Forget-me-knot Emmeline...

It's voting day and I couldn't do a blog post without giving a nod to the Suffragettes and Emmeline Pankhurst who fought so hard to get women the vote!  One hundred years ago in 1915 women were increasingly picking up the slack as their men went off to war.  The Suffragettes had pledged their help to the war effort by calling a halt on militancy at the start of WWI, but still they didn't qualify to vote until 1918 (and then only if over 30).  We take it for granted that we can vote today.

Also, here's an update on my progress with pressing those little Forget-me-Knots and the project I left 'cooking'.  It has taken a bit of time to get the microwaving technique working better and not loosing the colour of the flowers when glossing over with dimensional magic but I am getting happier with the results...

I've discovered that you need to cover the flowers before adding the glossy stuff - whether with clear tape or acetate - unless you do the colour just disappears.  It's much better if you cover them and it can help to keep them where you want them!

...and with the Suffragettes in mind I decided to string this one onto ribbons in their campaign colours.. white & purple with the background of the pendant already being green!

Also, while I was experimenting, I decided to make a small picture to have on my desk and I had these little wooden frames in one of my craft drawers that had come from a paper crafting stash....

...I popped some little flowers on some backing parchment, sat them behind the frame (which I had painted with some gold paint) and glossed over them.

I then added a piece of wire at the back to get the frame to stand....

and was pretty pleased with the result!  

I can see lots of other uses for this technique now... it might become addictive ;-)

What flowers shall I press next...


All photographs & text (c) Addicted to Making 2015

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

Suffragettes, Suffragists & the vintage style rosette...

Those of you who remember my Suffragette post will understand how excited I got recently when I heard that there was to be a re-enactment of the The Great 1913 Suffragist Pilgrimage from Lands End to London to celebrate it's centenary in a small town nearby! 

In the week or so leading up to the event in Corsham, Wiltshire there had been a display of Suffrage images, posters & fully dressed costume dummies in a couple of 'pop up' shops and I couldn't resist popping in to see it all.

Here's one of the fab dummies put out in the sunshine especially for the march!
(note the Suffragist colours)

I had a very interesting conversation with one of the ladies in the pop up shop who explained that there were two types of Suffrage supporters  - the more militant 'Suffragettes' who wore sashes of purple, white & green and had a tendancy to smash windows & generally cause mayhem and 'Suffragists' who also wanted the vote for women but who went about campaigning in a more peaceful way such as this pilgrimage and wore their own colours of red, white & green to distinguish themselves from their rowdier sisters-in-arms.

Apparently they had a good reception in some towns and in others they were shouted & booed at so it wasn't all plain sailing and at times they faced quite dangerous crowds.  In all the walk took around 6 weeks and they managed to collect something like 46,000 signatures for their petition on the way! The event has been organised alongside a play by a theatre group called Dreadnought South West which has been running in towns along the original pilgrimage route to celebrate their amazing, brave journey - you can find out more or buy tickets to see the play here 

So, with all the excitement this morning I grabbed my camera and went along to watch the re-enactment...

It all started at the Methuen Arms... banners at the ready!

Then it was time to march through the town!

A little singing & some rousing campaign speeches!

'Dr & Mrs J E Crisp' welcome the group to the town just like back in 1913..

We want the right to Vote !

A sea of Suffragists outside the town hall

I think it was really impressive - don't they look brilliant in their costumes?  It must also have been very hot dressing up during this current heatwave in all those long sleeves & skirts but at least they had hats on! 

It certainly looked like they had put tons of effort into making everything and I learnt that as well as a local knitting group helping to make lots of woolly flower corsages for the ladies to wear, that a local school had been involved in making banners which were dotted about the town.   

After finding out about the event last weekend I had immediately decided on my own little tribute make for the Suffragists with a campaign style rosette....

If you fancy catching up with the march and would like to make your own version of the rosette here's the step by steps...

1) Begin by drawing out 3 template circles on paper to use as the pattern.  You can make them any size you like for bigger or smaller rosettes but I used 10cm, 8cm, 6cm....

2) Pin & cut your circles out in your chosen fabrics (remember its red, white & green for the Suffragist)....

3) Then make a small running stitch along the outside edge of one of the circles...

4) Pull the ends of the thread so that it bunches up like this...

5) Then flatten out like this...

6) Repeat with the other two circles of fabric...

7) Then stack them on top of each other like this..

8) Find a nice large (vintage) button and a needle & thread.. 

9) Sew the button on top the fabric circles to secure everything then simply add a pin to the back and you are ready to join the march!

A big well done to everyone who helped prepare and take part in the march - I think it was a huge success and it got my vote!


Happy Making :-)

xxxx

My Suffragette Moment...

I do love a good period drama and lately have been enjoying the 'Mr Selfridge' series.  I particularly liked the storyline about Suffragettes (my husband swears I would have been one) and I guess it kind of captured my imagination.  

They used to have their own flag/banner colours of Purple, White & Green and quite often would wear subtle little pieces of jewellery made in Suffrage colours which inspired me to make my own 'Suffragette tribute' earrings and I've written up a little tutorial for you.

Suffragette Tribute Earrings

Tools & Materials
8mm Glass Pearls (2 x purple, 2 x white, 2 x green), 6 x Eye Pins, 5mm Jump Rings, Earring Findings plus Round Nose, Chain Nose, Flat Nose & Cutter Pliers.
(all findings are gold plated)

Follow these steps...

Thread each glass pearl bead onto an eye pin

Make a small loop on the top of each pin with round nose pliers 

Next, begin to coil up the pin with flat nose pliers

Coil it up right to the bottom of the bead

Do this on all the eye pins and separate out in to two groups (1 of each colour)

Connect the following numbers of jump rings together and connect to the bottom of an earring finding (as shown):  1 x 10, 1 x 7, 1 x 5

All you need to do now is add the wired beads to the jump ring 'chains' with purple on the longest (10 links) , then white (7 links), then green (5 links).

Earrings fit for a Suffragette?

Whilst watching TV I normally sit doing something... quite often some sort of simple crochet and, at the moment,  I am making up a load of cushion covers.  They are mainly going to be granny squares in all sorts of colours so, of course, while I'm having a 'Suffragette Moment' I couldn't resist making one up in their colours too....

I am sure not too many people will realise why or what that particular cushion is for but I shall know and it will make me smile :-)

Happy Making!
xxxx