Elephant Sunrise Workshop at Tatty Devine

This past Saturday, C and I were lucky enough to get tickets for Tatty Devine's second Elephant Sunrise Workshop at their Brick Lane studio. Tatty Devine produce the most incredible, unique jewellery and we have been fans of their work for many years, adoring each new season's pieces and building our collections. We had been desperate to be part of one of their workshops since they began last year, but none had been convenient for us until now. This workshop, being within the Easter break, meant that both C and I were in the same place and therefore able to go to the workshop together. 

We were so excited to make our Elephant Sunrise Necklaces as the weather is finally getting nicer and summer now doesn't seem as far off. It was a lovely sunny day in Brick Lane, when we got to the studio, which definitely helped our crafty moods! 

With just a small group of people, we had fantastic tuition from the lovely ladies at Tatty, Emily, Charlotte and Flo, who expertly guided us through all the processes, from gluing crystal eyes onto our golden elephants to masterfully manipulating jump rings and chains. We had loads of colours to choose from, including tangerello (one of the SS/13 bonus palette), which C made use of on her necklace.  We had so much fun choosing colours and designing our necklaces, I made a sunrise-style necklace in yellows and oranges, and C made a sunset-style necklace with purples and pinks. It was amazing how different everyone's necklaces were, given that we had the same instructions and same acrylic shapes. 

 

We loved learning new skills and had so much fun creating our masterpieces in Tatty Devine style! 

C's awesome necklace!

My 'sunrise'-inspired necklace!

After the workshop we had fun wandering around the studio, looking at the new collection which is amazing! We also enjoyed spending our 10% off (complimentary when you attend a workshop), although it was so difficult to choose between the amazing pieces. 

We had the best time at the workshop and thoroughly recommend taking part in their future workshops which sound just as exciting! Keep an eye on their events page for more information. 

Thank you Tatty Devine!

An Adventure in Wet Felting!

Our fascination for this fantastic craft started a few years ago when A made a wonderful felt pot at school.  Never having tried wet felting, I was determined to have a go too but it took another of A’s school sessions, that resulted in a wonderful Mother’s Day present of a felted keyring, before I got around to buying the wool tops to ‘have a go’.  Unfortunately my interest that time was short lived as I just couldn’t get the felt to go right and instead of persevering I stupidly gave up.

My interest was revived this Christmas, however, by the gift of the most wonderful ‘Gillian Gladrag Bonbon Batatelle’ necklace kit.  The colours of the wool tops were amazing, the instructions clear and concise and after covering myself and half my kitchen surfaces with soap suds, managed to ‘master the art’ enough to produce a credible reproduction of the beads in the photograph on the packet!  I was very pleased with myself for having produced something that I am proud to wear.

When A came home from Uni for “Reading” week (and I use the quotation marks advisedly!) we decided on a trip up the A24 to Dorking to Gillian Gladrag’s marvellous ‘Fluffatorium’.  Oh my goodness, what a wonderful shop this is, definitely a ‘must’ to visit if you are ever in Dorking.  A and I spent a very happy time wandering through the kaleidoscope of colours, knitting wool, buttons, knitting needles, wool tops, kits, crafting accessories, deciding what to buy.  I bought the brilliant ‘Carnivalof Felting’ book and some wool tops and A invested in another of the felting kits, for herself this time, the ‘Anemone-Ome’ flower brooch kit. (The results of which can be found here)

Back home after a restorative coffee in Dorking’s Costa, A set about making her ‘Anemone’ (one thing about wet felting is that it does smell wonderful!) and I started layering up my wool tops to make ‘Simple Flat Felt’ following the instructions in ‘Carnival of Felting’.  Simple and fun to do, roughly an hour or so later, damp and sudsy with slightly prune-like hands,  I had a credible rectangle of damp, black spotty felt drying naturally on the table.  Success!

Now what to do with it??  The amount of felt I had managed to make was limited by the size of the bamboo mat I had used but it turned out to be about  9” x 11” by the time it had completely done all its shrinking, plenty to make a pencil/make-up/scissors etc case.  Once it had completely dried, I found some pretty lining fabric, bought a black zip and set about transforming my felt into something useable.  Despite the best efforts of my beloved sewing machine (which was having a fitful day), I managed to make the lining and fit the zip (after a fashion) and now have a pencil/make-up/scissors case I can be proud of (just don’t look too closely at the zip fitting!)

Beautiful Curled/Wound Ribbon Necklace

Materials:
Ribbons (any!), fabric glue, couple of beads

These were made after being inspired by a wonderful blog post by Dom Norris but I have made one or two adjustments of my own (mainly using fabric glue rather than double-sided tape). The beauty of these necklaces is that they can be made from any length, colour or width of ribbon which, when glued together, can create gorgeous different effects.

Firstly, decide on the arrangement of your ribbon beads, the number you require for your necklace and the diameter you would like them to be. Then, find some different diameter objects to wind the ribbon around (I used a screwdriver shaft, a pencil and a chopstick!) to create different sized holes in the middle of the beads.

Cut a decent length of ribbon (to give you an idea, I used around 2m for the largest of my ‘beads’ which is roughly 3.5cm in diameter but this also has a tiny hole in the middle – if you have a larger hole then less ribbon is required) and neaten the ends so that they don’t fray – this can be done really easily in the case of synthetic ribbon by quickly running the cut end through a flame which melts the fabric neatly and seals it at the same time.

Then place a line of glue along the cut end of ribbon and roll around the object you have chosen to make the hole. Once this is secure, run a thin line of glue down the middle along the length of the ribbon (I tend to do this a little at a time rather than the whole length as it can get very messy!) and firmly roll the ribbon round and round until the whole length is of ribbon is used up and slip off your pencil/chopstick and leave to dry. Repeat this step until you have made all the beads you need.

Place the beads in the arrangement you would like for your necklace and carefully glue them together where they touch each other only. One you have done this, leave to dry thoroughly before attaching the ribbon tie. I cut a couple of long lengths of very thin (4mm ribbon) and threaded through the top ribbon beads. I secured them with a knot and then threaded a couple of beads on to finish the whole thing off – lovely!

Beads? Wire? Ribbon?.....Necklace!!

This necklace is a firm favourite in my rather large (!) and varied collection.....ironic since it cost me almost nothing being made from old beads donated years ago by a good friend, beading wire and a ribbon scrap.

I made around 20 wire loops of around 20 beads per loop (although this would depend on your personal necklace length preference and the size if bead you wish to use) and interlinked them as I made each one. Several of the loops were made up of more than one colour too. One I had achieved the required necklace length, I sewed on a scrap of ribbon for around the back of the neck but this would also look pretty with two ribbons tied in a bow!

Fabulous Flowers!

These beautiful flower brooches are made from strips taken from an old jumper.....hard to believe, I know!

First, cut a strip approx 2cm wide x 12cm long. Fold in half lengthways with right sides together then roll from narrow end to narrow end to form the centre of the flower. Secure by pushing a threaded needle right through the roll, then finish off. The folded edge of the roll will be the right side of your flower.

To make the petals, cut another strip approx 2cm wide x 23cm long. Fold in half lengthways with right sides together. Make a loop of the strip, place over your completed flower centre and join with a couple of stitches. Then push needle right through centre and then through the centre of the loop on the opposite side effectively making two new loops around the flower centre. Push the needle through the flower centre and through the centre of first one loop then the other, effectively creating four loops. Continue in this way until you have your required number of loops/petals.

Once finished, sew a pin to the back. I also sewed a sprinkling of seed beads to the centre to add a bit of sparkle!

Fabric Covered Bead Necklace

This necklace came about, believe it or not, after a clear out of my son's bedroom! It's inspiration lay in a lovely soft cotton shirt that I could not bear to part with but no longer fitted him.....a couple of broken necklaces which I had been moving from pillar to post were put to good use too.

After looking at the size of the beads we wanted to wrap in the fabric, we 'guesstimated' the width of fabric required and set about cutting the shirt into evenly sized strips. We machined the strips across their width, then folded and stitched them down their length to form a 'tube', turned it inside out and neatened and knotted one end. Do not underestimate how much fabric this will take lengthwise! We made a tube roughly 4m long for a necklace about 1m long. We then pushed the first bead down the length of the tube, pulled the fabric tight around it and tied a knot. The second, third etc bead were treated in the same way until the desired length of necklace was achieved. After the final knot, the end of the tube was neatened off to match the beginning and then tied in a 'bow'. Sooooo pretty!

Old Jumper?? New Necklace!

It may have a few moth holes or be beyond patching on the elbows but instead of throwing away that favourite old jumper, how about making it into a 'new' necklace?!

We made ours solely from the jumper arms and it is incredibly simple if a little time consuming until you get into the swing of making the beads - strips 1.5cm wide and 16cm long (obviously different widths and lengths of strips will make different sized beads), rolled up then sewn down the seam and across the top and bottom pulling the sides together until a neat ball/bead shape is achieved!

When you have your desired number of beads for your length of neclace, join them together with colour matched embroidery thread. Gorgeous!