Trying Something New

Yesterday I found an embroidery hoop in a charity shop for 50p, so I thought I would experiment a little. The stitches are not all that neat and it is not quite finished, but here is my first attempt.

Cambridge

Hello there!

The Cambridge adventure was much fun, and the gallery space in which the poster show took place was incredible.



We also visited the biggest Wetherspoons in the country, which was impressive in a certain sort of way. Cambridge seems like a really lovely place, bikes everywhere and very nice people. Many thanks to Alex Curtis for putting us up!

On a completely irrelevant note, I love the colourful buildings in Nuuk:

I'd like to go one day, it looks otherworldly. I sometimes get moments where I really, really want to travel. If only I had the cash! I saw a programme last week about Billy Connolly travelling through Canada and he visited Newfoundland - it all looked amazing. I think that may be what triggered this.

This and That

Hi, hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was very quiet, I sewed, watched bad television, and on Saturday night the boy & I watched a lovely film called "The Straight Story" about an old man who rides across America on a lawnmower to visit his ill brother. It was amazing.

This coming weekend is going to be a lot busier, as on Saturday I am off to Cambridge with some great poster artists, to a great poster exhibition, which is going to be a lot of fun. I believe there is also a gig happening on the Sunday evening! Exciting stuff :)

I've been making a very big mess of late (scraps of felt are becoming very familiar features on my carpet) and the other night I couldn't stop sewing and gave myself a headache. But it was a productive headache, at least. Here is the army of badges as it appears at the moment.

There are also a few ideas for projects in the near future. I won't talk about them just yet though, in case they do not work out. But suffice to say, I am excited.

Here is where I have been working, with aforementioned mess. I am hoping to buy an old desk or table from the big charity shop near my house soon, which I can put beside my window. I need good light for sewing, otherwise it makes my eyes go all funny.

I've been reading a fair bit of the Handmade Nation book which I got for Christmas lately, it's really interesting and today a friend recommended My Paper Crane to me, which I then realised is one of the featured artists in the book. The website is full of lovely stuff and I spent ages looking at all of it. There is a really lovely heart embroidery project, which has made me really want to try my hand at something similar. Check it out if you have a few minutes!

Oh and I had the most amazing thing on Friday: a hot chocolate made out of an actual chocolate bar. Dreamy. I have been constantly craving them ever since.

Owls & Seals & Craft Shops

Hello! I have been making lots of little brooches this week.

I also visited the craft shop and got a little carried away, hence I now have materials to make necklaces:

I don't know why, but visiting the craft shop suddenly and inexplicably makes me yearn to own masses of tiny dollhouse furniture and bizarrely-shaped buttons, which I would perhaps never find a real use for.

I visited my parents at the beginning of the week, and acquired some new fabric, both from charity shops and my Mum's scrap-fabric collection. This is exciting news in Sarah-world at the moment.


Oh and, on a completely unrelated note, I saw two great films this week which I highly recommend: American Splendor and Milk. Sean Penn was absolutely amazing in Milk. I've only seen two films at the cinema this year (the other one was The Wrestler, also recommended) but this is definitely my current favourite film of 2009. I think it will take some beating.

Russian Dolls

Yesterday morning I got a flash of inspiration while in the shower and ended up neglecting the owl army in favour of these russian dolls, which I have spent most of my waking hours since working on.

The small ones are brooches!

The big one on the far right in the above photo is made out of felt, lace and denim. I am really short, so every time I buy a new pair of jeans I have to take them up and over the years I have ended up with a fair bit of spare denim. I thought I would try putting it to good use for once! I have never sewed using denim before and it was quite tough, but after battling with it for a while I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Owl Adventures

Hello there!

The past week has mostly involved travelling, snow, sketching and sewing, and has been lots of fun. I have been listening to The Weakerthans a lot, which has been most enjoyable as they are great! I have also been making plans and not searching for a real job as much as I should have been. There is a possibility of a craft fair in April, which would be good as it would give me something big to work towards, and I am hopefully going to be travelling down to Cambridge towards the end of February for a poster exhibition at which I may be able to sell a few things off the corner of a poster stall :)

Anyway, I thought I would share a few pictures of things I have made, with an owl theme!

This owl plushie was the first major project I worked on.

I started out intending to make just one of these little badges, but got a little carried away and cut out felt to make sixteen. This will probably keep me busy for the next few days!









Many thanks to Cameron Steward for helping out with the pictures.

Oh and I made a flickr account, which can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35077562@N04

Hopefully I will have more to post soon! If anyone reading this has experience in starting out doing this sort of stuff (or anything creative in fact) I would be really interested in hearing your experiences and finding new creatively-minded blogs to read!