Day 24- Head of Roses

3/24/14

Today I was just trying to use up all the wonderful yarn that is stuffed so full in a drawer it is impossible to open. Apparently I have a tendency to buy russets and burnt oranges and dark reds and everything in between... so I just started crocheting little circles out of all the coordinating yarns I had.

This is actually one that only has some orange and red; but it is one of my absolute favorites! I bought it on Etsy as a treat to myself. It has a core it's actually spun around, and it has random blobs of sparkle thread and silky scraps. It's awesome. If you love yarn, check out Spinning Wheel Studio on Etsy.

I began stacking them by size and making little variegated rosettes. I sewed them together to form a small piece which I had originally planned on sewing to a hat, but decided would be more versatile as a headband that could be worn over a hat as a decoration or by itself.

I attached all the rosettes together and braided some orange-red jersey with grey to make a band. I originally intended to attach the rosettes to a crocheted had but decided to make it into a headband instead so it could be worn over a knit hat or used as a headband or headpiece. 

Crocheted Headband: Wool, Alpaca, Silk, Acrylic Yarns, Cotton Jersey

Obviously I love crocheting on the round and it's probably not my last project with crocheted circles, so expect to see more. I think they would make a great decor on a bag too and can certainly be painted or beaded as well.

xo,

Arielle

Day 23- Party All Night, Project All Day

3/23/14

Okay, I didn't really party all night. I project-ed all night too. Some friends of mine collect corks and I grabbed a few that I was saving for them for today's project.

I started by slicing the corks with an x-acto knife into thin slices about 2-3 mm wide. They were pretty tough to cut through but once I got the hang of it it wasn't too hard.

I took each slice of cork and painted a round semi circle off the side with silver leaf. Following drying, I glued silver glass beads around the edge of the silver leaf. I had to use tweezers to keep them in place as I applied them, and after I realized it may have been easier to keep them in a nice little line had I strung them with thread, glued them, and then clipped the thread or pulled it out after drying. Live and learn.

I sewed up a camel colored leather pouch with a metal zipper at the top, top-stitched with a decorative silver thread. After the bag was made I applied the decorated cork slices. (I learned my lesson in a big way from the Nail Clutch, which I constructed after sewing all the nails. I realized the next morning after sleeping off all that crazy hand sewing that I should have most definitely applied the nails after sewing. Well, I knew that ahead of time of course, but I figured out how to do it. Practice makes roll-your-eyes-the-next-day perfect.)

After applying all the corks I added a short chain to the zipper to make a pull. I'd like to try something like this again with cork as the base material instead of leather. 

Pouch: Leather, Recycled Cork, Silver Leaf, Glass Beads, Chain

I really love that you can still see the printing on the side of the cork.

Love the texture of the finished piece. I think painting the cork could have been taken further because the cork accepts paint very well. On the other hand, it takes away from the beauty of the original material so there's something to be said for leaving it unpainted. Either drilling with a large bit into the center to make a variation in the surface, or cutting some pieces to fit in between the corks to make it look tiled could be neat. 

xo,
Arielle

Day 22- The Roving Necklace

3/22/14

Tonight's project was simple and very different in its style from many others I've done recently. I played around with some large glass beads to make some really interesting components, but everything I tried to make with them became extremely heavy and so nothing really worked. But I still love them. Hopefully I'll be able to use them on something one day.

The blue glass beads, wrapped with laceweight alpaca yarn and embellished with a vintage crystal.

I started my final piece with some alpaca roving, carefully braiding it. Roving is carded unspun fiber, so it's very delicate and pulls apart easily. I braided two black pieces and a white piece to give a stark pattern to the braid.

I tied up the ends of the braid with a mustard yellow yarn and wrapped almost 2 inches on each side. I really love the yellow tone here, but a metallic thread would have been interesting as well.

Next I crocheted a circle from both the mustard colored yarn and a felted off white yarn. I stitched in an amber colored bead to the top and sewed them all together. The necklace opens with a hook and eye underneath the circles.

Necklace: Alpaca Roving, Wool Yarn, Acrylic Yarn, Plastic Bead
(Strangely resembling a citrus fruit...)

I love the look of the braided roving and have plenty more so this might go into another piece. It would be really beautiful sewn in rows or woven into fabric. Braiding something metallic in with the roving would add a little bit of sparkle as well.

xo,
Arielle

Day 21- Another Day, Another Necklace (Of Contact Tips: Part II)

3/20/14

I was out all day today which called for a smaller project when I got home tonight. I hadn't had the chance to clean up from my copper extravaganza yesterday, so I sat down and started meddling with the pieces, in particular the wider contact tips I hadn't yet used. I also cut a few pieces from a long piece of rubber tubing.

Playing around with the components I noticed that the caps fit nicely and snugly into the ends of the tubing. I decided to use them as plugs and fill the tubes with Swarovski crystal beads. (No, they are not sponsoring the myriads of projects in which I've used their product, but they did sponsor a project I was involved with several years ago and now I have lots of leftovers!)

Stringing the contact tip with copper wire and a crystal to hold it in place. 

Using the contact tip as a plug.

I put together three pieces of tubing decreasing in size, filled them with crystal and closed up the ends with the contact tips. I used Swarovski glass pearls to fill in the exposed side of the contact tip in the same copper color, and added loops to the end so I could attach jump rings.

I put handmade copper jumprings on each piece and connected them with links of elongated copper chain. I used the same chain to make the length of the necklace. I think this piece would also look very nice with a black leather cord and I might end up buying some to change it out.

Necklace: copper, rubber, Swarovski crystal

Here you can see the glass pearls used to fill the contact tips

Loving the modern edge of this piece! I also really enjoy using crystal as a texture rather than a bead. I think it's my favorite jewelry piece I've made so far for Create30.
xo,
Arielle

PS- This item is now available for sale in my Etsy shop! https://www.etsy.com/shop/SalkinAccessories

Day 20- Bedazzled with Copper Contact Tips

3/19/14

Today I'm finally getting back to my workspace after a few days being on the road. I was excited to get to use some of the copper pieces I collected at my dad's lab on Monday since copper is my favorite metal. I planned my project around the copper contact tips, copper wire, and black Swarovski bicone beads.

I started by wiring the contact tips with a crystal on the bottom to hold them in place and a loop at the top to attach to a jump ring. I made the jump rings by wrapping a heavier gauge copper wire around a brush handle and clipping them down the center of the row.

Making jump rings

I made two other components for the piece: double bicone twists and longer wires in a variety of lengths with a crystal at the bottom and wire wrapping at the top.

Bottom left are the contact tips, at the top are the bicone twists, and the right are the wired bicones.

 I cut a 4" length of chain and attached six contact tip pieces in a row, in every other chain link. On top I added rings with the bicone twists and wires. I attached that chain to a full length chain and some bicone twists to what became the top row (the center of the longer chain.)

Once I had the necklace on Eunice, I thought it would be good to add a larger textured copper chain with a black finish to enhance the black crystals. I attached it at the back and the sides of the necklace but the sides hang down a bit as a frame for the center piece.

Necklace: copper, Swarovski crystal, copper plated steel

It was great to get to use my wire wrapping and manipulating skills again tonight because I haven't in a while! I learned most of it working in jewelry production when I was making components for a small handmade jewelry company. I forgot how sore it can make your fingers!

Definitely going to keep my jewelry tools out to use again this week. 

Have an excellent day!

xo,

Arielle

Day 19- A Little Braided Bracelet

3/18/14

Today's undertaking was small, but a finished piece nonetheless. I spent the evening at my grandmothers house and brought yarn and beads with me, intending to make a braided bracelet and add beads. Once I got situated to work, I realized I had needles but no thread to sew in beads, and they were far too small to string on yarn. My new challenge was to make something interesting from the yarn alone. 

I started with the loop for the clasp- I knew I would be using a button I brought as the closure so I created a loop that I wrapped with yarn and knotted to start the braid. 

In every piece I make I attempt to learn something or try a new technique, so even with tonight's simple project I decided to try doing a crossover braid which was something I'd never tried before. I created two parallel braids and switched a group of strings from each to give the appearance of a crossover. 

I braided the two small braids into one fat braid for the middle, and then brought them back to two small braids and knotted off the end of the bracelet. Adding the button neatly at the end was the biggest challenge, and I chose to do a fringe because I thought it added a little flair. When it's on the wrist I'm not sure it lies right, though. It may need to be stitched in the right direction. I ended up tying it off in a knot to keep it smooth. 

It definitely isn't my most exciting piece, but I finished a piece today and learned something new, so I would say it was definitely a successful project. 

Back home tomorrow to oodles of eager materials! 

Xo, 

Arielle 

Day 18- The Patterned Mini Backpack

3/17/14

Pardon the interruption in posts, I was off schedule for a few days but now I'm back!

Today, Mom and I went to the Harrisburg Fabric Outlet today for a little inspiration. I had bought Day 17's ribbon there a few years back and was hoping to find it again, although we found they'd sold out. I found a really unique navy and white printed ribbon with an abstract image of a face on repeat and though that would be really interesting to sew side by side to create fabric. I paired it with a navy/white polka dot fabric and decided to make a mini backpack.

I sewed strips of ribbon 13" long side by side to create fabric. I made a small piece and bordered it with the polka dot cotton to make a small pocket for the front of the bag. I sewed it down and stitched down the pocket making two smaller areas to hold smaller things like a phone and pens, securely. 

I added the polka dot fabric to the bottom of the front panel to be the base, and stitched the corners of the bag towards the outside to give it shape. 

Folding in the corners of the bottom to close the bag.

Folding up the bottom corner and stitching it down flat to the front.

I made an additional piece of ribbon fabric for a flap to cover the top of the backpack, and sewed two pieces of ribbon back to back with a stiff strap material to make the shoulder straps. They were secured to the sides of the bag on the top and bottom. (They do need to be made longer though! I'll need to get more ribbon!)

Backpack, Polyester ribbon, cotton fabric

Matilda models Day 18

That's all for today, but I still have a lot of catching up to do! I'll be in the car and visiting relatives tomorrow so it'll have to be a small portable project. This was a good challenge; I'm going to try another backpack one of these days!

xo,

Arielle