you are in the area!

Low-flying Lavender bags

We've been re- reading the Harry Potter books in our household and becoming a little obsessed with all things wizardly leading to some odd shaped lavender bags...

We picked the lavender during the summer and it has now been dried and the flower heads stripped off the stalks - never again will I question the expense of lavender products - it is a crazily time consuming process with considerable hazards for an arachnaphobe such a myself.

Horsehair and rubber experiment with crochet and felt

I have been putting together a piece of jewellery trying to incorporate contrasting textures and shapes in a monotone pallette. The felt beads combine smooth white merino wool with strands of horsehair.

Here is the result...

Hat man

Still enjoying the hat we made with the wonderful Paul-Henri Jeannel of Chapeau Magique at The Thames Festival.

Seeing his wonderful creations around town and then getting involved in the free form wrapping event that followed once we'd found him at Gabriel's Wharf was the highlight of the day. Fantastic to see so many people having fun and enjoying making things with paper in so many different ways.

Back to business

Its been a wonderful if slightly chilly summer and our travels in the van have taken us to some beautiful places...

...stunning hedges in Gloucestershire...

...the glories of Anne Hathaway's garden...

..to cobbled streets in Wells... (spot the baby car)..

but now its back to business...

A skein of cherry coloured twist...

Inspiration from Beatrix Potter!

I always wondered what the silk thread The Tailor of Gloucester instructed his cat to purchase for him would look like until I saw this gorgeous hand dyed cotton in The London Bead Co., a great shop in Kentish Town. This is my exact image of what it was like and and I had to have it! Now I can roll my sleeves up and start making things with it!Other gorgeous threads from the same shop...

...like this...

Apologies to oneperfectday!

This fabulous bag was oneperfectday's entry to my European Street Team Circus Challenge but due to some weird glitch,unfathomable to me, the link on my blog closed early and I only just saw the entry - too late...I am really sorry! It is a beautiful and really clever interpretation of the Circus theme.

Our lovely camperbug!

My partner has nursed an obsession for all things old and vw for most of his life having placed his name and number under the windscreen wiper of various objects of desire a number of times with the note " Dear Owner, If you ever think of selling this vehicle....". Well, the chickens came home to roost a few weeks ago when he got a phonecall from a campervan owner who had kept his note from three years ago! Various discussions on pros and cons of buying said vehicle commenced and to cut a long story short we are now the proud owners of a 1971 Bay windowed Dormobile van and I have to say I think she is a beauty!

The plan is to have her looked over by the garage who will also fit rear seat belt and new upper level bunks in teal canvas then take her on a summer camping adventure! After that she should be for rent. All very exciting!

European Street Team Winner!

Congratulations to Star of the East for the gorgeous Circus Bag which wins the European Street Team Challenge this time - I love it! It totally catches the mood of Circus whilst also being super stylish.

New Etsy Street Team Challenge

My Rainbow necklace won the Street Team Challenge hosted by Dina Fragola last week so now I get the chance to pick the new theme!

Inspiration for my challenge idea comes from a trip out into the beautiful English countryside last weekend where I went to see the wonderful Giffords Circus. They tour villages greens of the West Country over the summer season bringing a magical musical extravaganza of a show with a different story to tell each year with stunning costumes, music and acts. So my challenge for the Street Team is going to be C I R C U S.

This years Giffords is based on `War and Peace' but other themes have included the life of Jasmine Smart and Caravan wonderful images of which can be seen at talented photographer, Andrew Rees' website
The challenge is to run for two weeks so I pick the winner on the 18th July with last entries in by midnight on the 17th.

Etsy Street Team Challenge

Rushing to make a twelfth hour entry for the Etsy Street Team Challenge which is `Rainbow' set by last times winner Dina Fragola. I have made a cotton crochet necklace. See what you think...

More images available on my Etsy website

Holidays!

Just returned from a batch of holidays with Easter and the Royal Wedding/Bank holiday weekend. I haven't been able to do much felt making so have been working on some much more transportable crochet jewellery instead including my first ever Glow in the Dark item ! We spent a couple of days in Brussels which was fantastic - a doddle to get to from London on the Eurostar and full of so many beautiful art nouveau buildings!

We were lucky enough to turn up outside one of the best, Maison Ct Cyr, just as someone who has just refurbished the facade turned up to give a talk to a group about the difficulties and dilemas of the project. One of the issues was apparently whether to return the building to its original colour palette which included the pale green metalwork rather than the black you can see in earlier photos. Another high spot was stumbling across The Sequence by Arne Quinze close to our hotel - gorgeous!

High adrenalin

Extreme sports are not really my bag...at all in fact. However I found myself given the opportunity to try out the new Olympic White Water Course in an inflatable raft last week and for some obscure reason felt I couldn't say no even though I would normally prefer to eat my own shoes than engage in such an activity...Anyway here it is looking quite modest when you are not actually in it! I also show a shot of the thing as it fills up - obviously when not in use the water drains away which reveals curious blocks under the surface which help create the gushing waterfall effect over the 5.5 metre drop. The totally dry course shown at the bottom is the mini- version known as the Legacy loop.

The building itself, by Faulkner Browns is great - a great big folded wave - seen here with the conveyor belt in the foreground. This drags you and your boat back up to the top once you've been round the circuit.

It opens for business this month from the 22nd when you can go rafting or Kayaking if you pass the requirements so get down there!