TinkeringTimes

one day I will be published

In case any other crafters / makers come across this blog, I wanted to draw your attention to this - it's nothing to do with me at all but a great chance to get your ideas published. If I were further along in my own experimentation I'd give it a go but am not in a making stuff for kids place right now... good luck! (And if the Making Stuff book is anything to go by the kids version should be a right old treat, can't wait!)

Making Stuff For Kids: Children's craft book seeks crafter/maker contributors

Black Dog Publishing is a small book publishers specialising in high-end illustrated books. Following on from the success of our alternative craft book, Making Stuff, we are currently working on the follow up, Making Stuff for Kids.

This book will feature beautiful, funky, wacky and useful ideas for things to make for and with kids.

We need your brilliant and exciting ideas. Mobiles, dolls clothes, cross-stitch and any type of clothing, toys or accessories for little ones will be considered! Contributions are unpaid, but you will be credited in the book with a 100 word biog, featuring any websites or contact details you would like to promote.

Please send a brief description of your idea with any images you may have to hand to: mailto:jill@blackdogonline.com

Find out more about Black Dog Publishing and about Making Stuff on: www.blackdogonline.com

Pattern-tastic

I've had a craving for a couple of months. No not a pregnancy one, nothing like tuna and ice cream at 3am. A craving for - colouring in! Good old fashion colouring books, pencils and felt-tips. So I cast my mind back to the types of things I might enjoy colouring in and the dream of Altair came flooding back. So that's where my adoration of all things repeat pattern and Islamic geometry comes from, now it all starts to make sense.

So it turns out that Altair books are still available on Amazon (ah where would we be without Amazon...) and yipee book 1 has arrived. Obviously I ordered both books of course. So - in case you love them too, or in case you have no idea what I'm going on about, here are a couple of postcard sized patterns for you to have a go at too (the fabulous full sized versions are in the book too). Enjoy, upload them to your blog and send me the links, I just can't get enough of them.







And then just when I thought it couldn't get any better, whilst scouring Muji for the perfect set of felt tips and pencils, I found them stocking a re-issued version of Spiragraph, all repackaged and chic looking as you'd expect in a shiny brushed metal tin. So now I've got one of those too for when I feel more like creating obessively repetitive patterns, rather than colouring them. Quick, rush out and get one of your own - enjoy!





More images from this story at my flickr page

oranges are not the only fruit

Today I'm mostly looking forward to... tomorrow! Because it's pancake day and I love love love pancakes. But why do we only eat them once a year? Did you know... you can freeze pancake batter yes you can, so make a huge batch and have pancakes for breakfast at the weekend, every weekend until it runs out (or you never want to see another pancake).

My photo for today (see project 365 on the right) is this little fella, a multi-tasking lemon. Yesterday he gave up his zest for my lemony biscuits (mmmmmm. all gone) Tomorrow he will be squeezed to within a squish of his life and dribbled mercilessly all over said pancakes. His life will not have been in vain with an honourable 30ish biscuits and roughly 8 pancakes to his name.



And whilst we're on yellow fruit may I just say crochet is bananas - you must see this, clickety click click for a good giggle, and marvel at how tiny the little chaps are.

oh owly

Oh Owly how lovely you are. This gorgeous creature was made by Debbie.
I'm aiming to get round to making one of my own from this tutorial created by Menina. Great one for using up small bits of fabric.

groovy baby

Another find from my mum's house moving clearance efforts. This pink-swirl-tastic 1970s paper bag was full of embroidery threads.


The threads are now housed with my collection but I couldn't bare to the bin the bag, it's too lovely. It's old and clearly a bit wrinkled but I'm sure someone somewhere will  love this pattern as much as me and maybe be able to copy the image and do something amazing with it. Hope so.

If you are that person please send me a pic of your finished item, I'd love to see what happens in the re-incarnated life of the pink swirly paper.

Timorous Beasties prize

Ooh somedays I can't believe my luck, amazingly I won this specially commissioned designer light by textile and surface pattern designers Timorous Beasties.

It's the only one there is and even more incredibly matches our bedroom perfectly and fills the space that's been there over a year because we just couldn't find the right light. What are the chances?!

Here there and everywhere

What a busy few days... on Friday I went to the Pretty Crafty Things bazaar as part of my DIY Craft research. It was a great afternoon out of the office, really useful for my research, and really inspiring to see so many people setting up their own businesses in contemporary craft. It really spurred me on.

Ophelia Buttons at Pretty Crafty Things

On Sunday I had a daydreamy trip out into the Pennines in the sunshine to visit mum and raid her button box. Happy days - memories of rummaging through the box and tidying it out, sorting buttons into size or colour order. Finally so many of those buttons are mine after years of coveting the contents of that old blue tupperware box. Sadly mum had already thrown out the gorgeous Victorian ones I really craved during a tidy-up one day - gutted! She made it up by taking us for a big old country pub lunch. I can feel the hills calling me home and Nik's getting worried he'll come home to find a for sale sign on our home. Maybe one day, but not just yet...

And today I received the most gorgeous little parcel through the post. I bought some funky japanese bird fabric last week that someone else really liked too, Debbie Hill an illustrator who combines drawing, print and embroidery. I really like the way she works and amazingly she agreed to swap one of her new pieces for one of the japanese fabric pieces. And so this morning this gorgeous picture 'Yellow Drop' arrived.

 

This Saturday I'm off to another market for my DIY craft research courtesy of Miso Funky in Glasgow. There and back in a day seems a bit ambitious but I think I've cracked the quickest route and a glass of wine on the way home should help things along. Who knows, I may even find a little something to buy whilst I'm there - fingers xd!

heart door secret

HeartDoor
Originally uploaded by Ladyfort.

On the back of our bathroom door is a tiny little heart, knotted into the wood. Every day I look at it and think that no-one knows its there but me. And now you.

When work and play meet

Not everything I do for work is that interesting to people who aren't me, but this one might be. I'm doing some research around the DIY craft scene in the UK. In the UK this statement usually results in the question, "What are DIY crafts?" and to be honest its hard explaining it, which is partly why the research is happening - so I can identify the characteristics that make something DIY craft. The quick answer I'm learning which most people find it easy enough to follow is that its a sort of underground / subversive / alternative contemporary craft movement. (Though in reality it's so prolific in other parts of the world it hardly seems underground at all - but for the sake of an easy explanation for now...)

Anyway... this means that I'm really lucky right now and can visit all sorts of funky craft events around the country and call it work. I just wanted to draw your attention to a few in case you're in the area, they should be great. The first one is tomorrow in Leeds.

You can find out all about these events and the research in the other blog I'm running which is operating as a sort of working in progress file. It's all here UK DIY research