Roving and Felting

This is my newest felted piece. I listed it in my etsy shop (http://IGotFleeced.etsy.com) yesterday. I had made a little mini version some time ago, but it was a little too tiny to be of much use. This version is more substantial and in my opinion would act as a welcome addition to a coat lapel, bringing a little wish of spring to a gloomy grey January day.



I do wish that I had known that I would have my brief and unexpected lesson in felting. When we were in Belgium a few months ago I happened upon an artist's shop in Ghent, with a front window laden with bundles of beautifully coloured roving.



Ahh, to have this at my disposal at this very moment.

Finding Inspiration

The other night Darcy and I decided to watch the movie "The Holiday". If you aren't familiar, it is a romantic comedy. A not very romatic, or comedic, romantic comedy. It was about 90 minutes that I will never get back.

When not marveling at Cameron Diaz's ability to sprint in stilettos, I spent most of the movie examining the jewelry that she and Kate Winslet were wearing. At one point in the movie I was looking at a necklace that Kate was wearing and was thinking in my head, "Do I like this necklace? Not really. I guess its ok. No. It isn't. I really don't like it. But what if...."

I bolted off the couch, grabbed this copper chain that I bought the other day, and examined it quickly. I had originally imagined it as a bracelet, but hhhmmmmm, a lariot. This decorative copper toggle would be a great addition. Let's see, this would look AMAZING with some Carnelian drops. But I don't have any of those. Green always looks amazing with copper. I didn't have time to rummage through all my beads so I made a quick sketch and went back to the movie (the remainder of the 90 minutes I will never be able to recover.)

I finally did get time to rummage through the bead stash and found these amazing green stones that I had left over from a previous project. Here is the final result. I like it. It is a little heavier than a lot of my other pieces. A bit of a departure.

At least the movie was good for something.

Bread.

A few weeks ago I stated that one of my New Year's goals was to spend less of our time and money in the grocery stores and instead use some of my time to prepare more of our own staple foods. In an ongoing quest to move away from mass-produced items, I decided a good place to start was with fresh home-made bread. After all what could possibly smell better than fresh baking bread, and what better reward for hard work than a fresh warm slice of buttered bread.

I probably could have picked a simpler project to start. Luckily though, my first couple attempts have been mostly successful. Not to say that there haven't been a few hiccups. For instance, I couldn't understand why my first 1/4 teaspoon of yeast wouldn't dissolve. After further invesitagation, I discovered I had actually added little tiny grains of quinoa to my water instead of yeast. Once I tossed the quinoa-not-yeast-water down the sink, things started looking up.

Happily, we ended up with two loaves of fresh white bread that day. And as hoped the smell was heavenly, and warm bread with melty butter was all we had for dinner that evening.



A week later I decided to redeem myself from a previous pizza dough making disaster. I mixed together my whole wheat dough ingredients but remained sceptical. I anticipated a monumental failure so decided to cover my butt and threw together a white dough recipe as well. To my surprise both worked and we actually had a choice of pizza crusts for dinner. It was a little crisper than pizzeria dough but that may have been due more the fact that I got so engrossed in Playstation that the pizza was in the oven longer than necessary. OOooooops.

That was an ambitious day. I also made rosemary-olive foccacia. I loved this. The way the dough puffed up out of the bowl was so exhilarating. And again, the end result was very tasty, though the loaf itself was a little unusual looking. Next time I will also be more liberal with the rosemary and the salt sprinkled on top.




Tomorrow I am going to try a whole wheat bread. This one scares me. I shouldn't just assume that I am going to fail miserably, but if I do, I can chalk it up to a learning experience.

Post-script:
The whole wheat bread turned out great! I even decided to try a few substitions in the recipe. I subbed some of the whole-wheat flour for spelt, and also add some wheat germ, ground flax, poppy- and sesame-seeds. It was so yummy! I think I may be getting the hang of this.

Introducing....

My sister shop on etsy:
http://IGotFleeced.etsy.com.
I opened it a few days ago, and have been slowly adding in little felty bits. So far I have only a few pins, but have loads of doodly-sketches of other items to try. We'll have to see if I am actually successful at poking the roving into the desired shape.

New Year, New Resolutions

Typically I don't like to make resolutions, as I really do believe that resolve will only last for a couple weeks and then once the shine of the New Year is gone, so are the lofty goals.

I do however, like to use the New Year as a chance to reflect on the past year, take stock of where I currently am in life, and determine the direction I would like to steer my life this year.

So to start, 2007 was a year of big change for me. I started my ETSY shop, found homes for my jewelry in a few B&M stores, and quit my day-job. I didn't make millions through these changes, but I didn't expect that. I did find an increased sense of inner calm, and reduced the stress level in my live.

This year, I plan to continue building String Me Along into a profitable business. As well I plan to explore further the craft of needle felting. I also have plans to take hand-made to another level in my life. I did very well over Christmas at giving only handmade gifts, but how can I adapt this further into my own life? Well, there is more handmade food. I love to cook, so much of what we eat I cook. But I want to spend more time making our staple items... bread, pasta, etc. For some reason, many of these items have scared me in the past. Time to get over it. I would love to be able to grow our own food, but being in an urban apartment has its limitations on this front.

So looking forward I guess what I really want to do is look back. My goal is to return to a pre-Walmart era lifestyle. I'm not so concerned with convenience. I want a return to food that tastes like food, items that are not going to be recalled in 5 months, or that have been designed to fall apart within a year. I enjoy knowing where my items come from and getting to know the faces behind its creation. Be it the carrots I buy at the market, or crocheted hat that I bought for my niece's birthday.

And well, just for good measure, I also resolve to go to the gym more often, and read more.

Read this book:
http://www.inpraiseofslow.com/slow/index.php

4 Year Olds Bringing Tears to My Eye

I have both a 4-year old niece and nephew. My niece is petite and blond and loves being a princess. My nephew is burly and bossy and exuberant. Sugar and spice versus snakes and snails and puppy dog tails.

I spent the day with my nephew (and most of my family) on Christmas Eve. I think I can safely say that I may be the favorite Auntie. My nephew and I spent most of the day playing together. At one point he pulled out a little notepad and wrote in crayon, a message. I think the message was written in binary code. The kid may be a genius, or he has not yet been taught the whole alphabet in JK. But anyway, I asked him to read it to me. He leaned in very close to my face and looked up at me with his wide blue eyes and whispered: "It says 'I love you'". Oh... melt.

The next day, I had to content myself with just a phone call to my sister and her family as they moved to PEI last October. After much cajoling my niece finally agreed to come to the phone and she greeted me with this wonderful statement: "I'm eating an egg sandwich, and the cat just threw up". HA!!

Ya gotta love them!!

When I Grow Up I Want to be Belgian!

Now, don't get me wrong, I love being Canadian. But there is a little teeensy, tiny little bit of me that longs to be Belgian?

Darcy and I went to Belgium this past autumn. Belgium was his idea really, wooed as he was by the Belgian reputation for beer. I was wary, thinking like most people, "What the heck is in Belgium?". I thought back to my university art history days and sure enough there is a truly impressive number of Flemish masters, plus Flemish architecture is at the same time charming in its style and stunning in its design. And after seeing it in person, I would have to say that the craftmanship is perhaps second to none.

But these are not the things that make me long to be Belgian. What really won me over was their ability to maintain a simple, good-living lifestyle, while at the same time racing toward their future. These may be the most efficient people in the world. They blend environmentally sound practices with modern advances, and mix commerce with good old-fashioned, small scale production and old-world craftsmanship.

We stayed in the North part of Belgian where the major urban centres are all located. Being 20 minutes from Ghent and 15 minutes from Bruges, we were still smack-dab in the middle of a rural lifestyle. Everywhere we looked people made the most of their small parcels of land. Within walking distance of our rented cottage, every manner of farm animal was to be found, (including deer for venison), as well as fruit trees, kitchen vegetable gardens, or larger scale crops. There seemed to be no wasted space at all. Even right up to the edges of the city, the land was given over to farm land. Here, the land leading up to the edge of the city is razed and covered over with overcrowded subdivisions and sprawling malls.

Another thing that I loved about the country is the strong desire to retain tradition and preserve its heritage within the city centre. There were not many times when we found a view disrupted by a towering parking structure or other urban atrocity. Instead, we discovered that we were able to follow a road into the centre of town, drive down a short ramp and the road and parking garage disappeared underneath the city. Convenient, but more importantly, it really does allow for the possibility of pedestrianized cities.

Once in the cities, you can look around and imagine how the cities must have looked 100 hundred years ago. In fact, if you stop and dwell, you can almost imagine how the city unfolded itself over the millenia. And a perfect example of the commitment to not only retain, but to rebuild their home-land is Ypres. When we drove into the town we were awed by the medieval style buildings and beautiful town square. It was not until later that we realised that it was actually all built within the last century. Actually, I should say, rebuilt. As we all know Ypres was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles in World War 1, and again much of Belgium suffered through World War 2. But with the ink on the armistice barely dried, the townspeople started rebuilding. And parts that had been salvaged or saved and hiiden during the war, were re-used. Such care and attention to detail went into rebuilding that the town is almost identical to pre-war photos. Again, I wonder why this interest in preservation is so lacking here? Juxtapose photos of Toronto-then with Toronto-now, and you would not believe that it is the same place. Our quest for the modern leaves our past in rubble piles. And it is truly a shame.

And finally, the true reason that I want to be Belgian. Juliette's Cookie Corner in a winding little street in the centre of Bruges. Walking by this little corner shop, our noses perked up at the wonderfully subtle scent of hot butter and sugar, mixed with just the right blend of spices. Never ones to say no to freshly baked cookies we popped in and treated ourselves to a selection. Speculoos, sables, gingersnaps, etc. Oh it was heaven. In fact, just the scent of the cookies was so transcendental that I kept the little paper bag they were packed in for the duration of the trip so that I could keep crushing it up against my nose while breathing deeply.

Its not just the cookies. Or the chocolates. Or candies. Or waffles. Or the pot of cheese with endive buried deep within it. Or the frites. Although all of these left my pants a little tight by the end of trip, it was the pride, care and attention to detail that seemed to go into everything. As I mentioned earlier in the ramble, it is the small scale production and old world quality of, well, everything it seemed. Where here artisinal quality is a reason to charge double, there it is expected as the norm.

I really do hope deep in my heart that if I can never be Belgian, then at least a little bit of that Belgian attitude will find its way to the rest of the world.




Imagine, we ordered a cup of tea and coffee, and were presented with this tray of various sugars, cakes, jelly candies, and marshmallows, shaped I believe like the Virgin Mary.

Merry Christmas One and All

High as an Elephant's Eye

And I am not talking about the corn in Iowa, but rather the snow in Toronto. Although I probably should not have done so, I actually took a snow day today. I was meant to be at my craft show of 2007, but when the snow started last night, I knew I would have to decide whether it was actually worth it to attend. I paid for my space months ago. Did I want to lose that money? What if nobody came, and then instead of paying just for the table, I also ended up paying for gas and parking, and made none of it back? What if it turned into the best craft show day ever, and I missed out? I waffled forever, and then finally decided it would be better to stay home. Why risk the drive if it wasn't absolutely necessary. At the time I was slated to leave, the roads were becoming increasingly bad according to the local police. People weren't going to go for a walk if they didn't need to, and if they did have to go out it would be to shovel themselves free. Or so that was my reasoning. Sometimes I spend far too much time trying to justify my actions. Its like some sort of obsessive hobby I have!

Moving on....

Taking the snow day turned out to be so much fun! I spent the morning indoors, all cozy and warm, and then when it seemed to let up a bit, my husband and I decided to take a walk. We walked down to the local movie store. We also bought some popping corn so we can have hot buttery popcorn and hot chocolate as we curl up to watch the movie.
On the way back home I flopped onto the clean, untouched snow of the school yard and made a snow angel. I'm not sure why the snow brings out the kid in me. Toronto has been deprived of a good snowfall for a couple years now, so even when my husband was ready to go back in, I decided I needed to head to the park for further frolicking. It was beautiful. Only one other person had been there before me, so the snow was largely untouched. The park sits high on a bluff overlooking Lake Ontario. There was complete calm up above, and the angry thrashing of the lake hitting the breakers below. Pine trees droopped under the weight of the snow creating wintery green cocoons that would provide a temporary shield from the wind. The few determined flowers that had held fast to their few remaining petals through the autumn and into the winter, were frozen in the direction the wind was blowing when the temperature plummeted. All was beautiful and serene.
Eventually, I will need to head out with a shovel and free my car from the drift that has blown up around it. For now, though, I am happy to look out at the snow that is now softly drifting past my frosty window.


Fresh Snowfall


The Coolest Seat in the House


Toronto Borrows a Scene From Narnia


Susan is a Stubborn Flower

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What's not to love about this time of year (apart from sneakers that soak up slush and tummy-aches which result from squirting too much gingerbread icing directly into your mouth!)?
At every turn there is a project of some sort awaiting my attention. Last week it was cookie baking and card making. This year I made traditional gingerbread men, which resulted in the icing induced tummy-ache, green tea shortbread, and florentines, which are still awaiting a drizzle of melted chocolate. Did you know that Bulk Barn now sells Callebaut chips? Drooool....
I'm eager to make more cookies, but I am not sure that I will have the time. Plus, we will be seeing fewer people this Christmas, which means Darcy and I will need to eat whatever is left. Not such a terrible thing, until you have to make that New Year's promise to go the gym religiously and eat nothing but salads for a month.



For a couple days I wondered about the wisdom of making my own cards. Time was running short, and although I had my vision of how I wanted my cards to look, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it off and get them written and posted in enough time. Luckily, I embraced the less is more philosophy with this year's Christmas cards, and I hear that some are already arriving in mailboxes, so I guess I didn't leave it too late after all.
And I am actually fairly pleased with the result. Onto a deep blue, slightly metallic card stock, I stamped a snowflake and "Merry Christmas" in silver ink, and then added a touck of white glitter (some of which actually stuck through the entire mailing process!). Then I adhered the blue stamped card stock to a simple black white card.



The next few days will bring a few more fun projects like wrapping presents, and planning dinners, lunches, and snacks. For someone who loves projects and many forms of creative expression, there truly is no better time of the year.

Crafting Supplies are my Crack!

Its true I can't get enough of raw crafting materials. Last year we had to buy a new storage cabinet to hold my excess materials. Full! So then we bought some new shelving. Full. And overflowing! And still, I feel a compulsive need to "treat" myself to more.

So deciding to give myself a day off from holiday madness, I relaxed the best way I know how - supply stalking! First stop, Michael's. I intended only to get some plain white cards and envelopes so I could get my Christmas cards made over the next few days. I didn't get off that lightly. My nemesis was lurking on the shelf fronts - sale signs! Damn you, price reductions. One giant block of paper, reams of wrapping papers, oodles of ribbon spoools, swirly rubberstamps, epoxy stickers... what? How did all of you little fellows leap into that basket? I sat in the car and surveyed the damage. It was all justifiable, I reasoned, since I had not paid full price for anything.

Next, to Queen Street West in downtown Toronto where a supply stalker becomes misty-eyed from the realization that there are all those shops devoted to supplies. For today I opted to stay away from the bead stores. I was looking forward to a fondling day. Its not that weird, really! Deisgner Fabrics and MacFab have little hangers of fabric samples hanging all in neat little rows. So pretty, so inviting. Silks: patterned, striped, solid, Dupioni, Chinese. Linens, some rough, some gentle, all beautifully coloured. Toiles, velvets, cotton, twill, organza. Heavy upholstery fabric, flimsy curtain materials. Oh and then there are the buttons, the tassels and trims, the purse handles and other findings. Sigh.

Oh and of course there are the wool shops. The Knit Cafe where the squashy skeins are neatly stacked and knitted samples are artistically displayed, and where you can revel in the cozy comfort while enjoying an espresso. And Romni Wools, where any woolen thing you can imagine is surely to be found in the high shelves that overflow into laundry baskets below. And in the basement, a sale section and as I newly discovered, giant bags of roving which can be purchased by the ounce! EEeeeeeep!

And as if the stacks of sale paper at Michael's weren't enough, there is The Paper Place. Sheets of screened Japanese papers, handmarbled Brazilian papers, cardstock, envelopes, hand-dyed ribbons, and so, so, so much more. And my favorite part, little 4x4 inch scrap squares of Chiyogami paper. So beautiful! And such a small price for such elation as having that little square in your hand as you leave the store.

I am totally sated this evening. And I realised that I forgot to buy the plain white cards and envelopes that was the only actual item needed today.

Little Fuzzy Orbs are Taking Over my Life!

This past Sunday I took part in a craft show. Knowing that an early winter storm was due to arrive the night before, I didn't anticipate a great turnout, and I wisely packed a book to take along with me. I would have had plenty of time to read if..... the most incredible 9-year old girl hadn't happened into my life.

She was with her mom and together they were selling knitted items at a table near me. I wandered over to see what they had for sale, since the best therapy for not making any money is to spend money. The young lady had a huge wad of wool roving which immediately set me drooling. As you may remember from one of my first posts, I have an insatiable craving for wool in any form, despite not really knowing what to do with it. And just to get off track for a moment, the scarf I started way back when is still on the needles since I decided I wanted to add length but do not know how to change from the emptied ball to the new one.

The girl showed me the project that she was working on... a multi-coloured needle felted cupcake. I nearly squealed with excitement. I have been fascinated for some time with the concept of needle felting. I had always pictured some horrible medieval torture instrument being used for the process and was so surprised that it was in fact just one solitary needle, albeit, a very long and thick needle. She showed me briefly how she attacked the roving with the needle and magically a shape began to appear. Then, gasp, she ripped off a hunk of roving and passed me a needle and told me I could take it back to my table to try for myself. Giddy! I was absolutely giddy with the excitement of it all. I started poking away at my little cotton-candy like fluff of purple softness. I figured out how to manipulate it and slow coax it into shape. Eventually it was a somewhat rounded shape. The girl came back to check my progress and told me that I had done it; I was done. Then she ran off, and came back lickety split with more fluff, this time green.

I started playing with the new piece of fluff and my second attempt was a tighter, more compact ball. I figured out that the more I attacked, the better the effect. For someone who grew up hearing the phrase "you win over more flies with sugar, than with vinegar" this type of venomous violence was rather new to me. Alarmingly, I am not sure if it is the ability to finally let go and attack, or the amazement of seeing something take shape from nothing, that led to the feeling of elation. Whatever it is, I can't wait to go and buy myself a felting needle. The knitting stores in Toronto seem to all close on Monday so sadly I wasn't immediately able to get the needle. But maybe that's a good thing as I think my thumb needs a chance to heal from all the misguided pokes it endured over my learning session.

Here are photos of my first attempt at felting. The purple ball was my first, the teal was my second.



*** Post-Script ***

I have since made my trip to The Naked Sheep in Toronto where I picked up a pack of felting needles and some beautiful multi-hued roving.







Last night I made a little ball that being deep green with a spot of deep purple reminded me of autumn ornamental cabbage. I decided that making the little balls, though exhilarating was a little limiting. Thus, I used my next little ball and turned into the centre of a flower. I thought I was gettting a little ahead of myself in trying to master something that required so many little pieces, after all I had no idea what to do to get all the pieces to stick together if I did actually manage to make them into a shape other than a ball! But, in time I had a wad of purple roving that was beginning to resmble a flower. An off the cuff decision to stab the two pieces together resulted in one full piece all stuck together. So looking at my roving and thinking, "hmmmm - green", I decided to aim for leaves for the flower. So an hour or som of fiddling and I ended up with a blue-centred purple flower, with yellow-veined green leaves.

Here it is:

I Took the Pledge!

Not only do I love to create handmade loveliness, I also love spending my hard-earned dollars supporting others who devote their life to the pursuit. So I took the pledge.

And... well I may have taken it a little toooooo seriously over the past week. Hey, it is a pledge, not somehing to take lightly. Oh, and the One of A Kind Craft Show was in Toronto the past two weeks. I wiled away three full days in hand-made heaven!

What a glorious handmade Christmas this is going to be. Between my show purchases, and my etsy purchases, there is not a single person on my list who will not be receiving something handmade! How exciting to know that they will not need to exchange anything due to duplicated gifts. Like the Christmas I got not one, not two, but three crockpots! Wow!

I can't imagine that the people receiving these gifts will not be overjoyed to receive them. I'd share the list of who gets what, but I don't want to ruin any surprises.

I'd encourage everyone to take the pledge. Handmade just simply rocks!

Autumn Splendour

Who wants to think about cooling temperatures and shorter days during the last few precious weeks of summer? Well, I do for one. I hate being sweaty and clammy. But, I also have to start work on my autumn jewelry designs and plan for Christmas craft shows. So I have been hard at it.
Last week I delivered an order to a store which was completely focused on Autumn. Gone are many of the bright and vibrant colours of spring and summer, replaced now with rich, warm earth-tones and jewel colours. Also introduced are some weightier items, perfect to balance out the bulk of sweaters, or compete with turtle- or crew necks and the return of sleeves, scarves, and jacket collars.
Here is a sneak peek of some of the items that I delivered to the store, and which will be making their way into my craft show displays and etsy shop.






As you can see from these two photos, I have fallen in love with shells over the past couple months. I love their organic nature, especially mixed with the cool sophistication of freshwater pearls. A simple seed bead necklace with dashes of more pearl throughout finish, this look nicely.




I have had a wood and stone necklace listed on etsy for some time. The retailers that I have met with have been very excited about the piece. For autumn, I have mixed the wood with warmer stones and coral. Again, I love the natural and organic feel of these pieces!



Shells again! This time simply layered and hung from a trio of coloured wire. Simple, lightweight, and very funky.



And now for something completely different. Giant orbs of glass that drip with colour. These fused glass focal beads have a silver foil fused within which makes them dance with light. Complemented with crsytal beads in a variety of colours and shapes. These have been popular at shows for the past couple of years, and still are going strong. The colours are truly eyecatching!