Ongoing projects

This is the crochet hook holder that I had worked on.  It is much better in cotton and sturdier.  I will probably make another one...it took roughly an hour or so to make it.  The pattern?  I just made a sc rectangle with a shell border on three sides, a long chain with a cowrie shell attached to the end for the enclosure...can't get any simpler than that.

 I made this crochet mesh cap.  Since this was a practice one I made it for myself to at least see where I can  improve it.  The ribbed brim really stretches so I will probably make less rows than 72.  I did this in a 4 (G) hook which works fine...I think I will want more slouch in the future so I'll probably just change the hook size for the body or add more rows for longer hair.  It's cooler than a hat.  Will I sell them in my artfire?  Maybe once I improve the pattern.   I will make a few more tams.  I am interested in doing another Africa tam with a drawstring and the older style brims I used to do.








I am working on some baby koalas.  I received a call towards the end of March from my alma mater.  They want to renovate the freshman dorm and quite frankly that renovation was long overdue.  I offered to donate my baby koalas with purple scarves and two C's embroidered into them to the college surcie shop with all the proceeds going to support renovating the freshman dorm.  Koalas are the school's mascot.  The director of alumnae affairs loved the idea so I'm going to meet with her next week about it. 


I attended the Columbia College senior show yesterday.  It was a great show.  I spoke with my old professors and some of the students that I knew.  I finally picked up a package from one of them that I was supposed to have gotten nearly a year ago.  Well I don't make it over there very often, the college is not near where I live or work.  The kids always love going to shows not for the art but for the food.  Can't much blame them though lol.

Last weekend we had taken them to the Columbia International Festival.  They thoroughly enjoyed that.    I hadn't been to one since high school so I was looking forward to it also.  We were given passports at the door and had to visit the exhibits to get signatures or stamps from the representatives there.

 This was a Native American show that took place on the center stage.

 Isn't this a gorgeous crochet hat?  This was at the South African exhibit.  I love the stitch.

The picture to the right was the Turkey exhibit.

 To the left is part of the Phillippines exhibit and the picture to the right is from the Mexico exhibit.

This picture shows the kids with the Chinese panda.  It was really cute.  There was a little girl, no more than four or five, that was signing the passports for China.  When she signed my six year old's my six year old told her "thank you" in Mandarin Chinese.  Boy was that little girl surprised!  There was a gorgeous parrot at the Australia exhibit.  It was pink and light gray and I had never seen one like it.  A beautiful bird.  So many interesting items and great people.  We even got to see the parade of countries.  We had a great time.

What have I been up to?

Well I'm still crafting, slowly but surely.  I did another crochet hook case, this time in cotton with no pockets.  It holds all of my hooks (over 20) with room to spare for 13 more + stitchmarkers.  I did a few ACEOs the other night while watching Hancock and placed them for sale on ebay.  ACEOs are art cards, editions and originals and are 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. 

I Want Some!  I had some new gouache paint I wanted to try out...I can't say I am pleased with them.  They were more opaque than transparent unlike the other gouache I used to use so I am on the fence about them.

Lunch!

Peekaboo!

Peaceful Reflections.

The Stalker.

Curiosity.  This one is a little older---I completed this in May of 2010 and for some reason kept him around.

Here is a portfolio piece I am working on.  I was cleaning (hence the scattered supplies) around my workspace.  This is far more complete now.  These hands are drawn from life which limits my time that I worked on them (I only do life drawing from natural light).  My portfolio work is a far cry different from my ACEO work to the point where there is a definite style divergence. This piece is part of a series that is going to consists of 2d and 3d work.  It kind of segues from my previous series, Lost Within, and touches down on psychological aspects of the Black experience in America more so than the spiritual which is the primary catalyst for the Lost Within series.

This is some old work.  All of these are ACEOs except the woman and child.  That is 5 x 7 inches.

I probably won't sell on ebay for awhile now.  It's been over 3 months since I last sold and I'm not pleased with some new changes they have implemented since then. The final value fee now applies to postage, too. They are doing this to stop people overcharging for shipping. Now we would have to put up postage to cover these fees. If we charge free shipping, then PayPal takes it as price of item, and we pay more fees there, too.  This mean we as sellers have to counter this with an increase in our prices for the buyers.   I understand they want to discourage sellers overpricing shipping but I wish they had kept this change to the problematic areas such as electronics and not art.    I wish I could find another market for ACEOs.  So far ebay has been good to me for those.  I only sold one on Etsy (over the course of 2.5 years) and haven't really seen anywhere else where the art has flourished.  I will probably just start doing swaps and selling the prints I have left over to test the waters in my artfire.

Spring Sale on Artfire

I am doing a Spring Sale on my Artfire for the next month. 

Put in coupon code SPRING15 to get 15% off of your next purchase at http://kreative.artfire.com! 

A few days, a few projects

First things first.  I went to a local shop, Sid and Nancy, in a local area shopping district, Five Points, with some of my wares to sell.  They were well received and I ended up commissioning four of my Soft Swirl Caps and two of my visor caps.  I was pleasantly surprised that a pair of my soft elegance earrings had sold also (yay!).  I'm going to see how well my hats do here before making a summer line in cotton.

Anywho here are the craft projects I've been working on:

This is a hat I posted previously that I was making for my husband.  I finally put the canvas into the visor and finished it up for him.

My stepdaughter made some leeway with the granny square bag and is presently working on the handles (with my help and guidance of course).  I like how it came out even if it is a little loud.  The yarn makes its own pattern with the squares.

Warm Black Around Town Crochet Cap.  This will go up for sale in my artfire shop soon.  I love this yarn and the way it came out.

Cotton Around Town Summer Cap

I went to Michaels a few days back and found this beautiful cotton yarn in Wild Berry on sale.  It is the Loops and Thread brand and is really soft, even softer than Lily's, which is the off-white yarn that is used. 

I'm more than likely going to work on more drawings for awhile.

Drawing

The last few days I have not lifted my crochet hook.  Well actually I did make another Around Town Cap in a warm black but that was about two days ago.  Since then, I have been attacking my sketch book with all of the ideas that come tumbling from my mind from time to time.  This is the inspiration that has eluded me the past couple of months.  I am back to building my portfolio...the only question is, where am I going to put all of these drawings and sculptures when I am done?  Usually I just draw but my inspiration transcends the two dimensional realm.  Most of my works will be true mixed media rather than my usual charcoal/ink/graphite/gouache amalgamation that I usually stick to.

I've started on one.  I have yet to take a picture as it is still a work in progress as it has been for the last couple of days.  I've taken for granted that I draw pretty fast.  I am relishing slowing down and paying attention to all the nuances in the pieces like I used to.  I had an art professor once describe me as "anal retentive" because of my attention to detail.  I couldn't just simply "draw" a picture.  I would attack every portion of it I could with detailed technical acuity.  These days I am not so caught up with technical perfection.  Back then I had a desire to be an art conservator so the need for keen observational skills was essential to my goals.  I still would not mind being an art conservator but my life since my early college years is much different.

Now that I'm older I can better embrace the abstract as well as the concrete.  I can remember the frustration of my professors at my refusal to even tip-toe out of my comfort zone of technical proficiency.  I was "tight" at times but it worked for me.  Now that I am older I can leave a piece with an unresolved line and not pitch a fit about it.  I actually have much more to say with my work also that I didn't have to say when I was younger.  I can remember feeling lost when I thought about the messages I wanted to convey which now is not a problem.  I know exactly what I want to say and can focus more on how to say it.  Well my next post will have something crochet/craft related in it.  I promise.

I am looking for ways to incorporate my crafting with my art.  It's just a matter of finding the right binding medium and it is on!

New Artfire Items and Projects

Well, I've been doing more than my share of catch up.


First I completed a few more letters.  O and Y in Red Heart Baby Econo in Baby Blue with a B left to go (for boy).

From my previous post here is what I was sent by my swap friend from Canada.

The pictures do not do this bag any justice!  It is beautifully and skillfully made!  The liner print is gorgeous and has compartments for yarn, hooks, books and other items.  LOVE IT!

It also came with a matching pouch!  Well enough talk...here are the pics!

My stepdaughter is feeling better now after being a little sick and she was very happy to have new yarn!  Here she is working on the crochet granny purse pattern.  I had to help her a little bit but she has the hang of it.

She loves the colorful yarn!

I worked on another hat which is now for sale on my artfire!  I call it the "Around Town" newsboy cap and will provide the pattern for sale some time in the near future.

I love this color! 

What's been going on?

Life.  In between crafting and art, life goes on with all of its various ups and downs.  The best laid plans are usually laid asunder (hence my aversion to definitive plans).  You can't predict sickness, auto issues, or technological failures, you just have to roll with the proverbial punches when they occur.

That being said I did  manage to get some crafting done around the unpredictability of life.

Basketweave stitch bracelet.  I made this out of this beautiful jade green yarn I had purchased from Ben Franklin's in NC last year sometime. 

I was interested in trying this stitch for awhile and I think I like it although I will try it with a bigger hook and larger yarn next time.

It took the better part of a week but I finally came to a satisfactory stopping point with this 9 pointed star baby afghan.  I had to take it a little slow so I could get enough skeins (took 3.5 so far) and also it got a little boring too, which is why I rarely do blankets.  I am pleased with how this came out and eventually will use the remaining 1.5 skeins to make it bigger.  I misplaced the pattern I used but the pattern was for a 12 pointed star...I shortened it to 9.

I made this G (for Gracie) and will make an N and a C for her sisters as gifts.  Keeping the G in shape was a challenge so I have a length of yarn connecting the top of the G and the line portion to prevent it from twisting.

If I work consistently these take the better part of three days to make one.  A more realistic figure would be four to five days given life and my propensity of working on more than one project.

I love making these pillows.  I am contemplating putting them for sale but they would make great swap items.  Speaking of which, I recently completed a swap with a great and talented young lady from Canada.  I sent her the K pillow made previously.  She sent me this BEAUTIFUL sewn craft bag.  It looks professional!  She's sooooo talented.  She also made a matching yarn pouch with a drawstring.  To add to all fo this awesomeness she sent some great yarn!  A yarn called Araucania that has to be some of the best feeling wool I've ever felt.  I've only ever worked with merino wool (which I love) but I will have to look into this more.  She also sent two skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky wool which I have never worked with but can't wait to!  I am looking for a pattern for it now.  For my stepdaughter she sent a few skeins of Lily's cotton with a pattern for a granny square purse.  She's a little under the weather but she was excited to hear about getting new yarn...she's just as bad about yarn as I am (lol).  I am working with Red Heart Baby Econo in baby blue to make some alphabet cushions B-O-Y.  The Y is completed and I'll work on the O next.  I'm going to throw a hat or two in the mix and build up my artfire store some more.  As for Thing A Day, I've been keeping true to it.  I haven't been "completing" a thing a day but I have been working everyday whether it is on a letter or a blanket.

Thing A Day and Gift

Let's see, what have I been up to?  Thing a Day continues in the form of a gift for a coworker.  She was nice enough to do me a huge favor and refused to accept any gift I attempted to customarily give.  So what do I do?  She is a HUGE Tennessee Volunteers fan.  Her entire work area is decked out with Vols memorabilia.  Her husband is a Gamecock fan and half of her car is decorated in Gamecock memorabilia and the other half in Vols.  Well I knew that her gift would have to be related to that so I decided to make a T pillow.  I made up the design as I went along and wrote it out and I think it came out quite nicely.

This was my progress as of last night.  I had already started on the other side when I took this, about half way completed.

Here is the completed Vols T.  I like how it came out. It's about 14 inches tall.

I wrote out the entire pattern and who knows may offer it for sale one of these days.

Here is the other side in white.

I plan on putting it on her desk when she is out to lunch so she would be surprised when she comes back.  She'll know it's from me.

A stuffed crochet star in sport weight yellow baby yarn completed with a 3.25 hook.  I gave this to the kids and the first they they wanted to do was sell it.  I plan on doing another one in worsted weight with a larger hook around the 5/5.5 range.  This would make a great pillow.

Share A Square and Thing A Day

These two go hand and hand :-).

Share A Square 2010 is an initiative in which thousands of granny squares are collected to create afghans for children that are sick with cancers and other illnesses.  They are aiming to collect 12,000 six inch granny squares to create afghans (80 squares per afghan) roughly 150 afghans.  For each square we are to send a tag with our name and our location in the world.  The last I checked over 8000 squares were collected.

Naturally, of course, I cannot think of a better way to utilize my crochet skills.  All the years I have crocheted I have never actually done a granny square.  The one I was tempted to try (to make a bookbag) I lost interest in.  Well I hunkered down and completed some granny squares to send.

Click the picture for more information.

 I made two of the white ones with the pink hearts
 and one of the brown and white ones.  I saw a pattern while I was searching that I may do that has a flower design incorporated into the pattern.  I did these over the weekend so these double also for my Thing A Day.

This hat is a WIP for my husband.  He picked up the gray toned yarn and said, "Make me a hat with this."  He wanted the brim to be that design with a stripe.  I still have to finish the brim...the plastic hasn't been inserted yet.  He likes it so that's that.

Thing A Day may be cooled the next few days as I intend to catch up on some reading but I may do a drawing or two.  I'll see.

"Drawing with a Hook" (Tapestry Crochet)

While I was researching tapestry crochet I came across this as an explanation:

"With Tapestry Crochet, one yarn is single crocheted, while another is carried," explains Ventura. "Colors are switched while 2 loops of the unfinished single crochet stitch are still on the hook..."


I was mulling over this until I realized that I do this anyway.  I could kick myself for not taking pictures of my Puppy Love Pillow before I frogged it but I used this method to spell out P-U-P-P-Y in my pattern.  I ended up just carrying the colors from row to row, one over the other until I needed it (white for the letters, pink for the pillow).  I started doing this because I needed a cleaner way to switch out colors without strings all over the backside.  My hats can be worn on both sides due to this method and I was surprised that it actually had a name out there like tapestry crochet.  Go figure.  Previously I was finishing off then reattaching another color but like I said this left strings that had to be weaved in in the back and I had a higher probability for the piece unraveling whereas doing it the "tapestry crochet" way left it sturdy and weaved in so the chances of unraveling are pretty much nil.  Woe (or headache) to the person that may want to unravel it one day though.  I was working on the Africa bag when I came across doing it this way.  I like how the color peaks through at times.  It works best with single crochet in my opinion unless you are working with a small hook.  Then the other stitches could work.  Just my experience. Also sometimes the yarn just ends while you are working with a color.  In my early crochet days I used to tie them together which would create a lump that would interfere with a stitch later on and leave a hard knot in the piece.  Doing it the "tapestry crochet" way provided a way to keep going fluidly.  I'll post pictures of how I do this later.  I thought this was how you were supposed to change colors...

I love crocheting this way.  It is like drawing with a hook.  The best of both worlds, so to speak.  I will explore this more. I have the time now.  After much anticipation I got the email I was waiting for last night from the Crafty Feast organizer.  I wasn't chosen as one of the 100 vendors this year.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed but I'm also a little relieved.  I was going non-stop building up inventory.  Now I can just sort of scale back and get on to other "non-crochet" related endeavors such as reading, writing, drawing, and painting.  Primarily reading, though.  As for crochet, I can experiment more and I will with this "drawing with a hook" method. 

I wonder what else that I am doing that is considered an actual "method."

Also I am having an issue that I think could possibly interfere with my crocheting endeavors in the future.  It is starting to hurt.  If the crochet hook is the small standard type with a thumb rest it works for awhile, then I start to develop a cramp in the crook in the palm of my hand which radiates up through my wrist.  Very uncomfortable.  I'll switch up (if possible) use my crochet hook that has the thick bamboo handle which alleviates a great deal of the pain.  I am mostly working with the G hook these days (my bamboo handle one is an H) so I may hunt down my polymer clay and make a handle for my G hook.   I'll make a kids "play with clay" day out of it.