everykindofcraft | Making stuff

It's 3 months out from the Canberra Spinners and Weavers annual exhibition and sale and I'm focusing on making stock to sell. I thought I'd include some of my design thoughts and process as I do, not to show off or promote stuff to sell, but to show that I'm just doing dumb stuff until it works. Anyone can do what I do, and more importantly everyone should be out there doing dumb stuff with their hands and their brains. The world is now not only on fire, but filled with creations that can make things but they cannot make at. Because art requires intention, and that's something Al doesn't have (yet). So use your hands and your brains and make things our techno overlords cent replicate.

My first project was to make some more felt brooches. I made some last year that sold well and I had supplies to make more. The felt is a handwoven alpaca/Merino/nylon scarf that I thought was nifty but it never sold our multiple sales, so I threw it in the washing machine to felt it and have been cutting it up for brooches.

I have 2 designs, a cherry blossom/sakura and a cloud. I got both ideas from Pinterest and modified them to my own preferences and materials. Both brooches have simple embroidery on the front, with a pin back and more felt glued on the back.

I also stole both designs - I got the pictures from Pinterest (who never met an intellectual property rule it didn't violate). But I feel slightly vindicated in that both the cloud and sakura brooches I got inspiration from ae no longer being sold, and I will only be sold locally. So no competition.

Here's my page from my digital notebook, showing the inspiration photo, a brooch I made last year and then one I finished this year.

The original brooch is all in backstitch with some silver in the centre. It's also quite... structured. Regular. I decided to use chain stitch around the edges of my sakura and make it a bit more organic. It suits the nature of the handwoven felt, which is a bit random in places. Last year I think I make the centre bead section too small, so this year I made it bigger. I'm happy with how they turned out.

Here's the cloud brooches, again with the inso pic, last year's brooch and then this year's.

This design changed a lot from the inspiration but I think you can still see the connection. The embroidery on the clouds is scroll stitch, which I found in my little embroidery stitch dictionary and is perfect for some fluffy clouds.

I did run out of the little rain drop rhinestones and needed to come up with another idea. My favourite brooch of the first batch was the one with chain and bead dangles so I wanted to do something like that. So I collected some options from my bead box.

After a bit of mucking about I settled on these hematite beads because they're pretty and these white glass beads because there's only a few and I can use them all up (woot destash!).

My first idea was just using the hematite beads on some wire, but it was a bit flat. So I added the white beads to help lift the design. I used a combination of eye pins and flat head pins to make a jointed dangle that has some movement.

I really like how they turned out.

My next idea was to make some little pincushions with had made fabric tops. I bought these wooden bases off AliExpress. Which felt kinda weird because my partner is a woodturner and there's a lathe literally metres from where I sit now. Partner was intrigued that I'd purchased turned items and wanted to know more. But when I told her how much I spent on getting these lovely little bowls shipped to me she laughed and shook her head.

I watched a video from a wood turner making these and used that as a guide.

First I lightly sanded a rougher bowl and then wood waxed them, which really makes the wood sing.

With a bit of trial and error I got a circle of felt the right size to sit nicely in the bowl. The stuffing is local alpaca fleece which I washed and drum carded with some steel wool to help sharpen and clean pins stuck into it. Hopefully the local touch of Australian alpaca helps offset the Chinese mass produced bowls.

The end result was rather cute and they're quick and simple to make. I'm interested to see if they sell.

I get so defensive when I’m making things for sale. I feel like I'll be judged for using supplies from AliExpress. But I can’t buy the bowls locally and commissioning a wood tuner (even my Partner) to make them would make the needle pin holders unaffordable. This discomfort around sourcing and selling is part of the reason I closed down my online shop.
I guess there's no ethical consumption under capitalism.

If I have to live in a post-globalisation hell scope I'm going to by Cool Shit, because that's one of the few perks of this brokenness of a society we live in. Yes, I'm contributing to the problem but the problem is... *waves hands*.

A while back I posted about switching my Saori loom back to a 2 shaft and wearing a hot pink prewound warp. Well, it's done! And I didn't take any progress shots of the wearing for some reason. But I wove fabric for 2 freeform style tops. Before I get to that there's a bit of work to do first. When I was washing the woven fabric I noticed a section with some skipped threads.

Alas. But no weaver is perfect. The only difference between an experienced wearer and a beginner is that an experienced wearer knows how to fix their mistakes. So let's do that.

First I took a length of weft yarn (an 8/2 tencel in a delicious shade of purple) and used a needle to weave the correct path for the thread. As this is plain weave, that's over one thread and then under the next. Then I snip-off this new thread, leaving plenty of overlap between it and the original thread.

Repeat a few times and voila.

It's not 100% invisible but it's pretty close. Normally I would just leave the ends trimmed close to the fabric, especially in wool which is kinda clingy, but both silk and tencel are smooth and slippery so I dabbed some fray stop on the thread ends on the wrong side of the fabric to hold them in place.

After that little fix the sewing was easy, just cutting and hemming some long rectangles and then sewing them together. Seriously, this is the kind of sewing I enjoy the most, just simple lines and hems. It’s really quick and satisfying.

Here's the 2 tops I made. This one has the Ieno lace I showed in a previous post. I got tired of doing the leno and started having doubts about how stable it would be as fabric. So I wove 2 different panels and the garment has leno sleeves on one side and a leno panel across the chest on the other. You can wear it with either side as the front.

Hopefully the garment is freeform and arty enough that this asymmetrical approach is interesting rather than weird. Here's some incredibly awkward photos of me wearing this top in my disaster-level mess of a craft room.

I wore the other top in clasped weft using a grey wool and beige silk. This makes the little light patches on either edge of the fabric. I made them pretty random, just tried for similar sizes and alternating which side I started from. I also sewed this top with a mobius twist. Again, you can wear this at the front or the back. Ithink I like this one better. Wearing the twist at the front reminds me of wearing a large shawl, which is something I find comforting and do often.

Both tops will be up for sale at from the Canberra spinners and Weaves exhibition in May.

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yourlibrarian

Out of curiosity, could the embroidered felt be washed so that the brooches could also be used as clothing embellishment? I was thinking it would be a neat look to have handmade designs altering a, say, everyday shirt or a jacket.

kazzy_cee

I like what you've made. I think it's fine that you have elements you have bought in. If you were just selling the bowls that wouldn't be right, but using them for something else is fine!