Sherbet Head

Forwarding message.

2009-12-07T06:59:00.001Z

Sherbet Head has moved! You can now find me over at: http://mysherbethead.wordpress.com/

handmade presents

2009-11-16T00:33:00.003Z

So, tomorrow is my Mum's bithday and I decided to make her present. She's a bit crazy about scarves, so I decided to have a go at making my first ever nuno felted scarf. I learned how to do this at the felting workshop I went along to run by Heartfelt by Liz but that was a few months ago now.
I did my research and bought some merino wool online. Unfortunetely, when it arrived instead of being shades of purple and blue it turned out to be a swampy green colour. I didn't have time to return it so I did my best with what I had.

It took me around four hours to get the scarf finished, I forgot what a lengthy process it was! I'm still not too happy about the seaweed-like colour but I'm pretty chuffed that I managed to finish the scarf without it falling to pieces. Once I get some better colours I'll have a go at making another.

I also knit these little hearts from a pattern by Mochimochi to decorate the gift bag:

Happy Birthday, Mum!

half-way post.

2009-10-28T12:03:00.004Z

It's been a busy month what with starting a new job, finishing the banner making workshops, starting a new project with Vegan by Nature and finding out that my membership application for Glasgow Craft Mafia has been accepted.

I have a lot to write about but not a lot of time to write it in. I'm aiming to have you updated by the end of the day, but in the meantime here are some photos.

I've been working on the Fiesta tea set pattern created by Annie Modesitt. I'd tried this pattern out earlier this year for Rachel and I's first stall at Maker Faire but I really struggled with it. I decided to give it another go as it is a great way to learn many different styles of knitting on a small scale before moving on to a larger project.

I'll post more pictures when I'm finished.

Banner workshop update and new project

2009-09-23T11:57:00.006+01:00

Yesterday was the first of three banner making workshops at Glasgow Women's Library and it went pretty well. I think I over-planned the workshop and as a result became quite stressed when it didn't go to plan, but that's something I've learned for the next one. Between six and eight women came along and all had very different ideas of what they wanted the banner to look like, but by the end of the two-hour session we managed to come up with a design to work with. Next week, cutting and sewing! I can't wait to see how it'll look. If you missed the first one, don't worry! You can always come along to one of the other sessions.

I don't have to work until 5pm today so I decided to take some time off and dig out my knitting box. A while back I made an attempt at Annie Modesitt's Fiesta Tea Set but my hands were far too clumsy to work my way through her pattern.

I found a few patterns online that I'd like to try out but have to be able to knit in the round, so I'm revisiting Annie's pattern as a way to practice this technique on a small scale before moving onto bigger projects. This was my first row after transferring the stitches onto double sided needles:

Halfway throught the pattern I've just discovered I need another size of dsn that I don't have, I'm off to Mandor's to buy some.

Banner Making sessions @ GWL

2009-09-02T09:40:00.006+01:00

Over the next few weeks I'll be organising and preparing to facilitate three exciting banner making sessions at Glasgow Women's Library. These will take place on:

Tuesday 22 September, 1pm to 3pm
Tuesday 29 September, 1pm to 3pm
Tuesday 6 October, 1pm to 3pm

This is part of Gude Cause which was formed to mark the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement Procession along Princes Street in Edinburgh in 1909. The culmination of this celebration will be a re-enactment of this march on 10th October 2009.

No demonstration could ever be complete without an array of colourful banners and placards, and the re-enactment of the women’s suffrage procession will be no exception.
It'd be great to see some friendly faces at the banner making sessions to use your arts and crafts skills to produce a GWL and WEA banner to be taken on the re-enactment march in October.

Give me a shout if you'dlike some more information, or have a look here:

http://www.womenslibrary.org.uk/2009/09/banner-making/

http://www.gudecause.org.uk/

You can attend one or all three of the sessions, depending on what suits you. Come along and try your hand at banner making in a friendly relaxed environment.

To register your interest or book a place: please call 0141 552 8345 or email loraine.williams@womenslibrary.org.uk or laura.dolan@womenslibrary.org.uk

update

2009-08-31T19:50:00.003+01:00

I haven't been sewing much recently, but here's some photos of my last batch of bookmarks:

Le Tigre stitch

2009-08-02T08:11:00.002+01:00

Here is some embroidery I've been working on for the last wee while. The pattern has been taken from an original stencil by Craig Ibarra.

The outline is worked in back stitch. Once finished, this will be in block black & white, but I'm having to put this aside just now to prepare for a craft stall.

Greenock Telegraph fame.

2009-07-29T18:03:00.005+01:00

Two weeks ago I went along to a felting workshop run by Liz Brown of 'Heartfelt by Liz' at the McLean Museum in Greenock.

On the last day a photographer came from the Greenock Telegraph to take some photos for an article on the workshops. Here I am working on my final project.

I made a dark green cloche hat with a lime green lining. I'm still on the look-out for a ribbon to finish it off. As soon as I do, I'll post some pictures.

Handmade Haven @ Mono

2009-07-02T16:15:00.008+01:00

Sunday saw my second stall with Vegan by Nature at Handmade Haven and our first time at the one in Mono. We managed to end up with a pretty good variety of things we'd made.

For this stall Rachel came up with the idea of a book-theme as can be seen from her amazing peter pan and catcher in the rye cakes. I decided to make some more bookmarks with x-stitch quotes and x-stitch portraits. I swapped the Woody Allen portrait at the last market for an upcycled Joan of Arc journal. I whipped up another Woody for this market because it was a lot of fun to do. I also brought along a crochet blanket that my mum made.
The newest thing I tried was the linen bags with antique lace trims. I hadn't used my sewing machine in a while and had a lot of linen lying around. I bought some old 70's-style pillowcases from a secondhand shop near where I live, turned them inside out sewed them to the inside of the linen and sewed on the lace. They were really quick and easy to make but ended up looking really effective. I'm pretty chuffed with how they turned out.

For more photos of the stall, have a look on my Flickr account

sherbet head @ May Handmade Haven.

2009-06-11T21:38:00.007+01:00

I just stumbled upon this photo taken by Girl Industries at last month's Handmade Haven.

June Handmade Haven

2009-06-11T21:22:00.006+01:00

I have a little stall at Handmade Haven on Saturday 28th June in Mono.

Why not come along and see what's been keeping me busy?

handmade haven.

2009-05-31T19:04:00.005+01:00

What a week! After a silly amount of spent indoors sewing while the sun shone, I had my first stall at Glasgow Craft Mafia's 'Handmade Haven' yesterday. I couldn't believe I'd agreed to spend the hottest day this year in a darkened night club, but I was excited all the same.
The event was held over three floors full of stalls decorated with some of the best makes I've seen. I had a booth with my name on it (literally!) on the top floor which, I'd come to realise, was the hottest floor. This is how my booth ended up looking:

The quality of the photos aren't very good due to the lighting not being too good in the Buff Club. A lot of the photos I took turned out to be a blur because I was a bit shaky.

Here are four of my finished cross stitch portraits which I hung from the top of the booth. You can also see the knitted slice of cake with working LED candle I made for the Maker Faire in March. Portraits from left to right: Mark E Smith, Albert Camus, Grucho Marx, Woody Allen.

The stall was a joint one between Rachel and I. Rachel made all the bakes: two large cakes in the shape of balls of wool with knitting needles, two small thread bobbin cakes and lots of cupcakes with tooled shapes such as jumpers, socks and scarves.

I made the cross stitch portraits, book marks and cross stitch buttons

The market was pretty quiet yesterday but this gave me the chance to have a wee wander round everyone else's stalls and I got to meet some really great people. I get a lot out of hearing about what other people have been making and seeing people working away at something new behind their booth. Most of all I came away yesterday wanting to be more adventurous with what I make and wanting to become more involved in the monthly stalls.

handmade haven

2009-05-24T12:42:00.005+01:00

I have my first stall at the Handmade Haven event which is being run by the Glasgow Craft Mafia. It's on Saturday 30th May, 1pm-6pm @ The Buff Club (enter through Butterfly & Pig).
Please come along and say hello =)

a birthday stitch

2009-05-21T15:04:00.005+01:00

A friend of mine turned 30 last week and was having a 70's themed birthday party. I was racking my brains trying to think of what to get her for a present. Laura is a really big fan or Russell Brand and, since I had just finished making my series of x-stitch portraits, I decided to make one for her too.

I've never really liked Russell Brand and so I watched one of his stand ups while I was making this in an effort to understand what all the fuss was about. I still don't get it but I really like how this turned out.

portraits

2009-05-21T14:54:00.007+01:00

Around a month ago I started messing around with PCStitch Pro 9, one of many cross stitch software programmes I've tried out. PCStitch Pro 9 is really easy to use and has one thing that the others lacked: common sense.
The first thing that I made was a Woody Allen portrait using the photograph transfer tool. I've seen a fair few cross stitch portraits online and I thought they looked really great. I'd tried a few portraits before I settled on the Woody Allen, all of which were in colour and would've been really expensive to do. This one was perfect because it was in black and white.

I enjoyed doing this portrait a lot and, as a result, have ended up going on to do a little series of them. I haven't had a chance to photograph them all yet as I'm considering composition etc. As soon as I have, I'll upload them.

country crafting

2009-02-02T12:35:00.006Z

So yesterday I went along to the Country Crafting event in MacSorley's. I was really nervous at first because I didn't know anyone that was going. A few temper tantrums later and Philip managed to talk me into going.

I remember going to church when I was wee and being scolded for sitting in someone else's seat and I was worried that's what this would be like. Everyone was really nice, it was not the nightmare I'd imagined. A few people had brought along their own craft projets and there was knitting needles and wool so no-one was empty-handed. There was some amazing country music being played and really great cakes with edible knitting magazine transfers on the top.

I was only able to stay for a few hours as I was working last night, but I managed to talk Clare Nicolson- who was running the event- for a wee while. I've liked Clare's handmade things since I first found the craft mafia and I just found out yesterday that she's from Greenock, my hometown. How weird!

my desk.

2009-01-15T16:15:00.001Z

matryoshka

2009-01-15T16:08:00.003Z

I've just finished a present for my friend Aimee which I intended to give her for Christmas. It took alot longer to complete than I expected, but I'm really pleased with the end result.

I made this using a pattern created by the very talented Clare Nicolson, a textile designer and crafter from Glasgow.

want

2008-12-15T11:09:00.004Z

I spotted this antique sewing table on Etsy this morning.

Oh, want!

if you want to destroy my sweater

2008-12-10T08:51:00.003Z

I came across this short video on YouTube this morning by Sara Cox. It's called 'Don't let it all unravel' and the entire thing was created using knitting, or the unravelling of said knitting. I thought the shots where the ball of wool is supposed to be the moon were really strange looking, the movements reminded me a little bit of David Lynch.

freecycle

2008-07-04T22:48:00.005+01:00

A few months ago, I joined a yahoo group called Greenock Freecycle where you can 'recycle' unwanted items instead of throwing them away and no money is exchanged.
I usually receive around 20 emails a day of people selling garden gnomes or electrical cables, but last week I came across an advert for an electrical typrewriter. I emailed back straight away and an hour later I was at a lovely woman called Christine's house collecting my new toy.

I was surprised to find that it was in perfect working order and that there was still some ink left.
I decided to use it to write a long-overdue letter to Katie Haegele who sent me some of her found poems a while back. When I was taking the second photo the flash was far too bright. I put my finger over the flash to dull it down a bit and I quite like the way this looks.

stylophone

2008-06-09T09:50:00.002+01:00

I was in Glasgow last week and had some time to waste before I went to meet someone. I took a wander to Relics and got lost in there for over an hour. I found this amazing wee stylophone for £4 and was dying to get home to have a go. When I opened the box there was a piece of paper inside with a youtube link written on it.
This is what I found:

The strange this is, this guy lives in Leeds...

va-va-vintage! indie market

2008-06-06T23:13:00.003+01:00

I think this is my favourite craft mafia poster so far.

pixel heart notebook

2008-06-06T17:47:00.009+01:00

I love to write and to draw when i get bored on the train and was looking for a new diary today.
I came across a blogger/etsy seller/ crafter on a forum a while ago who goes by the name Lertsis. She makes all of these really nice journals and so I decided to make my own.
I did a test run before I used any expensive materials. Here's my first attempt:

I used strong brown wrapping paper for the cover,

white cartridge paper for the insides,

and a layer of grease proof paper between the two to mask the underside of the pink stitching.
I know 'grease proof paper' doesn't sound so nice but it does the trick!

songs for cake

2008-05-18T16:04:00.003+01:00

From today, the new Firebrand Boy release is available for free download over at 8bitpeoples!

So what are you waiting for?!

boo-hoo etc.

2008-05-17T17:25:00.004+01:00

I have my last ever exam on Wednesday and studying is proving to be a real downer. That and the fact that I've drank my way through all the green tea in the house. Ho hum.
But! A week today is Made in the Shade, a craft market being held in The Lighthouse which will be home to some of the best crafters around for a whole day. I'm pretty excited. I can't wait to start making things again.

Mark E Smith: Squirrel Murderer.

2008-05-15T23:41:00.005+01:00

I don't read NME, but I found this link in the blog of a Fall fanatic who is a good friend of mine.

The RSPCA and PETA were up in arms when Mark E Smith was quoted as saying he would happily "set about an endangered red squirrel with a set of professional hedge-clippers... Squirrels mean nothing to me. I killed a couple last weekend actually. They were eating my garden fence.
He also laughed because his dad runs over seagulls. Did they completely miss the story on the news a few weeks back about the people in Wales capturing grey squirrels and shooting them in the face? Combined with their accusation that mark e smith has an inferiority complex shows just how wrong they've got it.

Read the article here.

Japan braces for UFO attack

2008-05-13T15:27:00.001+01:00

I was going to write about this earlier, but I let it slip and now it's old new... but I still find it amusing. First the Chief Cabinet Secretary and now the Minister of Defense of Japan announce that they believe in UFOs. The Minister of Defense is trying to figure out how to prepare for an alien invasion under the current Japanese pacifist constitution...

I found it on Bloomberg.

April Markets

2008-04-23T15:09:00.001+01:00

clothes swap.

2008-04-16T10:11:00.004+01:00

I just read a bulletin sent out by Pistol Whip Vintage, who is one of my favourite members of the Glasgow Craft Mafia. As part of the Oxjam music festival, The Beat Club are hosting the annual Clothes Swap on Friday 25th April!
I'm really excited as I missed it last year. You can see some great pictures on PWV website.
The ticket price is £5 which gets you in to the clothes swap and free entry into The Beat Club. Storage for swapped clothing will be provided so you wont need to drag it around on the dancefloor with you.
The event is even being filmed for Channel 4's Bite

More felt.

2008-04-15T18:37:00.004+01:00

Unfortunately, as part of my work contract I've had to do clusters of three and four nightshifts in a row every few weeks. Due to some management changes, the passed weekend is the last I'll ever have to do them. Yip-yah!
Anyway, I got through the long 11 hour stretch by a mixture of films (thanks Karena), Game Boy and sewing. I made an order last week for some really nice hand-made felt from paper-and-string (I'm trying to find the link) and so decided to use up all my scraps. I've sewn all these different coloured felt circles and stuffed them. I'm thinking about using either wool or twine to join them all up and make a mobile. It's a work in progress.

This is the happy house.

2008-04-15T17:53:00.003+01:00

C86 is a UK-based digital and mixed media artist whose designs I've been slevering over for a while now. He has a great myspace page which includes some of his most popular work, which comes in the form of t-shirts, badges and prints.
After I got paid I treated myself to one of his t-shirts =) Certain designs are sold via certain websites, but I contacted him and he was super-nice and pointed me in the right direction.
Due to the exchange rate, I got my t-shirt - plus postage and packaging- for £14. Score!

Hotel Fox

2008-03-23T23:03:00.007Z

While I was killing some time before going to bed, I came across pictures of this amazing hotel in Mamiko's blog.

Hotel Fox is in Copenhagen, Denmark and each of the rooms inside have been decorated uniquely by different artists from all over the world. It's extremely expensive to stay there, and would probably be hard to sleep there due to the decor. But it looks great, doesn't it?

The La La Theory

2008-03-19T19:46:00.004Z

I arrived home today to find that I'd received a letter from Katie Haegele, who writes under the pseudonym of The La-La Theory.

Katie has an impressive collection of writing in various forms, such as poems, zines, creatice nonfiction and even a newspaper column. All of this can be found on her website.

My favourite is her found poetry. Found poetry is the rearrangement of a random or 'found' piece of writing in order to give it an entirely different meaning. It's not something I've tried before, but I really love the idea of playing around with the wording to make something mean the complete opposite of what was intended.

I found Katie on the Cut-out and Keep website.

I emailed Katie and she offered to send me some of her things in the post and, in return, I'm sending her a package which I am in the middle of making. More on that later...

sweater skirt.

2008-03-08T11:08:00.002Z

I sold some things on eBay and bought this skirt from DDA

Buy Handmade!!

Bagz

2008-03-06T19:29:00.005Z

As part of my contract for my new job I have to work a few nightshifts each month. I was really dreading it at first, but it hasn't been too bad as it gave me time to finish off my first hand-knit bag!

The pattern that I used didn't have a pocket, but I thought it looked a bit plain. I think it turned out well!
I didn't really think about the measurements stated on the pattern tho, and I feel like the bag is a bit on the big side.
I'm thinking about unravelling it and making the bag half the size, but I wanted to show my first attempt =)

and another..

2008-03-05T23:13:00.006Z

I found another photo!

For about a month between December and January this year I wasn't working. I'd just left an awful job and was waiting to start a new one. I had a lot of free time on my hands and spent a lot of it reading or making things.

My mum jokes that if anything stays still long enough that I'll sew felt onto it. I had these plain purple sillow slips on my bed looking dull and decided to make them look a little more interesting. I used the lid of a vaseline tin (again) to make the 'leaves' and hand-sewed the lot. It took a night and a day to finish, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Heart-felt

2008-03-05T22:56:00.005Z

I'm slowly collecting all of the things that I've made over the last few years and trying to get them photographed so that I can stick them in here. It's not as straight forward as I'd hoped it'd be.

Anyway! Here are some more things that I made a while back for Firebrand Boy.

When trying to think of the sort of merchandise I could make with felt I came up with the idea of these felt envelopes as cd sleeves. I measured and made a paper templates from which I cut the felt, then sewed the edges together. I made the sleeves in five or six different colours, but my favourite is the torquoise-blue. The polaroids which were in a previous blog were used as inserts for track listings for these sleeves.

I've sewn a lot of little appliques, too. It was one of the first things I did when I first started using felt.

This one I made for a card, which ended up being used for some of the Firebrand Boy things.
I like how lame the shapes and stitching is.

Etsy love

2008-03-04T13:51:00.009Z

I'm pretty sure that by now everyone will have heard of, and fallen in love with, Etsy.
I'd like to give the creators a huge kiss. Before its existence, buying handmade was something only those with a ridiculous amount of time were bale to do, as these are often the projects which have little or no promotion.

Etsy has created a space where handmade items can be bought and sold, which is a great approach as now everyone can get involved. And that's the way craft should be.

The Etsy labs are a great source of information and for ideas for things to make.

I have a few favourite sellers who , even if I'm not looking to buy, I just like to look at their space.

FromJapanWithLove is a Canadian living in Japan who sells lots of amazing Japanese products and ships worldwide.
I especially love her collection of buttons and paper cuts. She's also a super-nice girl.
Kawaii!!

KupKup
is the fictional character who likes to find treasures in the bottom of the sea, but can't swim. His creator resides in Spain and makes these amazing little scenes made entirely from felt, along with buttons, brooches and stationary.
KupKup is my favourite.

apak is the combined efforts of two people to create really simple but amazing prints. I've bought a few of their cards before and they looked so great that I wanted to put them on my wall. A lot of their prints have a really washed out, sunny look about them. A lot of their work is created using Gocco (more on that later).
Alive!

week-long slump

2008-02-25T00:56:00.005Z

For some technical reason, my digital camera hasn't been working properly.
I feel as though, for this blog at least, photos are necessary for each post.

But, I have been busy!

On Monday I had to work a dreaded nightshift. In a lot of ways it's a good thing, as I always feel as though I have to have done a lot during the day to make up for the fact that I have to go without an entire night's sleep.

I got up really early in the morning, got ready and set off with two of my cameras: Holga 120 CFN (white) and Lubitel 166B. Once I've used the remainder of the film and developed them, I'll post the results here.

On my way home I came across a little wool shop just behind the Greenock West train station. I picked up loads of different colours of balls of wool and headed home.
Every woman in my family knits, really well. I've stopped and started numerous times, always associating knitting with boring things like arran jumpers and itchy scarves. I searched Etsy for as many 'fun' patterns as I could find.
So far I've completed one of the patterns and am still working on (and waiting to get more wool for) another.

This is my latest 'make':

I needed a lot of help with this one (thanks mum), I get a lot of the stitches mixed up.

The other pattern I'm working on is a dark blue shoulder bag which I can use to put my uni things in. Why do I run out of wool on the only day the wool shop is closed? Argh!!

Cupcakes.

2008-02-15T15:53:00.006Z

I've been crazy for baking recently.

I used to bake quite a lot when I was living in Glasgow and working in Mono. Mono is a vegan restaurant/venue in Glasgow which serves some really good food and hosts a lot of really interesting events. All the other staff who worked in the kitchen hated baking, so I'd spend most of my shift on a Sunday experimenting with new kinds of dessert.

All of my baking is still vegan as a result of a bad experience with eggs when I was 14 years old.
I made these cupcakes at a friend's the other day:

I'd never used food colouring before and was under the impression that food that colour really shouldn't be put into your mouth. I was wrong, these tasted great!

We used this recipe for the sponge-part of the cupcakes. The topping is buttercream which would usually be used for the filling of a cake, with food colourings. I highly recommend the recipe to anyone with a sweet tooth.

If anyone decides to try it out, let me know how it turns out!

Badges

2008-02-11T00:04:00.000Z

I'm pretty sure that for everyone that makes little things like this goes through stages of making the same sort of thing over and over again.
My thing was badges. I made this one for Pip two Christmas' ago.

I cut out all of the tiny pieces individually, used the lid of a vaseline tin as a template for the main body and then stuffed it with cotton wool.
The end result was so effective that I made loads more with different appliques.
One of my favourites being the pixel heart badge, as seen in the top left of this photo (polaroids used for Firebrand Boy cd inserts).
.

I then decided to give the badge-making a rest for a while after making this badge for The Teacups

Textiles.

2008-02-10T23:57:00.000Z

I love textiles. I love looking at them, I love feeling them, I love making things with them.
Mainly everything I've made so far has been from felt. I remember making storyboards with felt when I was younger and it never really lost its appeal. It's cheap, it's easy to use and it's colourful. It makes everything you make look simple and it makes even the simple things look really effective.
One of the first things I made was this applique.

It was for a t-shirt I was making as a homeage to a band called Pony Up that I really liked at the time. It's not so clear in this scan, but you can just make out the word 'up' in the yellow heart on the horse's back.

Introductions

2008-02-10T22:33:00.000Z

So, this is it, my craft blog!

I've blogged a lot of the things I've made before, but they've been in amongst a whole other host of things and, well, it got messy. I wanted to find somewhere that they could have their own space.

Ever since I can remember, I've been crazy for making little collections of things; trying to save the most insignificant of things, being caught up on the tiny details and not wanting to forget anything. I've always kept a diary and can't really function properly when I haven't had a chance to write things down.

My boyfriend told me just the other day that I'm a documenter, that it's my thing. I also love textiles and to make things by hand.

That's where this blog comes in. I get a huge amount of satisfaction at the idea of all of my handmade things being in the one place.

I hope you enjoy looking as much as I do making =)