Brooches from a Japanese Craft Book

I've neglected my blog completely this week.
After the long weekend (last weekend) the week has flown by and now I can't believe it's friday again!

This morning I finished these two crochet brooches.
The patterns are from my new crochet book called Marche Special Crochet Goods (from here) and like all of the Japanese Craft Books it's full of great ideas and gorgeous photos!

The text is of course in Japanese, which I can't read : ( , but the patterns and stitches are described very clearly through diagrams and photos.

on a t'shirt

This is the final print on one of Alvaro's old t'shirts.

I've been a bit unsure about using paper stencils for screen printing as you obviously can't get the same detail as with photo emulsion.
One day I'd love to start doing photo emulsion again! I've seen some blogs describing how to set it up in your home studio (like this one), but you still have to buy all the bits and pieces.
I'm still too crazy about crochet to commit to something new : ) also I'm really happy with the end result of the paper stencil!

The blue dye turned out uneven ... like water.

on my desk

On my desk at the moment are little boxes waiting to be finished and tiny screen printed elephants, for which I have two projects in mind.

I printed the Loggerhead turtle this afternoon and it worked really well!
There wasn't enough light left to take photos so I'll have to show you tomorrow : )

Loggerhead Turtle

This morning I cut out this paper stencil ready for screen printing
(tomorrow I hope!)

It's of a Loggerhead Turtle, which is a beautiful big sea turtle now classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of nature.

When I was younger I found one washed up on Caves Beach in Newcastle
... well I think it was one as it was a very strange place to see it!
Even though it was dead, it was amazingly beautiful and huge!
There was no way I could have moved it alone.

I took photos and later did a painting that I gave to a friend.
I haven't seen the photos for years! I think there packed away somewhere in a cupboard at mum and dad's house with the rest of my stuff.
I'll have to remember to find them next trip to Australia then I'll be able to see if it really was a Loggerhead or not??

Black Beaded Brooch

I finished this grey and black beaded brooch this morning using the grey crochet motif I made ages ago.

Below is the amended pattern and instructions to put it all together.

Materials
I used DMC Perle Cotton # 8 Col 53 Var. Steel Grey. Like this.
2 little squares of dark grey felt. This colour.
25 x 3mm gun metal beads.
3cm brooch clasp.
1mm crochet hook.

To make crochet motif

Center square
ch 16.
Row 1: ch 3 (first dc). ch 2. dc in 9th ch from hook. {ch2. skip 2 chains & dc in 3rd ch} repeat 3 more times. turn
Row 2: ch 3 (first dc). {ch 2. dc in next dc} repeat 4 more times. turn
Row 3, 4 & 5: repeat row 2.
Join, cut and sew in thread.

Middle Layer
Join thread to middle of second ch2 from the corner of the center square (refer to diagram, join where marked J).
Row 1: ch 6. join to forth ch2 from the same corner. turn
Row 2: 3sc. ch3.3sc.ch3.3sc.3ch.3sc
Join, cut and sew in thread.

Repeat this on the other three sides of the square.

Outer Layer
Join thread to corner of Center Square (refer to diagram, join where marked J).
Row 1: {ch 7. Join to first ch3 of Middle Layer. Ch 7. Join to third ch3 of Middle Layer. ch 7. Join to next corner of Center Square} repeat 3 more times on three sides.
Row 2: {(3sc, ch3, 3sc, ch3, 3sc) in chain 7. (5sc, ch 3, 5 sc) in second ch7. (3sc, ch3, 3sc, ch3, 3sc) in third chain 7} repeat 3 more times, on other three sides.
Join, cut and sew in thread.



Beading

After I finished the crochet motif I wove through a thread placing a small (3mm) gun metal bead at the centre of each square within the Centre Square.

Refer to diagram below. The beading is shown in red.




To finish

1. Cut 2 little squares of felt to match the size of the Centre Square (maybe it wont be perfectly square).
2. Sew of the brooch clip to one on the felt squares.
3. Sew the other square of felt onto the back of the Crochet Motif, joining with as invisible as possible stitches (on the crochet side) at each of the crossing points of the squares within the Centre Square. Tie off thread.
   
4. To finish join the two pieces of felt together with a blanket stitch (refer to the second photo).
   

I hope this is easy to understand, if you need any clarification let me know.

enjoy

Autumn Brooch

Here is the first of my Autumn inspired brooches.

It is made using screen printed and hand painted silk, with (of course) a tiny bit of crochet joining the two.

Beautiful Bathrooms

Today I've been working on bathroom designs and above is a collection of my favorite bathrooms from Flickr.

Many of them are from GIGI design whose photo stream I discovered tonight.
His bathrooms are so earthy and tranquil with a made by hand look ... I would love to bathing by candle light in that bath under the mosaic (image 6) right now!

If you click on the image it will take you to Flickr where it lists the author of each photograph. I'm also going to write more about each image in my gallery

poco a poco

I'm in the process of sewing the first of the two autumn inspired brooches, but in the mean time I wanted to show you where I'm at.

The first image is of the freshly screen printed orange silk, also with some hand painted pine cones. These are for the second brooch and I had to do a little bit of experimenting before getting them as I wanted.
Originally I planned to screen print them as well but my brown paint is just too old and glugy.

The second image shows the paper fern stencil I used for the print.

Amber

I finished this new design over the weekend, inspired by a request to make BIGGER earrings and a pendant I have from Damascus, which I love and that would make a great set of earrings (if only I had two!)

At each centre is a drop that is free of crochet on each side so as you can see all the qualities of the amber.
It is particularly lovely when caught by the sun.

New Design

This is a new design I finished last night.

Alvaro mentioned to me ages ago that I should crochet around beads; now I've finally done it and I really like the look.

The crochet balls are combined with a red unfolding lily and copper beads. I found it quite fiddly and time consuming to make, but maybe it will get easier with practice?

Morning tea

Carrot cake is one of my favorite cakes and last night I made one using a recipe I hadn't used before out of The Cooks Companion by Stephanie Alexander.
This morning I tried a piece for morning tea.

It was very yummy (like all her recipes) and I like it because it uses Olive instead of Vegetable oil, but I have another recipe, my "old trusty" that I think I still like better.
I can't remember where it comes from, maybe the woman's weekly?

Here is the recipe (I've substituted Olive for Veg oil):

Ingredients

Cake
2 Cups of sugar (I use brown sugar)
1 1/2 cups of Olive Oil
4 eggs
2 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
3 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt
3 cups of grated carrot
1 1/2 cup of walnuts (chopped) Also sun flower seeds are yummy too.
1 teaspoon of vanilla (I never have vanilla!)

Icing
3/4 cup of cream cheese
2 table spoons of butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Pre heat oven to 180°C (350°F).
Mix together oil and sugar. Add eggs to mix one at a time and cream well after each. Add vanilla.
Combine all dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Fold in the carrots and nuts.
Put mixture into an oiled cake tin ( I use a 25cm round cake tin with a whole in the middle - like a donut) and bake for approximately 1 hour.

For Icing
Cream all ingredients in a food processor (or by hand) and spread over cake when cool.

Note: It is also good without the icing, just sprinkled with icing sugar : )

Autumn

In the mountains I was completely inspired by the rusty orange of Autumn!

I brought back a sticky seed pod, piece of fern and a tiny pine cone (which opened as it dried out) and over the weekend I designed two new brooches. They will be made of crochet and screen printed fabric.

You can see the cloth (silk and cotton) hanging to dry.

red & gold flower ring

I've never made a crochet ring before, so this is my first and I really enjoyed making it so I think there's going to be more.

At its centre is an oval of amber like the Hypatia brooch and in the same way, through it you can see golden/caramel thread magnified behind. It is surrounded with brass beads and a brass flower, which I've been dying to use for a while now!

As it's my first try of making a ring I used an adjustable ring band, but I think next time I will crochet the band as well.

dusty blue rose

This week has been a bit of a slow one for me ... but I did manage to finish this dusty blue rose brooch yesterday. I've had these blue plastic feathers (from here) for a while now with a brooch in mind.
It's pinned on my pink suede jacket which a bought in Newcastle (Australia) years ago, I can't even remember the name of the shop? It was on Darby Street. I pulled it out of its summer storage box last week, but it doesn't really cut it as a winter coat in Madrid (like it did in Newcastle). It's more of a Spring/Autumn coat now.

Syrian Loops

I haven't posted may photos of my earrings on, which I always mean to do. This is a photo of the small green and gold Syrian Loops taken last summer.

The Summer here is well and truly gone as of last week, we've been so lucky it lasted so long (until November!). Hiking in the mountains out of Madrid over the weekend it even snowed, so beautiful!

Madrid Morning

This morning I woke up to our lounge room glowing like a huge lantern. It was so strange and beautiful that I had to take some photos.

Chaise Lounge

This week we have dismantled our bed and used the pallets to extended our sofa to make a super comfortable chaise lounge. For the moment the base is covered with a throw and the arms with my (in progress) crochet rug and some orange cloth that I dyed the other day.
So my little pile of sewing has become a mountain again.

a box of crochet

I'm still slowly working through and beading these pieces. Some are designs I've done before like the Flowers and Bedouin Circles others are new designs that I'm still working out.

Hypatia

I've been working on this brooch for the last week or so and this morning I finally finished it and sewed on the clasp.
It has a grey crocheted front and golden back and is spotted with small dark beads and three amber discs. There is the large central disc and two other small ones through which you can see the golden thread magnified behind.
I've had the amber for a while now and haven't been quite sure what to do with it. It was given to me by a lovely friend who brought it back from Mexico (Thanks Manolo!). I have quite a few pieces mostly in the form of small discs with a channel carved out around the edge, I guess for wrapping wire but also perfect for thread. I also have some beads two of which I used in the caramel Flower Earrings.

I have named it the Hypatia brooch (well, Alvaro named it) as it looks like a tiny galaxy.

You can see more pictures in my etsy shop .

El Mundo

I took this photo today from the studio window. This guy is amazing! I hear him working every day (the sound of the machine anyway) but I've never actually seen what he does.
He has a picture of what he's painting in his hand and occasionally looks down and then sprays it on in great detail ... so good.