The Little Elf Hat Without Portfolio

With all that wool I begrudgingly unravelled (see my Make It So page), I decided to make something for the new addition to our family.  An elf hat – I was probably thinking Anne Geddes photo moment.  Anyway,  I found a really simple pattern to use as a starting point (www.irarott.com).

It seemed like such a good idea but, come the big day (of trying the hat on the baby... not the birth, obviously!)... the hat was too small.  I made one for a friend of mine for her newborn and his hat was also too small.

So the good news is that I can definitely make an elf hat.  The bad news is that I'm not so good guesstimating the sizes!  In the end the hat has been filed away for safe keeping and will no doubt end up in a charity shop.  Very disappointing because they're so cute!

Refuelling the Little Red Lorry!

A lovely friend of mine recently... very recently... okay, yesterday, told me that I needed to refuel the Little Red Lorry because I hadn't posted anything since 2012.  'How rude,' I thought, 'that can't be right.  She's been standing on her head in a yoga class for too long!'. 

Technically, it's true!  I was shocked... but then had to remind myself that the lapse in posts coincided with the arrival of my little boy, a couple of bereavements and a whole lot going on in between and on either side.  Having said that, I haven't stopped making and have a backlog of bits and bobs to post, some of them sitting snugly as drafts. 

Best I get cracking!

Welcome to Willowdom

Just short of 18 months after its creation, Willowdom is thriving.  On a bright sunny day and, thanks to WiFi, this makes a fantastic office-with-a-view and feels like it's a million miles away from the every day.  Long may it last. And that dreaded drain cover that was the bane of my life?  All but been forgotten!

Reminder:  don't forget to look at my Make It So page - it sets the tone for the projects.

Bows, Flows and Butterflies

So, packaging for that long term something I'm working on. Well, I have a friend who has a magical studio with clays and tools... and tea. With a blob of porcelain, my cookie cutter, a funky doily thing and some giudance a butterfly was born.  Okay, I've over-simplified it but the result was this delicate butterfly button.

Combined with tissue paper and ribbon, it looks elegant and keeps packaging simple. Thanks Pinny!

Rainbow Nation in a Pocket

‘…for the displaced or the dispossessed, the migrant or the refugee, no distance is more awesome than the few feet across borders or frontier’. (Postcolonial Theorist, Homi K. Bhabha, in his article Double Vision; Artforum, January 1992, p88):

So I've thought extremely long and hard about the inspiration behind this challenge (see my Make It So Page: Bridging Over the Great Divide) and how, at the very crux of it, you never really know the true thoughts and feelings of those breathing the same air as you, at least until they find themselves in a situation where their backs are up against a wall and, in the words of my mother, 'their petticoats start showing' (or in this case, bloomers too)!

Whether the frontier is an ocean, a continent... Hadrian's Wall... in this day and age and by virtue of the fact that the concept of the Global Village has been accepted and embraced (for the most part), it's sad that a knee-jerk response can see the emergence of archaic and naive ways of Self and Other thinking.  Apparently news of the hanging, drawing, quartering and scattering of the remains of colonialism (psychological or otherwise) to all four corners of this little isle has not yet reached each and every subject.  Eish! and Ja, no, well fine!  Oh how my Scottish, English and Welsh ancestors would be rolling in their graves...

Imagine if peace and love reigned supreme and we could all live in harmony.  How lovely... in the meantime, I thought I might just create a pocket Rainbow Nation.  There was something quite therapeutic about carving my own Utopia out of clay and having the freedom to decorate it any which way I wanted.  And guess what!  No petticoats or bloomers showing!!  (Note to self:... must do something about those mullets...)

Christmas Market

It was a cold and crisp morning in late November when the one I love and I embarked on a mini adventure to our first market.  Although most of what we had was purpose made, there comes a time when objects borne through creativity lurch from one category to the next until the situation becomes slightly dire because of the accumulation of... stuff.  (The categories I refer to are Experimental Creation; a build up of stock resulting in Clutter, and the worst: Junk... which could be equated to a category 5 cyclone in the Tropics!)  In short, no person in their right mind would want to hang on to everything they'd ever created because most people don't have the storage space.  And we are no different.   So on this chilly day, we were hoping to part with most of what we'd made.

The location was beautiful - Myrtle's Courtyard on Hampton Estate set in the gorgeous Surrey countryside.  We were one of 20-30 stalls and were housed in what was the old dairy.  Over a period of four hours, we not only turned into Mr and Mrs Smurf from the cold, but met some interesting artists. Although tucked away a little, after a little signposting modification we had a steady flow of traffic.  Best of all, we made sales!  Granted, we had a few sympathy buys from friends, but we also sold to complete strangers.  I say 'we' ... but really it was the one I love.  Every time I left the stall (mostly to find another cup of mulled wine), he made a sale.  Either way, we prevented a move up to category Clutter or even Junk!

Would I do this market again?  Definitely!



...And then there was Lahry

I know, I know, its been a while... but it's a new year with restored energy and many an idea to explore!  I'd like to introduce you to Lahry Lobster.  He's a very special creature from the deep baring tales of blood, sweat and tears that were his creation...

Gifts are so much more meaningful when they're handmade, homemade and come straight from the heart.  Lahry Lobster is no exception. 

There was much head scratching, examining, adjusting and sticking out of his tongue in concentration - the one I love had decided to make me a birthday present like no other.  It was agonising to watch at times but, overall, rather amusing to see a grown man pouring over modified pattern pieces.  Spreading himself from one side of the lounge to the other and with pieces of paper being stashed wherever he was sitting at that particular moment, the inevitable happened.  I threw what I thought was a scrap of paper away.  In actual fact, it was an integral piece of the pattern... so the head scratching, examining, adjusting and sticking out of his tongue in concentration happened all over again as the one I love came to terms with his loss and started from scratch.  ... and then, eventually, there was Lahry...

As with any family there's a definite pecking order.  Needless to say, I patiently await my turn with The Lobster...