Prize Winning Crochet Solar System - Pics 'Ta Dah'

Did I ever tell you what a fantastic pattern it is for this Crochet Mobile?  Did I tell you what an absolute pleasure it was to make and how proud I am of the results?  Today I was a 'Prize' winner in the Guilds competition.  I am over the moon!  I feel like I have won the giant Gosseberry growing competition.  I am just feeling so smug!  I was placed second.  That is simply amazing as the competition was fantastic.  I think the winning formula may be 'if you can't stun people with your skills then go for the quirky comedy factor'!  My Banana Moon certainly got a few belly laughs out of folks.  The mobile is 100%  Hand spun which I think for me is quite an achievement in itself.

It was a bit tricky to photograph due to all the orbits going on.  I will give you a 'whistle stop tour' of some of the other entries. . . I feel embarrassed to be 'Second' as the other entries were very, very good.  The theme was 'The Solar System' and people vote for their favourites.

I love this felted 'Nebula'.

I loved this 3D box with little felted planet and the torch to light it up.  This would be a brilliant school resource for me.  The outside was all sparkly too. (I tried my best with photographs).

What do you think of this Cosmic Tea Cosey?  Isn't it out of this world?  This would make me chuckle each morning whilst pouring my morning cuppa.  Superb.

This was one of my favourites too.  I love the texture and the simplicity.

How clever is this?  Wow.  I could not manage anything like this.  It is beautiful and I would love to have it in my house.

This cushion was the winner it is dyed and embroidered.  The photograph does not do it justice at all it is sparkly and beautiful.  I did not manage to photograph all of the pieces but it was fantastic to see the range of interpretations of the same theme.
              The Exhibition is open to the public all day and today it was very relaxing and enjoyable.  I spent most of my time sat spinning, drinking cups of tea and eating cakes but don't tell anyone about the eating cakes part!  We even got time to try to teach another guild member to spin.  She did a fantastic job.  She has recently purchased a beautiful Alpaca fleece and that is now her motivation to learn to spin.  By the end of the day she had produced 'yarn'.  I had a good old chin wag chatting to some lovely people too.  I managed to resist buying any yarn or fibre but I did buy a jar of Plum Chutney that will be perfect with a lump of cheese and I also bought some little 'French Knitting Looms' that I will take to work for the children to 'play' with.  I have one boy who loves to 'finger knit'.

Here are some of the six inch rings that were on display at the National Exhibition in the Summer.  Again it is fantastic to see the diversity of ideas and end results when everyone starts out with the same design spec.  I think there were three or four hundred of these on display at the National Exhibition.  They must have looked a treat.
                When you are writing a Blog sometimes you don't feel like you have very much to say or write about and then there are other times when you have five posts waiting to burst out all at once.  I love the little 'newsy' posts about the everyday stuff in peoples lives.  I am not sure if there is anything that is too trivial for Blog Land.  I have a little store of posts and things to show you and tell you about waiting in a queue.  I will try to pace myself. It is nice to have things to write about and share with you.  I just won't share it all at once!  I hope you are all having lovely weekends out there where ever you are.
XXX  

Very Random 'Post Christmas Blog Post'

The Oasis is and always will be, a totally unique aspect of Birmingham's personality. We offer everything from tattoos to tutus, beads to boots, and everything else in-between! 
The Oasis - Birmingham  As a kid in the 1980s this was my favourite place.  I would travel to Birmingham on the train and spend hours in this place.  I could buy clothes that I couldn't find in my home town, usually Kaftans imported from India with bells, mirrors, tassels and gold paint on them.  I could also buy beads and bangles, earings, groovy jeans, boots, incense etc.  I liked the eclectic mix of folks it attracted Punks with colourful Mohicans and alternative make up, rockers and hippy types.  This was and still is the place to go if you want anything funky, from hairstyles, to your anatomy pierced or tattooed, clothes and jewellery.  My kids had Christmas Money burning a hole in their pocket, Henry wanted to go to 'The Oasis' for his first time and Euan wanted to go to a specialist Retro and Nostalgia Comic Shop.  Visiting 'Oasis' for the first time in over twenty years as a 'Mom' was a strange experience.
   I find it quite an ordeal now to go to Birmingham with two kids in tow we decided to brave it.  I like to get up early and go before the crowds, needless to say that was the first mistake of the day, getting the teenager up early.  Phew was he a grump!  Euan was very excited about going on the train, he also gets quite anxious about it and worries about the platforms and missing the train and getting lost etc so he is quite hyper.

His brother was the opposite and barely awake.  Euan did not like Henry putting his feet on the seats and gave him a thorough telling off!  This didn't go down well but I backed Euan and explained it is not very community spirited as people have to sit on the seats and most people like to keep their clothes clean.  Grumpy teenager turned Sulky teenager.  They bickered for nearly the whole journey, policing each other, but I was ready for this:

  I made three on the journey there and three on the journey back.  I will take this opportunity to show you my beautious new hook:

Euan calls it my 'Death Hook'.  I love working with it.  Crochet does Grunge!
To be honest this little bag of Yarn saved my sanity today, all the bickering went right over my woolly little head!

Birmingham was not too busy today, I don't like crowds.  Henry did not like me taking photographs.  He said I was making a fool of myself and looking like a tourist!  I was not allowed to take too many and the ones I did I sneaked when he wasn't looking.  We had five minutes to wait for 'Oasis' to open so I admired the window displays.

You can't really see from the photograph but this cushion is machine embroidered.  Cool.

This Knitted Love and Peace Cushion is fantastic too.  I am a great one for seeing things and thinking I can do that!  I really think I could manage that!

Very cute Sesame Street hat and gloves.  May look a bit too silly on me though!

Inside the shop this bike caught Euan's eye.  Henry cheered up and found himself some 'Love and Peace' Bracelets, a CND studded belt and a Bob Marley T' Shirt.  He also got a very cool vintage black Levi Jacket.  I drew the line at 'The Middle Finger Patch' he wanted to sew on it!  Am I getting old?  I reminded him Bob Marley was a chilled dude and not crabby!  We paced around the entire three or four floors of the place at least twice!  Euan had great fun reading rude slogans on T shirts!
I sneaked a photograph of this Poncho - now I could do that!  I think Poncho's are hip and happenin!  I love the mix on this one of knitting and crochet.

I needed a Cup of Tea and a Pit Stop before finding the shop Euan wanted, again this incurred the wrath of Henry, he told me he would never come to Birmingham with me and Euan again!  He sulked a little bit more in the cafe...Euan and I slurped our drinks in oblivion!
Euan loves the comic shop and blew half of his Christmas money on Star Wars figures, he is loving them and playing with them now.  Henry is upstairs listening to Bob Marley.  He found some CDs in a Reggae Music Store.  We had lunch in the Chinese Restaurant that I went to for my 40th Birthday 'The Big Wok'.  It is an all you can eat Chinese Buffet.  The last time we went we all walked painfully back to the train station after sampling rather too much of the eighty dishes.  Today I did things in moderation, I only sampled about forty!  I made sure that included some healthy stuff like Tofu and mushrooms...we will forget about the deep fried stuff that I ate!  Somehow Euan had room for the help yourself ice cream machine too.  He did complain a bit on the train on the way home.

I sneaked this photograph of the Birmingham Rotunda.  (That is Henry's hat on the right.)  I used to call the Rotunda  'The Coca Cola Tower' as for years it had the 'Coca Cola' Logo all around the top.
We arrived at the station to see the back end of our train disappearing, much to Euan's dismay.  We explained there would be another in half an hour.  He spent the next 30 minutes asking 'How long is half an hour?'  On the journey home Henry retracted his statement about never going to Birmingham with Euan and I again.  I thought that was sweet!  They are both happy to be home with their goodies.  Apart from the six Granny Squares what else do I have to show for my day?  Not a tattoo, not a piercing, but:

I am definitely getting old aren't I?

Birmingham and District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 'Annual Exhibition 2011'

Today was the Annual Guild Exhibition Day, it is a chance to showcase examples of our work throughout the year  Also you can eat cake and drink lots of tea.  I quite like it because I get a chance to sit and spin.  I love to look at what others have been working on and chat to like minded people.  I whizzed around taking a few pictures before the 'Public' arrived.  I should have  taken more and have made a note to myself for next year.  It is quite tricky to get the balance right for a blog post, too many photos or not enough, sometimes you can't win.  This year we have had workshops on:

Colour Theory
Design Theory
Flower Pounding
Everlasting Christmas Crackers
The History of Ribbon Making
Natural Dyes

That is to name a few.  All of the displays looked impressive this year.  I particularly liked the Weaving tables.  We have some very talented weavers that are in their eighties.

Examples of a variety of methods of weaving were on display.  It fascinates me to see the skill involved.  There are also several 'Sales' tables.  I was fairly good today and did not spend!  I am due a large quantity of 'raw' Alpaca fleece at the end of the week and I don't know where to hide it, so I really had to resist more yarn or fibre.  I was asked if I wanted eight large bags of Alpaca for free!  What is a girl to say?  All the giver would like in exchange is something made from the fibre.  I think it is a stroke of good fortune but I will of course let you know.  It will definitely keep me out of mischief for a while.
At the Exhibition there is also an Annual Competition, this year the theme was 'The Sea'.  I am such a fool not to have taken more photographs but I got carried away spinning once I settled.  The entries were fantastic.  I was frogging mine on Thursday night, so gave up and didn't enter this year.  It is my own fault for getting addicted to 'Rippling' instead!  I remind myself that craft should be for leisure and pleasure anyway and if something becomes a chore I leave it alone for a while.  I did get a photograph of my Mom's entry.  I feel very proud of her and I think she did an absolutely fantastic job using entirely her own handspun yarn and some of the techniques and ideas we have picked up throughout the year.  She didn't get placed but the standard of entries was incredibly high this year.  Mom's piece is a 'Winner' in my eyes, I love it!

'The Everlasting Christmas Cracker'

Today my Mom and I went to the monthly meeting of 'Birmingham and District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers'.  It was an all day meeting, because we all like each other so much we chose to have an open morning before our afternoon talk.  The afternoon talk was about ;The History of Ribbon Weaving in Coventry, Nuneaton and Bedford.

Ribbons were very fashionable and were used in the hair as well as embellishments for garments.  It was not uncommon for ribbons to be changed on dresses.  They were in great demand and used lavishly by the wealthy.  They were mostly made by very poor families at home in cottage industries.

One fact I can remember was that out of a population of 3000 in the 1800s in Bedford 1600 people were employed in ribbon weaving.  That is over half of the population.  Literally every other house had a loom.  The architecture of houses were designed around the loom with large windows to maximise the natural light.  Obviously with the onset of industrialisation, weavers were put out of business and extreme poverty was widespread.  Eey by Gum, times were hard!  It was a very interesting talk, but my eyelids did get a little heavy as the room was nice and snug and if I sit still for too long I nod off!  

In the morning two Guild Members lead a fun workshop, 'Making Everlasting Christmas Crackers'.  These were fairly simple to make and you could natter away while making them.  I chose to make one for both of my boys for Christmas.  I am not so sure mine are 'Everlasting' mine are more of a 'Don't touch, just look or it will fall apart variety!'  

Step One:  First Gather a fine selection of loo roll inner tubes!   You need three for one cracker.  Two of your  tubes need to fit easily inside one another and the third tube needs to be cut in half.  A bread knife appeared to be the best tool for cutting cardboard tubes neatly in half.

Then you have two pieces of fabric large enough to coat your tubes and tuck in the ends.  Using PVA glue stick a tube and a half 2cm apart in to a roll of fabric.  (I hope you catch my drift).  You make two of these halves....

I found I had more success if I used a lot of glue!  I think double sided sticky tape maybe useful too.

These are my Mom's fine Festive Specimens.  If you look really closely you can see how the two halves fit together.  Then you just need to tie the ends with something pretty and you can decorate them how you like.  We had lots of ribbons, sequins, beads and other pretties to choose from.  I would like to receive one for Christmas and I think it would be perfect to find a nice diamond ring inside!!!  Well a girl can dream can't she?

Flower Pounding with Linda Rudkin

Today I went to Birmingham and District Guild of Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing.  There has been a couple of months break for the Summer and we are now back to monthly meetings.  Today was a days workshop with the very talented Linda Rudkin.  I knew the workshop was on 'Flower Pounding' but other than that I had no idea what to expect apart from a lot of noise.  I really didn't think this workshop would be for me.

Here is one sample of Linda's fabulous textile work;

This one is beautiful;

Linda bought many inspirational pieces to share with us of her examples of 'Flower Pounding'.  Flower Pounding is literally that!  You pound with a hammer to extract the natural pigment of fresh flowers and foliage to create a print on fabric.  Essentially it is very simple to work on a sampler, experimenting with which flowers and foliage work well.  Linda's book is very concise and beautiful and will explain step by step what you need to do to create fairly instant gratification of  stunning, unique and natural prints.  If you are skilled in hand embroidery or machine embroidery or quilting,  then the sky is the limit for how you can use and enhance your prints.

The above is the result of me playing and experimenting for about an hour and a half.  Can you imagine the noise of twenty people flower pounding at once?  The blobs that look like squashed blackberry and squashed tomato are from flowers with quite fleshy petals.  Linda has an amazing knowledge of flowers and had no problem naming them, for me however it was more that is a nice 'Red One' and that is a nice 'Purple one'.  I loved the ferns, and the Pansy turned out well, so did a small Primula.  Very interesting results were gained in a short amount of time.  'Flower Pounding' does not create fixed dyes and they cannot be washed but they can be dry cleaned.  In the afternoon we tried something much quieter, 'Flower trapping'.  A method of 'Trapping' the flowers into fabric, using a fixing web and chiffon.  I used some fern and beautiful blue Hydrangea.

These are now preserved in the fabric.  The prints from flower pounding fade with time, where as with flower trapping the colour should not fade to the same degree.  I can recommend both for methods for a fun bit of experimentation, for pounding you need a hammer, a wooden board, masking tape, cotton and fresh flowers. You tape your flowers to the cotton and pound with your hammer on the reverse, when you remove the tape the print is left on the cotton.  It really is that simple.  Trapping flowers in fabric is a little more complicated, using a sandwich of baking parchment, cotton, fine bonding web, your flower design, more fine bonding web, fine chiffon, and baking parchment.  You then use an iron on the cotton setting to seal it all.  Ironing, not pressing as you do not want to singe your flowers.  Flowers need to be as flat as possible so you may need to snip bumps and lumps off prior to sealing your design, tweezers are also very useful.

This is a sample of a piece of work that has been outlined with a fine etching pen.  It looks amazing and really highlights the detail.  

Everyone who took part had something attractive to take home and feel proud of.

All the different designs displayed on one table looked fantastic.

This was my favourite.  It reflects what is happening outside at the moment, everything is turning decidedly Autumnal.  The nights are drawing in and as if by magic more crafting time appears.

Dyers Picnic - Birmingham and District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers

What a fantastic day we were very busy and productive.   I had a lot of fun learning a great deal about dyeing and we had a delicious 'Picnic Lunch'.  Dyeing was great fun as a group, as we got to try out several types of dye and dyeing techniques comparing notes and results as we went along..  The member who hosted it did a brilliant job providing the venue (her back garden), setting up the marquee and the camp stoves, organising several dye baths and helping all of us.  The Marquee was perfect to gather under when the sun stop shining and we had a couple of showers of rain.

A 'Weld' Dye bath

We also had Dye baths of Forsythia and Copper, Logwood, Walnut, Onion skin, Madder, Indigo and cochineal.  Acid dyes were also available for people to experiment with.

Acid Dyeing in progress.

Some beautiful Norwegian Fleece Getting the Colourful Experiment treatment

The prettiest washing line for miles around

All of the above colours were produced with Natural Dyes apart from the 'Canary' yellow which is an acid dye.  They are all reasonably Colourfast Dyes.  I loved the pinks and purples.  My favourite is the purple produced by the Logwood.   

WSD Guild Meeting - A talk by Louise Claire A Contemporary Textile Artist

"Louise Claire is a contemporary textile artist based in UK. She specializes in creating highly detailed drawings, beautiful handmade printed accessories and embroidered artwork of Architecture.
Louise Claire has attracted the interest of companies who have requested a bespoke service of designing exclusive hand made products featuring their well-known building."   Louise Claire.
Today at Birmingham and District WSD Guild's meeting Louise Claire gave a talk and shared her textile work and designs with us.  I am not an embroiderer and I have never done any screen printing.  Also my dyeing knowledge is limited.  I had much to learn.  Louise Claire works from her own drawings.  She works predomimantly on buildings both in the UK and abroad.  She draws sections of buildings and creates a 'Motif' to reproduce in print and dye, using various materials, colours and embroidery techniques.  If you click the link above you will see a range of her work that I would find difficult to explain.  It is interesting to look at Design 'scrapbooks' and see how other people get their ideas developed from start to finish.
    It is always good to chat to other guild members about the projects they are working on and I also managed to work on a pair of Crocheted Socks I am currently making.  I hope to show you at least one finished sock soon!

Birmingham and District Guild Weavers Spinners and Dyers - Colour Play Workshop

Today the Guild meeting was exactly what it said...Colour Play with Gillian Shepherd.  I got the chance to play with the biggest stash of yarn and fibre I have ever seen.  I am sure Gill should be in the Guinness Book of Records for the most stash squished into a car!  The morning began with a Powerpoint about colour theory.  The Colour Wheel, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colours.  We also looked at tints and shades.  We explored analogous colours (those that are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel) and complimentary colours (those which are opposite each other on the colour wheel).  I can't even say analogous.  I am sure I will play with colour mixing and my little tin of water colours. 
     We were given 'words' or 'phrases' to explore such as 'An Evening by the fire', 'The Beach', 'The rainy Canal', 'A moment of Anger', 'The Misty Morning',  'A Babies Bottom', 'The Naughty Dog', 'Victory' and 'The Lovely Duck'.  We each had one of these titles for the morning.  There were four 'Play Stations'  Knitting, Weaving, Spinning and carding and dying.  I played with hand carders and briefly with a spindle.  I hope the photograph of my fibre is screaming...The Lovely Duck at you!  My Mom had 'Victory'  I will see if she will let me photograph it tomorrow so I can show you.  We only had the pictures in our head to use and we were asked to pick three analogous colours and one complimentary to explore.  I really think I have inheritted my Dad's colour blindness! 
     I was thinking Mallard and tried to do my best to card 'The Lovely Duck'.  I used Green/blues or blue/greens with a bit of purple for the complimentary I used a bit of orangey brown.   See...

After the morning session we had lunch and then returned for a show and tell.  I didn't take photographs of other peoples work so it is a bit hard to tell without the show.  'The Naughty Dog' was interpretted in weaving, there were some Jack Russell colours, green grass and blood, as one of the member's dog had bitten her husband this week!  It was a dramatic textile.  'The Evening by the Fire' was interpreted on cotton using Dye crayons and Dye paint for a more vivid colour and some hand painted yarn was also made using 'An Evening by the Fire' colours.  I tried again to conquer my struggle with the spindle, but I was not Victorious.  My Mom's 'Victory' was a rather funky yarn with Reds,purply pinks, green and green Angelina sparkle.  Mom and I seemed to burn ourselves out with creativity and felt a bit peaky so we left early today.  Us creative/Arty types put our heart and soul into it!  I had to have a nap this afternoon and I bet my Mom did too!  Tomorrow I may spin my Lucky Ducky fibre and I also hope to capture 'Victory' to show you.

Weaving Spinning and Dyeing Guild - Design Workshop

On Saturday 12th March I attended the Monthly meeting of the 'Birmingham and District Guild of Weaving Spinning and Dyeing'.  This month it was a design workshop lead by Stacey Harvey-Brown.

"Stacey Harvey-Brown is an artist weaver, speaker, teacher and author, specialising in creating satellite, aerial and microscopic images in 2 ½ dimensions, sharing her love of weaving through exhibiting, giving talks, seminars and workshops, teaching absolute beginners through to advanced jacquard students, and writing widely on weaving, life and philosophy."

  I had no idea what to expect.  I am not at all 'arty'.  I need not have worried.  Stacey was very reassuring and I just soaked up all sorts of information and ideas not only from Stacey but other guild members and visitors.  It is really refreshing to be a room full of creative people, working on different projects with varying levels of experience.  Our task was to choose a 'design focus', an image or object, to work on to translate into a textile.  Stacey's focus was weaving.  She produces fantastic tapestry weavings and textured weavings.   I couldn't do justice to her work by attempting to explain it, you can link to her website here
The Loomroom
Guild members were not expecting to take a completed project home, we were exploring the process and collation of ideas and the stages involved in working ideas into textiles.  I am a complete novice to these concepts.  We had access to a wide variety of materials and books to explore.  My Mom settled to exploring a 'Sunset' and she was busy painting and finding yarns to match the colours and textures of the photograph, she claimed not to know what she was doing, but it kept her quiet and it looked great to me.  I have made a note to myself I need to invest in a large scrapbook and a pallet of water colour paints for exploring colour.  As is usual with my 'Learning style' I did not settle to my task well,  I started out looking at a photograph of a 'Summer meadow', then changed my mind a worked on a Pheasant tail feather that I have had for about a year.  I spent a long time closely examining the colours, patterns, line and texture on my feather, I tried to sketch it and recreate it in 'alternative' colours.   I get easily distracted nosing at what everyone else is up to.  I do learn a lot that way and I am in total awe of what individuals can and do achieve.  I learnt about 'Weave it' style square looms and had a demo and a play.

Examples of completed 'Weave it' squares

I am on a promise next month to learn how to warp a Rigid Heddle loom.  This may be ambitous though as next month is a 'Spinning Workshop' looking at creating Arty Batts of fibre.  I should stay focussed for that.  One guild member had a large collection of work she had produced for a 'City and Guilds' Textile course a good number of years ago.  She was the only member in the class to achieve a distinction, she showed me her process for getting from ideas to completed designs and it was fascinating.  For one example she used the designs from the outside of Romanian monastries to create woven Romanian style Aprons and recorded the process from start to finish.
 

This is an image from a 'Google' search to show the style of an 'antique' Romanian Apron



I found this image on a 'Google' search just to illustrate the decorative features on the outside of a 'Romanian' Monastry 

In this meeting I also managed to aquire a weaving book, some cones of thread and a fantastic Inkle Loom!  Not only is my impulse buying bad enough but the Inkle Loom was positively thrust in my direction, I did not know I even wanted one!!!  I accused the offending Guild member of being a bad influence but she insisted she was 'encouraging' me...as if I need it!

An Inkle Loom

I always return home exhausted from these meetings as my brain goes into overdrive.  I need a month to recover ready for the next adventure.