Folksy Friday - Martial Arts

Straight after listing my martial arts magnet set on Folksy I saw a great ninja note book (fiona t's below) that had just been listed too so I was inspired to make Martial Arts my theme for this week's Folksy Friday. Fiona does a number of different notebook designs, and they're on my wish list now!

My first fair...

A couple of weekends ago I took part in my first fair, it was a school fete rather than an actual craft fair but I saw it as a good chance to work out how to display my items and test out how it would all work for bigger fairs.

I didn't want to spend too much money on fancy displays and I also don't really like the industrial look of the usual jewellery displays so tried to do as much as I could with things I already had around the house with the addition of a few things.

Fathers day's fast approaching!

It's Father's Day on the 20th of June, so it's time to start getting organised! I thought I'd showcase some of my own items that would make good gifts for the occasion, mainly my cufflinks and keyrings. These are all available in my facebook store and most in my Folksy and Etsy stores. The photos link to my facebook and Folksy stores (all in £) to see prices and to buy in $ visit my Etsy shop.

Folksy Friday finds...

Letterpress printing is one of those things that one day I'd love the chance to do. Traditionally it's where a negative is made of the image you want to print (like a block or movable type-the loose metal letters you used to find in newspaper printers), the negative is inked and then pressed into the paper to produce a print. Because of the pressing motion letterpress printing is usually indented to various degrees, which you can see in some of the examples below. This is probably what I like so much about it, it has a tactile quality, and also due to the inking and press process no two can be produced exactly the same - mass production but not.

Letterpress printing can be used for everything that more modern printing is used for and is commonly used for high quality wedding invites. Now more modern processes have been devised it isn't as common as it once was as it's more labour intensive and more reliant on non-automated processes. There are some lovely printshops out there doing amazing work - but more about them in a future post! Right now here's some letterpress finds from the UK handmade marketplace Folksy to kick off my "Folksy Fridays".






From left to right the people featured above are AarkvarkOnSea, Biplane Press & Design, Lapwing Printworks, The Home Press and Print for The Love of Wood. Click on the pictures to visit the items or on the names to visit the shops.

Recent swap...

I'm new to the world of swaps, I didn't even realise they existsed till I started getting involved in craft/handmade forums! But they can be quite a big thing and a chance to sample work from other crafty people. I heard that SpoiltPig was organising a cat themed swap and thought I'd give it a bash!

My swap partner was Izabela from Blue Fish Handmade and you can see the lovely things she sent me below. There was a little handmade crochet (or is this style called Amigurumi?) lilac cat, which has been promptly claimed by my own cat as his new favourite playmate, some stickers, some cute wee buttons and a wooden cat decoration too.



I've also added pictures of a couple of the things I sent Izabela, a pink necklace with a black cat shillouette and a set of four fridge magnets with different cat designs on them. I'd also sent her some shrink plastic to try out and some fluffy tiger stickers. I enjoyed swap, hope Izabela did too!

First attempt at something new...

I'd been thinking about buying a sewing machine for a while and had been looking into which type would be best to get when I saw one that seemed to have everything I wanted in a machine on sale. So about 6 weeks ago I became the proud owner of my very first sewing machine!

I'm pretty impatient so after having a quick play about with it to learn the basics I launched straight into trying to make a bag, I always lug about a lot of stuff in my bags so I like them to have lots of pockets and to be roomy enough for my assorted notebooks and diaries, pens and occasionally my boxing gloves for my martial arts classes! I found a pattern for a bowling style bag that I liked the look of and decided to give it a go; when I say found a pattern....I found measurements for the bag and rough instructions on how to make it and made up my own pattern (probably not the best things to do for a first attempt). I've made a few mistakes so far, one being that I meant for the side panels (beneath the start and end of the zip) to be cord like the front and back, but only realised I hadn't when I'd sewed it all together! Anyway, I'm very happy with how it's coming along so far, it's still a work in progress as I need to add the base, lining (which I'm doing in hot pink to match the humming bird) and work out how to incorporate some pockets on the inside and outside.























Since starting this I've also done some smaller items that I'm hoping to make more of in time for a fair mid June and if they go down well I might also sell through my online shops. I'm really looking forward to actually finishing my bag off first though and who knows, if I get good at these I might try selling them too!

Another custom order

I got an email the other week asking me to make a necklace similar to my greyhound one but instead using a sillhouette of India (for the customer's friend who is living out there). You can see the final necklace below. I also included a heart shaped keyring in the same design as a wee free gift.

This uses the last of my green and gold necklaces (the other is on the greyhound necklace) and I've searched high and low to source these, even getting someone to go to the shop I bought them in (in Toronto) to ask but they claimed to never having seen them! I like the colour combo in them and they're also soft compared to the usual ones you find. Hopefully I'll come across a supplier at some point again...

Packaging experiments

Like I said in a previous post I've been playing around with various types of packaging for my items in an attempt to work out which I want to use. I've mainly been using craft card finish boxes with a small sticker in the form of the bird in my current logo, tied with either twine or ribbon. But I've also sent out a few items with little canvas bags with my logo applied to them (see the photos), in these ones the items are first wrapped in tissue paper. You can see some variations on these in the photos below:























I'm determined to make time to do a proper set of branding materials this month (in time for my first fair in June!) and included in that will be my proper logo and a final decision on what packaging to use. I think I may end up using both bags and boxes as they both have their place. I've also got plans for packaging for my t-shirts/hoodies that I'll hopefully be able to roll out soon.

Currently I'm using up my hangtags I made for my t-shirts and altering them slighty so they work as business cards (which I send out with all orders). I plan to have new hangtags and business cards once I've decided on the design so in the meantime these are the one's I'm using (along with some wee badges I had done too):

A recent custom order

I recently got contacted by someone who wanted me to make a custom piece of jewellery as a gift for his wife for her birthday, his plan was to have a necklace that incorporated her birthstone and also birthflower (her birthday was in April so these were diamond and daisies). He'd seen my daffodil necklace and wanted the daisy included in a similar way.

In this case as it was to be a special item I made it using sterling silver chain and findings and decided the nicest way to incorporate the diamond was to use two small heart shaped swarovski crystals. To include real flowers in resin you have to ensure they're totally dehydrated as any moisture left will affect the resin and also could mean the flower can decay inside. This is usually done by burying the flowers in silica crystals abut a side effect is that the colours are also muted. So I decided instead to make the daisy, roughly full scale, out of polymer clay to keep it as realistic looking as possible.

You can see the pictures of the finished piece below, I'm happy to say the customer was really pleased with the piece and hopefully his wife was too!

My workspace

I'm pretty lucky in that I've got a spare bedroom in my flat which I could turn into my workshop, but as the property's rented I'm limited in what I can do with it so it tend to look a bit haphazard!

Another problem is that I live in an old style attic flat so the eaves of the roof mean I only have enough height for proper shelves, or to stand up properly, in the very middle of the room opposite my window. So to work around that I’ve got my t-shirt/hoodie production side of things all on low-level work surfaces, so I have to sit on the floor to work my heat press etc.

I’m on the lookout for more storage that fits the room and my needs – ideally something with loads of drawers so I can store away all my jewellery findings, beads, tools etc. And maybe has racks I can put all my sign and garment vinyl in…I think to get that I’d probably have to make it myself! So here’s what it looks like right now (excuse the mess please!):

I love my desk-my Dad made me it years ago and it's extra deep and has shelves and a drawer. It's currently stacked with jewellery findings, tools, markers & pens, tape etc. Stuff pinned up on the wall and board is info for projects I'm working on right now. You can just about see my shelves (in the tallest part of the room!) with a random assortment of books, fabric and works in progress.

My garment production area with heat press and some vinyls stacked behind. Underneath here is where the real mess is, packing materials (bubble wrap, mailing envelopes, boxes, bags, ribbon etc).

Another view of my desk with my wee craft robo cutting some vinyl ready for a t-shirt.