Watching the birds - playing around

When I saw what my hands had played with while exercising free motion machine embroidery, I had to laugh: somehow it made me think of the early morning arguments with my teenage son ;-)!



Using very simple outlines, a bit like childrens' drawings, makes it possible to transfer the forms into almost every material.

I liked the look of these birds and pondered upon how to make a brooch with the motif - while experimenting, I came up with this:



The bodies are cut out of discarded plastic cards (same stiffness as credit or club cards), covered with patterned washi tape. In good old malfatto manner, I just attached the broche needle and other metal wire components with duct tape.

Bits of wire - sometimes combined with scoubidou strings - and some beads for embellishments made the rest.

(German summary: Zwei Variationen von Vögel, einmal genäht/maschinengestickt, einmal als Broschen mit Recylingmaterial.)

Mini Summer Project I: Brooch/Kleines Sommerprojekt: Brosche

While sitting in the garden and chatting with my Mum, I worked on this small brooch -



- all by hand and with scrap materials found in my glass jar. I think it looks a bit folkloristic Scandinavian, especially with this white blouse.



(German summary: Nur eine kleine Brosche mit Material aus dem Resteglas, das ich gemacht habe, während ich plaudernd mit meiner Mutter im Garten gesessen bin - ich finde, es hat etwas Skandinavisches, oder?)

Literally modern times/Klassische Literatur modern

Question: How do you get your kids off the computer and into reading classical literature instead?

The answer is simple: You buy them an e-book reader and make them a nice cover for it! (Bold decision for me, being a part time librarian!) But indeed, my daughter spent several hours today out in the garden, reading ...

And for the homemade cover: this is the front -



- and here's the back (usable the other way round as well):



And for a young mister, I made a wristband this weekend out of a piece of an used truck tyre and some old adjustable resistance out of my stash - quite cool recycling, isn't it ? (Do you now begin to imagine what my stash looks like ;-) ...)





(German summary: Und wie bekommt man seine Kinder weg vom Computer und hin zur klassischen Literatur? - Man kauft ihnen ein e-book reader und bastelt ihnen eine hübsche Hülle dafür ... Bei uns war's auf jeden Fall ein voller Erfolg! Ein Armband aus einem gebrauchten LKW-Reifen und einem alten einstellbaren Widerstand gab dieses Wochenende dann auch her.)

It's just another cat, my deer!/Raubtierhirsch

Funny enough, it seems as if the scrappiest of scraps boost my imagination the most!

This is today's deer, where I had to assemble three outline patches (and even add a bit of additional drawing) to achieve one animal.



Here you can see the three fragments joined:



I found a piece of wildcat fabric in my stash and decided to use it for the body.



Then I took a clear plastic envelope for tracing the outlines - this way I could see where to position the eye best:



The beads on neck and back are not only embellishments, but also help holding the fabrics together.

And as I seem to be in a creative upswing right now, I made this ring for myself today as well - it's basically a piece of black rubber, some natural beads (coral and bone) and a platinum covered metal bar with a removable knob.



(German summary: Je anspruchsloser die Reste, umso mehr wird anscheinend meine Experimentierlust angestachelt! Drei Reststücke und etwas Raubtierstoff bilden heute das Gerüst meines neuen Hirsches - dann noch ein paar Perlen und Metallpailletten für's Geweih ... Ja, und der Ring kam heute auch noch zustande: Gummi, Naturperlen und ein Steg mit abschraubbaren Verschluß.)

Matrioshka brooch/Matrioschka-Brosche

Did you see the little Matrioshka in the middle of the Noro yarn in my previous posting?

It's a small brooch I made, just for fun.



Some time ago I bought a cotton fabric which had printed Matrioshkas on it - I cut out one of them and worked some satin stitches on it in the corresponding colours, added a couple of beads and sew it to a piece of wool felt done with the embellisher - and ready was my Matrioshka brooch!

I'm still knitting on my sleeveless Noro-sweaters - one is almost done! - and I'm a little excited: next week I'm going to Alicante in Spain to visit Sara! She has invited me to stay with her for a week and I'm sure we will have a great time together!

(German summary: Die kleine Brosche, die im vorigen Posting mitten in der Noro-Wolle zu sehen war, ist eigentlich ein Stoffdruck, den ich mit Perlen und Garn bestickt habe. Ich stricke noch fleißig an meinen Pullundern - und nächste Woche fliege ich nach Alicante, um Sara zu besuchen!)

When you wish upon a star - Christmas ornament swap

"When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you"




This week I finished the Christmas ornaments which I did for the swap that Elizabeth/Landanna organized. I made three stars - with a touch of snowflake! - all a bit different but all out of vintage jewelry (and a bit of brass wire) that I have been collecting without no specific purpose ... just thinking that the pearls were too beautiful to be thrown away.

I like this sort of recycling - turning something once cherished, now old and worn, maybe partly broken but with a certain distinguished charm - into something 'new' and special again, which might once again be cherished ...

When being flooded now at Christmas time, with all the ads and commercials about plastic fantastic things which we are supposed to give eachother as 'gifts from our hearts' - I certainly long for more of that old, recycled stuff - both for giving and for getting ...



(German summary: Für einen Weihnachtsschmuck-Tausch habe ich drei Sterne/Schneeflocken aus Messingdraht und altem Perlenschmuck gemacht - ich mag diese Art von Recycling, wo etwas einst Geschätztes jetzt in einer neuen Form wieder zu Ehren kommen kann ... mehr Recycling und weniger Neues wäre auch jetzt zu Weihnachten eine echte Wohltat, denke ich!)

Metamorphosis/Verwandlung

While searching for some tools, I found some forgotten nuts and O-rings in my toolbox ...



... and combined with a little of those self-dyed cotton threads and a single seed bead, they were suddenly transformed into a brooch - isn't that magic?



Where is your toolbox?

(German summary: Im Werkzeugkasten fand ich ein paar vergessene Muttern und Dichtungsringe - und Simsalabim: mit ein paar Fäden umwickelt, wurden sie plötzlich zu einer Brosche! Wo ist Dein Werkzeugkasten?)

Some travelling experiments - Reiseexperimente

It's funny with travelling: some people cannot get enough of it and get so much inspiration out of it - it's a challenge that makes them really feel alive and vibrant.

I'm afraid I'm not that kind of person, really. It's not that I hate it: I can very well adjust to new situations and surroundings and feel comfortable with it - but at the same time, I can't wait to return home and get working on those new ideas and impressions! And the problem is that when I'm finally back home, there's so much piled-up everyday stuff to take care of ...!

I guess I just need quite some time to "get back" mentally, to find concentration.

Anyway, this is not really a 'concentrated piece', but just an experiment on weaving with recycling material, like newspapers and waste plastic. I saw something like that in Stockholm, I thought the recycling paper looked quite stylish with the black cotton warp inbetween. The original paper weave was more professionally done, though, more tense, probably on a 'real' loom.

The little thing above it are some folded paper scraps crocheted together with the same black cotton thread I used for the warp. Well, just an experiment.



Last weekend in Vienna, I saw a crocheted flower necklace which I thought to be a nice idea, but far too expensive - so I made an own version on that, one with a green and one with a red wire. I used a variegated stocking knitting wool to get different colours out of the same material and some beads from my stash (hey, it's nice to find everything you ever need in your own stash!).



And feeling the need just to sit down in the sun and play around - I made these two beaded butterflies to send along with the mail I was preparing for Sara and for Paula ...

(Metal wire and beads from my stash :-))



(German summary: Nur ein paar Gedanken über's Reisen ... Ein Experiment mit Weben von Recyclingmaterialien wie Papier und Plastik, auch zusammengehäkelt, mit schwarzem Baumwollgarn ... Zwei aus Sockenwolle gehäkelte Ketten und dann ein paar Schmetterlinge aus Draht und Perlen, die ich meinen Freundinnen schicken möchte.)

Beaded ring

I'm working on a bigger recycling and felting project which cannot be finished in a day - the only thing I managed to complete today was a small beaded ring, no big deal, simply cute.

I was asked to mend a broken (quite ugly) beaded ring somebody had bought in Madeira/Portugal on vacation, and as I did, I got inspired to try it out with other beads, more colours, covering a vintage button instead. Would it pass as a very small "recycling project"?