My Creative Space: Pinked

 I treated myself to a pair of pinking shears the other day and I've been having fun using them on fabric brooches.  I screenprinted some huia birds, sewed them to an old blanket strengthened with interfacing, pinked the edges and sandwiched some ribbon in between.  They've turned out quite military, I wonder what they could be medals for...

 I've also made some without ribbons - some round, some oval.  With their pinked edges they remind me of Shrewsbury biscuits!

Joining in with "My Creative Space" today over here.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space: bits and bobs and creative tips

In my creative space I've been:

Playing around with different uses for things I've made:  

I stuffed one of my owl patches and made it into this stuffy brooch. 

Sometimes he lives on my coat

And sometimes with this little collection of things on the back of the stove.

Drawing a seahorse:

 I'm hoping to put some ink and gouache on it and maybe turn it into a banner for my blog

And reading this book:

It has some great creative tips.  

Today's theme for my creative space is sharing your tips for staying creative and here's mine: 

Fit little bits of creative work into your day when you can.  Draw on your lunch break, crochet on the train, sew on brooch backs in bed - chip away at creative projects in whatever little pockets of time you have in your day.  Sometimes you get the best ideas when you've got limited time but you're doing a bit of something creative.  One of my favourite kinds of creative multitasking is drawing or sewing while I'm doing my market stall.

Right now I'm going to use one of Austin Kleon's tips which is "Step away from the screen" and I'm going to take my seahorse drawing up the road for a coffee.  Looking forward to reading your creative tips over here.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space: dots on sticks brooch

I've been playing round with the new fabric I've printed from this screen, and I decided to make one of the motifs from it into a brooch. 

 

Here it is on my coat - I think it'll be a good replacement for this brooch, which I lost in Dunedin earlier in the year.   Today I've also been stitching up some dinosaur patches and I've got plans for a pouch sewing bee.  Hope you're having a good Thursday!

To see more creative spaces head on over here...

My creative space

In my creative space this week I've got a plethora of brooches that I've been printing and sewing frantically for the Auckland Art & Craft Fair this Saturday. This is the selection I'm going to be bringing along:

Here are the ones I've finished, all jumbled up on my pin board:

And here are some huia brooches, looking a bit more tidy:

There are plenty more still waiting for brooch backs!

Speaking of craft fairs, if you're in the Wairarapa or Wellington you should head along to Craft Country in Greytown this Saturday! I had a stall last year and it was a great day. You can find details, including profiles of the sellers here.

To see lots of other creative spaces head on over here, to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space and Queen Anne's lace

The other day I made myself a giant doily brooch, something I've been meaning to do for ages.

I trimmed the middle out of an old doily that was shaped like an eye and sewed it onto some black fabric that I had reinforced with interfacing. I then sewed that onto some black wool felt (that was a beret in a previous life), also reinforced with interfacing, and sewed a brooch back onto that. Here it is on a jacket to show its size:
On this green silk fabric (soon to become a green silk top) I reckon it looks a bit like that plant Queen Anne's lace.


See?

To see a whole lot of other creative spaces pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday to you!

Feather brooches in the shops

Just a note to say I've listed some of my white feather on black calico feather brooches in my Felt and Etsy shops. Now to sew on some more brooch backs!

In reverse

I've been working on some more feather brooches that are the reverse of these ones, white prints on black calico this time. Here they are in progress - waiting for me to trim the interfacing inside them and sew on the wool backing.
I really love making things in a big production line, there's something very satisfying about it. Now I'm up to the final step - sewing on the brooch backs - the perfect thing to do when you're listening to the radio or watching an episode of Nurse Jackie!

My creative space

In my creative space today I've got a few updates. Remember this drawing? The other night I turned it into a multicoloured gocco print:
It was my first go at gocco printing using more than one colour at once...after 10 or so prints the colours started blending together a bit so I think next time I'd put some sellotape or dureaseal between the images to keep them separate. I think it'd be fun to have pyjamas with this print on them!

And remember these owls? I've turned one of them into a brooch, which I think Mr. Millicent Crow is road-testing today. I printed the owl onto calico then sewed it onto some wool from a scrappy old blanket. I put a couple of layers of interfacing in the middle to strengthen it.

Here's another picture of it just because I love that old "Flight luggage" logo.

And remember this feather skirt I was making? I completely stuffed it up. But hopefully I'll make another one soon.

What have you been making? Pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog to see lots of other people's creative spaces.

Happy first day of Spring (or Autumn if it's Autumn where you are)!

My creative space

My creative space this week is full of owls, owls, owls.

These little ones, screenprinted on calico, are going to become brooches, a bit like these feathers. I've had a bit of a brooch production line going on lately, I must line up some movies to watch or some podcasts to listen to while I handsew on all those backs!

I've also got some bigger owls, these ones are screenprinted on calico grocery bags.

Stacked up together they kind of remind me of Matryoshka dolls.

What have you been making?

To see other people's creative spaces pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

Feather brooches in the shops

Just a note to say I've listed some of my feather brooches in my Felt and Etsy shops.

I'm hoping to print a giant version of that feather on a skirt for myself this weekend...maybe it'll have to be a reward for when I've cleaned up all the sewing bits and pieces I've strewn over the house this week!

Swallows and cameos

Some brooches that I made on Friday. Cabochons, cameos, and a feather like the one I made for the Flowerpress brooch swap. Broochmaking is quite addictive!

Swapped

I posted off my brooch for the Flowerpress brooch swap the other day and here are a couple of pictures of it:

That stuff behind it is a gocco-printed card it's attached to.

Here it is in action, modelled by Mr. Millicent Crow.

It's a screenprint on calico, backed with a piece of recycled wool felt. I've got a similar one myself, with a swallow on it, I might have to make myself a feather one too! You can see other people's brooches for the brooch swap here, they're lovely.

Thanks again for organising the swap, Susie!

Today

Today, wearing my polka dot stockings...
I posted the brooch I made for the Flowerpress brooch swap off to Australia...

Safe travels, little brooch!

Birdies

My sister and I made these little birds this afternoon - they're made out of "Cernit" - a cheap kind of fimo. I tried to make some late at night last night, but was too tired and had an episode of bird-making rage which could only be soothed by the dulcet tones of Ira Glass. These are today's birdies:

I made the three on the left, my sister made the two on the right.

Fresh from the oven, 'scuse the not so good flash photo...

They're being turned into brooches as we speak!

Little swallow

I made this little swallow brooch the other night - it's just one of my gocco printed patches sewn onto a scrap of wool felt and it has a safety pin sewn on the back. A nice quick project.

Complete with a sneaky rainbow from the window crystal thing...

Mr Millicent Crow reckons the swallow patches are also pretty handy for mending jeans!

A quick project

I made this brooch while I was on the phone the other night, trying to multitask! It was really easy; you need a fake flower (I got mine from good ol' Spotlight), a brooch back and some cotton. Sew the brooch back to the flower and Bob's your uncle!