Cherries, earrings & crochet...

Occasionally in life other things take over the things that you had planned to be doing and that is just the way it is here right now. 

I always think of crafting as a great form of therapy or a good distraction technique so today, although there is not much in the way of blog musings, there is a little tutorial I've put together for a pair of mixed media earrings... cherry earrings because when things get tough you have to go find your own!

For this project you'll need a 2.0mm crochet hook, some jewellery pliers plus green embroidery thread, 0.6mm green coated craft wire, earring findings, jump rings and I've used 2 x 12mm red 'crochet' covered beads.

First, the embroidery thread is used to make two small leaves to compliment the crochet covered beads and they are quite simple as follows:  make 4 chain...

...then make 1 dc into the 2nd ch from the hook

..make 2 tr into the next chain stitch

make 1 dc into the last chain stitch

Fasten off and make another.  Sew the ends in neatly and put to one side ready to use later.

Next cut 2 x 6cm length of the green wire..

Fold the end of one wire piece over as shown and thread the long end through the bead.  

Use the bent end to catch a thread on the bottom of the bead like a hook (i.e. so the wire won't pull all the way through).

Pull the long end so the wire is almost hidden at the bottom of the bead..

Repeat with the second piece of wire & bead..

Bend the tops of the wires over (equally) and trim to around 1cm..

Make a loop on the end of each and slightly bend the wire to make a cherry stalk 'curve'..

Attach each cherry directly to the bottom of an earring finding..

Now use jump rings to catch the ends of the leaves so that you can loop them on the earring findings too...

just like so..

and that's all there is to it... sweet like cherries!

Happy Making!




All photos & text (c) Addicted to Making 2014

Balance, weaving & bringing in the harvest...

There's been a lot of writing tasks to do lately and not so much time for crafting, which I guess just happens every now and then.  Usually the balance is restored by taking a quick trip out somewhere to gather inspiration or by just having a little rummage through my craft stash and trying something new.

I've had it in my mind recently to have a go at weaving a wall hanging using lots of threads, yarns, ribbons and things that I have around so, I made a loom out of an old picture frame and had a play with a blue/green seaside theme - deliberately wanting it to look kind of 'un-settled' like the sea and leaving wispy ends like seaweed.  I attached a wavy 'drift wood' type stick as a hanger too  (I think I'm yearning for a holiday.. or at least a trip to the seaside!)

Anyway, weaving is quite a slow process and you can't really be in a hurry doing it but that makes it quite relaxing and sort of therapeutic as your mind can simply wander while you work.  It was an enjoyable thing to do and I've invested in a proper small wooden loom for my next piece.

Something else I've enjoyed doing this weekend is bringing in the harvest... not proper farm crops (although there's plenty of that type of activity going on around here) but a beautiful, scented crop of lavender.  

Last year I noticed one of my neighbours had a huge lavender bush in their front garden and, when they were cutting it back towards the end of the summer I asked if I could have some of the stems which they told me they just throw away (eek!)  

This year I offered to cut it back for them which they were more than happy about and meant I could harvest all the flower stems so bit of a win/win.  It didn't take long before I had a huge bucket full (and that was only half the bush!) 

The first thing I did was tie it all into bunches and let them hang for a couple of hours to get rid of any creepy-crawlies.. and while that was going on I nipped indoors to have a quick search around the internet to find the best technique for drying it out without loosing the scent.  The general advice is to hang in a dark, dry room or airing cupboard - or failing that put into brown paper bags to dry out.  I didn't have a large enough room/cupboard or any bags either so needed to come up with a bit of improvisation.....luckily we had a huge roll of brown wrapping paper to hand so I thought I would just make big 'envelopes' for each bunch.

I laid each bunch out on the paper and untied the strings - the scent that wafted up whilst doing it was immense!

 Then I folded the ends up and taped the sides together...

...and finally taped over the ends to make huge envelopes.

After that I made some fine vertical slashes so that some air can get in and help dry it out without getting mouldy. I now  have 5 big envelopes of lavender drying!  

Apparently it can take a good month for the lavender to properly dry out and be ready to remove from the stems so I just need to wait now (although I will give them a little shake every day or so to help separate them out whilst drying too).  

I wonder how many lavender bags I will be able to stuff with that lot?!  At least I should be able to sleep well and maybe I'll even dream up some new tutorials ;-)

Happy weekend!





All photos & text (c) Addicted to Making 2014

Butterflies, Sunshine & Happy Birthday Prince George...

It really doesn't seem like a year since I did a blog to celebrate the arrival of HRH Prince George  and seeing all the pictures of him today with the butterflies (which you know I a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y ❤️...  ) just makes me like him even more -  Happy Birthday to our little King-in-the-Making!

I thought, if he is peeking at the blog from his mum's lap, that he might like to see my fluttery visitors to the garden - the one below is a gorgeous 'Comma' that came to settle on the Buddleia...

We also had a beautiful Peacock Butterfly settle for a little rest in amongst the mock orange blossom bush...

...and I nearly never spotted the striking Brimstone Butterfly that was also resting in the same bush (he blended in so well!) The sunshine has really brought them all out today.

Well -  it just wouldn't be right if I didn't mark the Royal occasion with a new butterfly inspired project would it?! So, what with it being flip flop & sandal weather too I've come up with a simple little summer anklet...

For this project you will need a selection of tools and some flexible beading wire (aka Tiger Tail)..

Plus an assortment of seed beads, little acrylic butterflies and some crimps, jump rings and clasp findings

First of all it's a good idea to plan out the colour order of the butterflies...

Then begin threading the butterflies & seed beads directly onto your beading wire (a great tip is to use crimps as spacers between them - they look very cute!)

Keep adding the beads until it's long enough to fit around your ankle (allowing 2-3cm for clasp ends)

Side on a larger crimp and a necklace clasp of your choosing.  Thread the wire end back down through the crimp.

Squash & shape the crimp with crimping pliers and then thread the beads back up over the ends to cover the wire tail.

Once you've pushed all the beads up the wire, cut the wire from the reel, leaving enough to finish off (usually around 3-4cm)..

Next, link one small & one large jump ring together as shown..

Add a large crimp to the wire end, then the linked jump rings and crimp (as before) - threading the wire end down through the first few beads.

It looks nice & neat if you use crimp covers to hide the squashed crimps or if you have a gap in the wire that needs a bit of filling..

And there you go.. a pretty butterfly anklet to wear on a summers day!

If you don't have butterflies a few crystals or other pretty small beads will do just as well. Of course if you want to you can make it shorter to fit your wrist instead and maybe add an extra such as a little charm.

Happy Making

&

Happy 1st Birthday Prince George 

All pictures & text (c)Addicted to Making 2014

A necklace for Emmeline Pankhurst...

I've been giving the blog a little bit of a makeover lately and, as you might see, it's a bit of a work in progress so please bear with me if it suddenly looks different or things have been moved around!

Anyway, despite the changes, regular visitors to the blog will have already seen a couple of Suffragette inspired projects and with today being Emmeline Pankhurst's birthday I couldn't miss the chance to make a little something could I?!  

Emmeline was certainly a larger than life type character.  She was the founder of the Women's Political and Social Union (WPSU) and leader of the Suffragettes. Born in Manchester and married at 20 she felt very strongly that women should be given equal rights to vote but Parliament disagreed.  Many women supported her from a distance but were too frightened to join and get in trouble so often just wore a small badge or discreet piece of jewellery in the Suffragette flag colours of green, white & purple.

The campaigns got increasingly militant with lots of stone throwing, wire cutting, chaining to railings and worse. Emmeline was imprisoned many times, went on hunger strike and was force fed (a truly horrendous business).  Then came the start of WWI and a kind of truce was called.  As the war progressed women were increasingly needed to fill the gaps in jobs & industries as part of the war effort and eventually that led to an acceptance that they should be entitled to a more equal standing and be able to vote - the first ruling allowed women property owners over 30 to vote and eventually (sadly just after Emmeline's death)  an equal vote to over 21's regardless of gender or status. 

I think Emmeline deserves a little ongoing recognition for her core principals of equality so I've made a birthday tribute to here in the style of an early 1900's Suffragrette necklace - to make your own necklace you will need: 0.6mm gold plated wire, golden chain & various jump rings/eyepins/headpins, 2 x green czech crystals, 1 x small white freshwater pearl, 1 x small purple crystal heart, assorted pliers/cutters.

Begin by wiring up the two green crystals - thread them onto eye pins and make small loops on the opposite ends.

Then thread the crystal heart onto a bail or jump ring.

Thread the freshwater pearl onto a headpin and make a wrapped loop on the end (video for wrapped loops here). Then attach it to a small jump ring and add a further jump ring either side of that (so you have a 'chain' of 3 with the pearl in the middle).

Cut a piece of 0.6mm wire and use pliers to shape it as per the picture below (tip: begin by folding in half over your round nose pliers to make the central loop)

Use a small jump ring (or two) to attach the crystal heart to the loop in the middle of the wire shape..

Next,  attach the pearl to the centre of the wire by opening the small jump rings either side and closing them onto the 'frame' as shown below.. 

Attach one of the green crystals to one side of the wire frame with a jump ring and then use another to attach it to a piece of chain...

Repeat on the other side then adjust the chain to your preferred length to finish off. The wire is fairly flexible so you can tweak the shape of the frame if you need to.

Happy Birthday Emmeline!

Hope that inspires you to make your own Suffragette style necklace. 

I'm pretty excited that there is a new film due for release later this year called 'Suffragette' starring the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Carey Mulligan  & Meryl Streep amongst others *rubs hands with glee* so no doubt there'll be a few more Suffragette inspired projects sometime in the future ;-)

Happy Making !

All pictures & texts (c) Addicted to Making 2014