Eight days to go...

..... till the start of PERTHSHIRE OPEN STUDIOS

You know that feeling when you know that you are well organised ?

It's not a feeling that I often relate to but for once I am well prepared. One of the best bits about POS is that visitors and customers are going to be expecting to see me working in my space, so even if we are mega busy over the first few days I can replenish my stock and call it "in house entertainment." 

Since it's Thursday today it's time to show what I've been doing in My Creative Space.

But first I have a small confession to make..... I went to the Scottish Bead Fair in Perth last Sunday and spent a small fortune on stuff I don't really need but just couldn't resist.... Hopefully I'll be so busy over the open studios week that I will find that I really do need all the gorgeous beads that I bought.

You may remember that I dabbled with Chain Maille earlier this year. A lovely blogger called Ady told me about a great web site called Bead Sisters who supply all sorts of funky coloured jump rings and rubber 'O' rings for chain maille. I resisted the temptation to order anything from them despite being sorely tempted.

Now guess which supplier I spotted the minute I walked into the hall on Sunday.  Oh yes... Bead Sisters were right there in front of me.

So.. this week I have been trying out new chain maille patterns. What do you think ?

Join the Creative fun and pop over HERE

My Creative Space

Today is the day to share my creative space with other crafty and talented bloggers.

Now the question is... what have I been doing in my space today ?

I finished off this teeny tiny newborn baby hat. I was at a little craft fair on Saturday where I had a selection of hats for adults and children and was asked if I would make a little blue one for a new baby boy who is due very soon. Do you ever feel the urge to say " No, I'd rather sell the ones I've already made. "

I actually know someone who regularly says that to her customers and surprisingly they seem happy to accept her terms. I don't think I'm bold enough to do that though.

I've nearly finished my first crocheted rattle and just have to secure some loose ends. This is a really clever idea which I found in a recent crochet magazine. The rattle bit is made by putting a few beads into a little  sealable pot. I used a plastic egg which I had left over from Easter, surrounded it with toy stuffing and stitched in the loose ends. Now all I have to do is make a matching blanket and it will be ready for the baby gift corner.

I could have finished the rattle properly if only I could stick to one job at a time. I was easily distracted by some shiny buttons after lunch and decided to replenish my stock of button necklaces and bracelets. What had been a fairly healthy display of button jewellery, was looking a wee bit depleted after some recent sales. By this time tomorrow I'll be fully stocked again, unless, of course, I get distracted again.

Meanwhile, the idea of showing my Perthshire Open Studios brochures in the window along with Andy's rocking horse is proving to be a bit of a crowd puller and I've had lots of people popping in to get more info about the event. Oh, and I even remembered to send some copy to the local paper to promote the Open Studios week.

I think that's enough work for one day and it's now a good time to visit ourcreativespaces

Join in by clicking the link.



To match or not to match.....

I thought it was time to get back into some jewellery making today and played with some dinky little charms that I  found in my favourite bead shop. Now a normal person would have used two matching charms but that would be predictable wouldn't it ? Instead I thought it would be nice to combine two of my favourite things.... tea and cake.

I did carry on and make several other pairs of earings which actually match but for some quirky reason these are my favourites of the day.

There is an Exhibition and Sale of Work on this Saturday at Airlie Village Hall from 10am till 2pm which I have been invited to. I'm trying to decide what to take with me and am currently thinking that a combination of jewellery and hats and scarfs would work well. Woolies and Jewellies...

I got these cute little dice beads a couple of weeks ago and couldn't decide what to do with them until this afternoon when they seemed to calling out to be made into little girls bracelets.

I've finished up with a dozen different colour combinations and sizes.

I even sold one in the shop this afternoon to a lady with little wrists who said they were far too nice for kids and wanted one for herself. It is very satisfying when that happens and kind of confirms that I'm on the right track.

I rather like the lilac and purple one myself and I do have skinny little wrists..

Our Creative Spaces

This week I have spent a fair amount of time rooting around in the "change tin".

I think everyone has one of these where various family members drop their loose change. The denomination of the loose change depends very much on the person doing the dropping, the size of their purse, or the depth of their pockets. You very rarely find anything more than a twenty pence in ours, though occasionally a fifty pence appears. However, for what I had in mind, I was happy with the selection of one pence pieces at my disposal.

I was inspired by a Creative Space which I found last week and wanted to make a special bracelet for myself. Wendy at littlegreenbums had been playing with loose change too.

This is what I made.

I chose five pennies from five special years, representing five special people in my life.

I drilled two holes in each coin, filed and tidied the holes, polished all the coins with my favourite new toy... a perfect little mini drill with polishing attachments... then linked them all with little copper coloured jump rings. I was so pleased with my special bracelet that I went back to the change tin and found five special coins for my sister.

If you want to join in with other creative people sharing their creative spaces click Our Creative Spaces which is a new blog from Kirsty at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

Today I was working on a special order for a customer using my super funky French Knitting bobbin.

Everybody seems to have a different name for this particular craft.

French Knitting, Catty tails, Ratty tails, bobbin knitting, dolly knitting, are just some of the names I have heard of.

Anyway, my little bobbin, dolly, thingamyjig is a long way removed from the hand made thingamyjigs that my sister and I used when we were young. Way back in the 'olden days' .. possibly before the invention of plastic.. when thread used to come on wooden bobbins, we waited patiently till mum had finished two reels of thread. My dad hammered four small nails into the empty reels and  voila !! our own little knitting thingamyjigs. Somehow we never really made anything other than long knitted tubes which could be used as scarfs for our dolls.

Todays project involved fine wire and cute little square beads and became a pretty little necklace.

My customer was passing by just as I finished and I forgot to get a photograph.

I'll just have to do another one now and be sure to get a picture.

Pop on to kootoyoo to see more Creative Spaces. Just click HERE 

My Creative Space.

This weekend is the annual Federation show for Angus SWRI. It's open to the public on Friday and Saturday at the Reid Hall in Forfar. Today was set up and judging so my creative space was cleared out this morning when my friend Cathy came along to collect my entries. If you were reading here last year you may remember me saying how bad I am for leaving things till the last minute. The schedule for the show comes out in September, and like last year I ticked off a few things I would like to enter for and this time told myself that I would work at a steady pace and get everything ready well in advance.

So ... what do you think happened ?

Well I finished off my 'Novelty Doorstop' on Monday afternoon.

My 'Button Necklace' wasn't so much of a challenge as I make lots of these to sell in the shop, but I did have a bit of a challenge just choosing which one to enter.

My 'Knitted Toy' was a bit of an afterthought.

 I have been busy crocheting bunnies for Easter and had kind of forgotten that I had said I would knit a toy.

This little guy was knitted on my day off on Tuesday, sewn up and stuffed on Wednesday and has his nose and eyes sewn on at 11pm on Wednesday night. I really should be better organised in future....

And finally this 'Christmas Themed Cross-stitch' was re-framed on Wednesday afternoon as I realised the original frame exceded the size specified in the schedule.

I think I now qualify for a big fish supper from the chippie for tea tonight. Or does that sound like a reward for being disorganised ?

See Creative Spaces from all over at kootoyoo

My First Chain Maille

I have been popping back and forward visiting the lovely blog of Crafty Ady quite a bit recently.

She has recently become addicted to the art of Chain Maille, and I was inspired to have a try myself.

I was lucky enough to have some project cards  which gave pretty good instructions on getting started.

And like Ady, I may have discovered a new addiction.

This one is called a Bizantine weave and was recommended as a good place to start. It was a bit fiddly getting started but I got the hang of it quite quickly. 104 gold coloured jump rings went into this and it's the perfect size for a bracelet for my skinny wrists.

Please have a wee click on the link above and see the amazing creations of Craft Ady.



My Creative Space.

It's been a wee while since I shared my creative space and today might not be the best day for my return.

It's been a complete nightmare of a day, interupted by endless phone calls and text messages about my poor broken car. On the plus side, it's no longer broken, and I finally managed to get a lift to Perth to collect it from the garage before they closed for the day. But it was all really frustrating. I love my car and seeing it being driven away on the back of a recovery truck yesterday was enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Anyway, amidst all this frustration I decided to get to work on a repair job for a customer.

Now if there is one thing I hate ....

Actually while I'm ranting, I may as well say that there are a few things I hate.

Ironing

The News of the World

Red Audis (one ran me off the road into a ditch last year and I, irrationally blame all red Audis)

Phone calls from telemarketing firms ..especially the automated ones.

So, back to my creative space... If there is one thing I hate it's admitting defeat. It was a close call today though. I was challenged with the task of restringing a five stranded pearl necklace. One strand was intact but since the catch was broken, that had to be restrung along with the others. Two strands had been restrung previously by the owner who admitted she had made a bit of a mess of it. One strand was almost intact but snapped at one end and may or may not have lost some of the tiny 1mm pearls. And the final strand was mostly in bits in a plastic bag. So there we have it... Around 600 assorted pearls, ranging in sizes from 8mm down to the tiny 1mm.

Here I am reaching the final straight. Time to decide on the clasp.

Don't even try to guess how many times I was on my hands and knees, scouring the floor for dropped beads.

Obviously no photos of that stage as I was way beyond the mood for framing shots and the chance of me throwing the camera was just too great.

In the end it was all worth while.

I'm really pleased to have been able to bring this sixty year old necklace back to life and I hope it's owner will be equally pleased.

To enjoy some less stressed out Creative Spaces just click HERE and visit kootoyoo.



My Creative Space

My Creative Space today has been mostly Green. Green isn't normally my colour of choice which is probably why I seem to have so many green beads in my box, all waiting patiently to be turned into something lovely. I've spent a lot of time looking at my green beads and have been fairly uninspired by them. I don't wear much green myself and so I felt at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them. However, there are lots of green accessories in the shops this autumn and wanting to keep up to date with current trends I made today Green Day.

While I was making this one I had some customers in who loved the antique look of these beads which work really well with this gold coloured chain. Possibly my favourite 'make' today.

These are similar to the ones above but more oval in shape.

Now I wish I knew the technical name for what I'm about to say but Hey Ho I don't know everything. Can't believe I just admitted that though. These beads have wiggly black squiggles on them. It might be called scrifito. But that might not be how to spell it. Whatever it's called though they are very effective and just a little bit quirky. 

And yes.... there are still plenty more in the box so there may be another Green Day very soon.

You can visit more creative spaces with more colours at kootoyoo

My Creative Space

Last week I was seriously distracted in My Creative Space and I had great plans to show a more focused side of my character this week. Things just never seem to go according to plan though, do they?
Today's distraction though was all for a good cause.... True Love.
Today's distraction is a top secret anniversary present for a customer's wife.
 Mr Romantic and myself  had a bit of chat, found the perfect stone, in the perfect size and perfect shape.
We considered the perfect style of chain and the perfect setting for the stone.
And so, my work today has no photographic evidence yet.
I just hope I'm up to the task, and can produce the Perfect Anniversary Present.
Wish me luck......
You can join the fun of peeking at the creative spaces of artists and makers from all over the world by clicking HERE and visiting Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

I have always been a little bit (okay a big bit) in awe of people who can draw. Artists always tell me that everyone can draw.. that even I can draw.. but I know that whenever I try to draw something it never looks like I want it to. This isn't a major problem in my life. I have found many ways to be creative that don't require any drawing skills. However, every now and then, I want to make something that needs to be drawn out first and I get so frustrated that my doodles don't look the same on paper as they do in my head.
I've had a couple of ideas which I wanted to try out in silver for a while and yesterday I spent the afternoon in my basement doing just that.

I found these templates in my Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of crafts and used them as the outline for some silver pendants.

This is my favourite one. I still have to do some serious polishing but so far I am really pleased. I hammered the silver before cutting to give him a hairy look then added the flat collar after. Do you think he should have an eye ? I'm still undecided. You barely see the eyes in real Scottie Dogs because their hair is always in the way so maybe he should stay the way he is.

Still a bit more work to do on this one but at least she  has an eye! It's not very clear but I hammered the little wing with a kind of feathery texture though the rest of the bird is flat. I'm thinking now of a wee branch for her to sit on... or maybe a couple of friends then linking them together in a bracelet..

It's been a while since I did any silver work and I had such fun with these ones. I really ought to do it more often. Will just need to buy more silver.

For more creative spaces click HERE and visit Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

I am attempting to be more organised in My Creative Space so today is all about finishing things off. Does this mean no more WIPS or UFO'S ? Mmmm no, I don't think so but I hope it will mean that things are a bit less messy around here. First job of the day was sewing buttons on to this.

This is my baby jacket version of the granny shrug which has been popping up all over blogland, thanks to Kirsty ay Kootoyoo. This is basically the same as the grown up version on finer yarn, smaller hook and with a couple of extra rounds of trebles on the sleeves and with an edging and collar added.

Next I finished off the catches on this.

Very simple little necklace which I started a few days ago for a customer.

The rest of my morning will be spent delving into this box.....

... and finishing off some button necklaces and bracelets, sewing catches onto some crocheted bracelets, and finally deciding what to do with some gorgeous turquoise and silver beads that have been eluding me for a couple of weeks.

I'm looking forward to a much tidier space very soon.

Then again I may just get distracted by all the lovely creative people at kootoyoo

Have a lovely day.

Fiona

My Creative Space.

I've been feeling a wee bit sentimental in my creative space this week. And surprise, surprise I have actually been working on jewellery. Crochet has also featured but I will have to show that later when I get some more photos.
As well as making jewellery to my own designs I often get special orders for particular colours, matching sets to outfits for special occasions. I am currently on the search for small red beads to match this...

The feather is left over from an arrangement on a wedding hat and my task is to make a matching necklace to finish off the whole outfit.

Another customer likes to wear yellow in the summer and would like something fun and funky to go with her summer wardrobe.

I love these beads. They make me think of daisies. Not sure yet how I will put them together but hopefully inspiration will strike some time soon.

Another service that we offer here is to repair jewellery.

So many people have costume jewellery that they really love, but when the catch breaks or the thread snaps they are left with lovely bits and pieces that they can no longer wear.

Most pieces that I fix or re-string have mostly sentimental value but it's lovely to be able to bring new life to an old favourite.

These poor old pearls just needed re-stringing for one of my customers but I love the story behind them.

"They're no' real pearls", she said when she brought them to me. They were however a First Wedding Anniversary present from her husband 51 years ago !!!

How amazing is that ?

She just thought it would be nice for her husband to see her wearing them again.

So here they are. Re-threaded onto tiger tail and fitted with a magnetic fastener.

And that's about it for now.

Thursdays are great for seeing what other makers are making in their own Creative Spaces

Pop over for a look and be amazed.

Fiona x

My Creative Space

It's Thursday again, and time to share at kootoyoo .

On Saturday 22nd May I will be taking part in a craft fair in Blairgowrie Town Hall, Perthshire. Of course, everyone is invited, but first I need to restock on a few essentials. Sooo.. today I put away my 4mm crochet hook and  wool and brought out this instead.

Crochet bracelets were at the top of todays To Do list.

Red and silver wire with seed beads in a little shell pattern.

Same wire and beads here but just a simple double crochet.

Soon these little fasteners will be stitched in to place and the bracelet will close with a little magnetic catch.

In true 'Blue Peter' style.... Here's one I made earlier.

And finally... I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet. Could I do several wire and bead granny squares and turn them into a bracelet..? There's no weight to this at all so it's no use as a pendant...

Ah ha. Maybe a brooch....?

I'll let you know if anything worthy develops from this one.

Creative Space.

I'm going to try and be clever now and do some links and photos at the same time. I know this is a simple task to all you clever bloggers out there but may not be for me. Lets see how it goes.

 I was reading Kellie Christie's blog and liked the idea of showing my Creative Space. Lots of clever crafters and artists seem to be doing this and sharing links with Kirsty at kootoyoo

So here it is

Yes, that's right. It's a shop. I am really lucky to have my own lovely shop next door to my house. During the day I am able to work away on various projects whilst still being available to serve my customers. It also gives me the chance to talk about what I am working on and I have had a few special requests for jewellery to match an outfit for events such as weddings, dances, day at the races etc.

Today I'm going to be working with some of these fabulous beads which I bought on Sunday at The Scottish Bead Fair in Perth. Just waiting for inspiration right now. Last summer I made a whole cabinet-full of blue jewellery. Necklaces, bracelets, ear ring, key rings and phone charms. It made quite a striking display so there may be a pink or green collection coming soon.

And finally here's my Ooops.... Need to do something about all that clutter under the counter.

Have a great day creating, whatever space you are in.

.