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Thursday 16 May 2013

Latest Project and Latest Giveaways

This is my latest project:

It may not look like much but ever since I saw this project on the 'net, I'd been obsessing over the idea of it....'til I finally gathered all the necessary supplies to make it.

First I had to haul out to Home Depot which is on Stone Church Rd. here on Hamilton Mountain. It took me two buses and both were long trips. I got a long piece of MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) for around $8 and I got a guy in the lumber department to slice it in half. He assured me I could carry both pieces back home on the bus but I knew I couldn't, so I left one of them there. I was told that all scraps get donated to Habitat for Humanity so I felt OK about paying for it and not taking it home with me.

Then when my husband and I were at the Ottawa St. "Sew Hungry" food truck festival I went back to the fabric store I went to with C two weeks before that, and got this really groovy chevron-patterned fabric. I also got 2 layers of batting (the stuff you use in a quilt) and used J's staple gun (and her help!) to staple it all down. Here is how it looks from the back:

I guess we should have placed the staples closer to the edges of the fabric but I'm not too worried about how the backside looks. The batting is sandwiched inside and I intend to use this to press my crafts.....things like heat-setting the ink in my screenprinting, affixing interfacing to pieces of fabric for stiffening purposes, even to press my husband's work shirts (which I never do but there's always a first time!).
 
This is a bracelet I made for my friend J....the one I mentioned above)
 
 And this is a piece of pottery I gave to my friend JS who recently turned 90! I had made this in Seattle, WA a couple of years ago. This bowl was from the era when I started to really know what I was doing and was throwing really well!
 
 
The rim is strong, the curve inside matches the curve outside and the thickness is uniform throughout!
 

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Druks

Did you know that a "druk" is simply a round bead? One of the most common bead shapes there *is*. By the way, "druk" rhymes with "truck". I read this on my local bead supplier's website. Bead FX is in Toronto  and they must be new there because they're in the East End. *I* used to live in the East End (briefly) but never knew of them.

Even though I'm in Hamilton now I order most of my beads from Bead FX. Hamilton has a paucity of bead stores!

Anyway, I had recently asked my Mother-in-Law if she could get me some "mature pea-sized turquiose beads". Now that I know better, I can say "druks" next time. I hope, however, that "next time" I'll be there in person! The annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show attracts thousands from all over the world and you can't find a vacant hotel room if you tried! That's why I'm so grateful to have family living there and who I can stay with.

She got me the beads and I got to work. It took me about 2 months on and off but I finally finished it tonight:

 
 
 I got the cool, Petroglyph shank button at a favourite Tucson store called Fabrics That Go....not Fabrics TO go like I thought but Fabrics THAT Go. Someday I'll ask the people that work in the store to explain the name....


By the way, this is one long bracelet that wraps around the wrist three times and is, as far as I know, vegan! That black cord is waxed (with paraffin) cotton and I wax the sewing thread with synthetic wax. I can't vouch for the drops of nail polish I use on the knots, though......