Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

So last Wednesday I was to the last lesson on this jewelry from recycled materials course. I wrote about it last week too . In excellent course theme in my opinion, and I only wished it could have been longer. Like I previously wrote, Anne Viinikka is an excellent teacher with a clear passion for using recycled materials. She's truly creative. Because of this, I thought I'd give you a peek at her work :) I took some photos of the show-and-tell pieces she had brought with her to present ideas and what she has done in different materials. Of these materials, she had used: inner rubber of a bicycle ring (her boys apparently bike a LOT) fabric scraps, yarn and thread leather scraps (from old bags, belts and jackets, some bought second hand and some just broken and reused) buttons zippers lace (stiffened with basic potato starch based glue) the plastic "glass" of old sunglasses old silver teaspoons old keyboard keys bottle caps Let's start wit...

I'm attending a short course at Vaasa Opisto , held by Anne Viinikka. It's about making jewelry from recycled materials. Only thing I don't like about the course is that it is TOO SHORT. I would have been more than fine with it lasting a whole semester, let alone the two days it's going to take! Anne is a great teacher, she's funny and her jewelry is inspirational. This was the first time in, well, I think it might have been at least three years since I've made some jewelry. And I noticed straight away how rusty my skill with the pliers were. *sigh*    Anyway, I had some specific projects in mind when I arrived to the course, and I got inspiration for one more when I saw the pieces Anne presented. The first was this necklace that I needed to put a clasp on. I've had it in a small plastic bag for nearly two years now, I think. Putting a clasp lock and a name-tag on went rather quickly. Why on Earth did I wait so long to do it? T...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. As I wanted to tell you before , but post-phoned it slightly , I wanted to write about lack of inspiration while needing to create a jewelry piece. Now, I usually don't have a problem like this, but when I do, I do like a lot of other people and search for it. Now, for most of us with a computer this comes down to searching the internet. For others, me included, the 

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. One thing I'm really glad for is the fact that since I decided that I wouldn't get stressed out or make any  kind of excuses for a sudden lapse in my blogging. My text, my rules. Which is why I'm letting you know that last Friday's craft post has gotten slightly postponed. I wanted to write this post instead, and leave the post I had planned to write about "lack of inspiration" for a later Friday. Yay, editor and writer's choice! Gotta love it. *smiles* So, instead I'm going to distract you all with some photos and talk about doing variations. More specifically, what I tried out a few days ago. Upwards down on the paper: coated tiger wire (black), crimp bead covers in various diameters and some 'goldish' small plastic beads. I'll return to the crimp bead covers (shown in ...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. So, in holding with the 1:1 ratio of jewelry design , and continuing on creating a mixed media necklace out of Emmis's and mine broken porcelain plates , I must say I'm currently really lacking the 50% inspiration needed. It's not that I don't want to create anything, because I do, but I just can't get the hint of an idea to even form in my head. And this is annoying, to say the least. I've put all the things I'll need for the project on my desk, and I've put my scrap book open on the "right page" there for all to see, I've even thought up a few techniques I thought I try out with the polymer clay on the same time. But I just can't  come up with any real inspirational ideas. Which is why I think this post should be about how people find inspiration from different media for differ...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. This one is gonna be quite short. If you have no idea what memento mori  is, then go and read about it. Mine and Micke's good friend Ida turned 26 years yesterday, and tomorrow she's throwing a come-as-you-are birthday party over at the only Irish pub here in Turku. And for her birthday, I'm giving her: Ida's new Memento mori-earrings. Why? Well, I thought she would think them cool, and since she's an art history major... I just thought she'd get it. What do you think? Too weird - or too odd - a present? update written the following Monday: She really liked them! I'm so relieved! For once I've managed to make a jewelry-present that was spot on. Huge success, and a huge relief. I'm so glad :)

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. I must confess that I hadn't really planned ahead on what to write for today. We're going to catch a train today up north to Bennäs, because one of Micke's cousins is getting married on Saturday. Everything is packed, so we're good to go, as soon as I finish this post. Planning for this wedding - wondering what to pack , and which shoes , and which earrings to bring -  kind of got me thinking about functional design again. A well planned and executed design means that the jewelry piece in question is wearable to a lot of occasions, on top of being aesthetically pleasing . Weddings usually means dancing, and dancing usually makes you move faster than you normally do. Depending on the dance, you might even stand closer to your partner than what you do when normally  just conversing with them. Which means th...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. So, I've written before about knotting necklaces. And how there's enough tutorials found online about that. Just google it, I promise you're sure to find one to your likning. My "random" Café au Lait necklace, still lacking a clasp but otherwise nearly completed. Hence, the tape and taped together strings. What I, however, haven't written about is how long I've waited and much I've wanted to make a copy of the "Café au Lait"-necklace found in the book  "Mastering the Art of Beading" by Genevieve A. Sterbenz .  Well, the answer is "long enough". Really. That book is one of the best books - if not THE best book - I've read at least so far about making bead and wire jewelry. It's clearly thought through, written in such a way that it's an absolute delight to read, the photo...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. There is something to be said about the dichotomy that is porcelain and pottery. One one hand it is burned in very hot ovens, used to store everything from food to chemicals in, and  it can withstand the tooth of time for hundreds of years. A thousand even. But on the other hand... Shards from one of Emmis' nice, if broken, green plates. ...it breaks into a hundred (or a thousand) pieces if it accidentally falls on the floor. Which, needless to say, is what happened to a few of Emmis' plates a few weeks ago, as well as to one of mine last Tuesday. Left were a mess of shards, and I managed to scavenged a few before the rest were thrown out with the trash. I know there's lots of things that you can do with pieces of porcelain, beautiful mosaics e.g. , but when these accide...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. Depending on what you do with things after they've... well, become "junk", you can either recycle or repurpose  or repair or reuse or  upcycle  them A lot of things can be reused (think: clothes) or repurposed, and some things (like compost, paper, glass and metal) can and should definitively be recycled if you have no need of them anymore. If something is broken so that it can be repaired and continued to be used, then by goddess do it! But truly upcycling stuff... now that's a challenge fit for any hobby jewelry maker. Most upcycling is really just repair and maintenance. Things like broken locks and clasps can be exchanged for functioning ones, frayed strings and knots in necklaces can be cut off and the thing re-strung with new cord/string, and most things can be cleaned and buffed up until they gl...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. As a book lover (oui, a real bibliophile, c'est moi) I love the whole thing about paper. Especially printed paper. Just like there's some people who love certain types of food/colors/sports or the like, you can love certain types of papers. I love certain types of paper. Not too thin, not too thick, not smelling of anything else than just the paper and the ink  (because some pocket books smell like turpentine and cheap ink, yuck!), with a nice sort of porous surface that your fingers can just dance over as you turn the pages.... oh sorry, I didn't realize I was creeping you out!  Moving on!  It all brings me to this: Rest in pieces, you poor printed book. Know that you have served me well. If it's of any consolation, the book (bought second hand) was put to rest as humanely as possible. It's book jack...

The hand out and this year's paper entry bracelet. The " Helmiplaneetta ja Leimailutaivas "-fair is a small fair arranged by a few craft shops that deal in beads and scrapbook supplies. Held in Masala, which is about 8 km from where my parents live, it's one of the perfect  excuses for a beader to head homehome for a visit. Last year , me and Emma went to this fair for the first time. We had no idea what to expect, and since Emma's back was really  bugging her back then, we just went to see what all the fuss was all about... ... and then Emma sat, waited patiently and crocheted while I wanted to look at everything  at least twice, and waited/crocheted some more while I asked people about this technique  and this type of jewelry finding ... I got a lot out of it. Truly, I did. Emma got at nearly three crocheted apple circles out of it, so she had a good time too. And we had a great discussion with some nice ladies from Lahti (150 km from Mas...