A Box of Ties

I have a box of ties...and a box of buttons, a few bags of fabric, several spools of thread, and, well, you get the idea. I'm learning to make things, whether from scratch or through upcycling/recycling, and this is my little sideblog to document it all...and keep track of free patterns/tutorials

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Finished a commission tonight.

This is the hair clip part of it, there’s also a pair of earrings using the dark brown flowers.

It still amazes me what you can make with a bit of nail polish and wire.

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Not been actively around online much recently since I managed to fall into something of a depressive funk. I hate it when that happens.

But I’m slowly clawing my way back to reality and have a few things to share.

I keep making Trees of Life while binge watching Money for Nothing. I love watching how they grow, so to speak, no two are ever the same.

I’ve got three different sizes now. The image in the center is the large one, it’s more for hanging on walls and windows than wearing, when the sun shines though those beads it’s like an autumn sunset, in my opinion at least. The top images are the medium size, most of my pendants are this size. And the bottom two are my smallest, they make cute little pendants.

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I went back to playing with buttons instead of nail varnish for a bit.

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I love this so much.

It’s so simple, but effective.

It’s a flameless candle with five wire and nail varnish roses on the ‘front’. I got so excited when I finally finished it.

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I made a rose from wire and nail varnish.

It kinda reminds me a bit of the rose from Beauty and the Beast.

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I made a music note pendant from wire and nail varnish.

I really need to find something better to take pictures with, my phone is failing me with these things.

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A work colleague of my mother’s wants to buy one of my Tree of Life pendants, so I’m making a few different ones for her to choose from.

This is the first. It uses unakite and red marble this time.

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I’ve just sold this one!

My first sale!!

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Had some beads turn up in the post yesterday, so of course I decided to make a tree of life with them.

Apparently I have something of an obsession.

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Had some owl charms show up in the post, so decided to add something a little different to my latest tree.

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The sun actually came out yesterday, so I took a few pictures of my Trees of Life outside.

They didn’t turn out too bad.

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Apparently I have an instagram now.

Do I know how to use it?

Not really.

Is that going to stop me?

...I hope not.

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Needs a bit of tidying up, nothing a smidge of nail varnish remover on a cottonbud won’t cure, and a couple coats of clear varnish to strengthen it but I rather like it. Simple, yet unusual.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time today messing around with wire and nail varnish, when the others are dry and cleaned I’ll post pictures of them too. I seem to be cultivating a fondness for wire and varnish pendants.

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Been meaning to try this for a while.

An adjustable ring base, bit of hot glue, and a button.

Simple, yet effective.

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I can’t quite tell if it’s my natural clumsiness or if crafting really does cause so many accidents, but in the course of about three hours I managed to stab myself hard enough to make me bleed, twice.

And I wasn’t even working with wire this time!

At least I didn’t catch myself on the iron again...

....maybe it is just me being ridiculously accident prone.

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Far too dark.

Should’ve gone with a lighter tie.

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Remember the rose I did a couple of weeks ago?

Well since then I’ve been trying to figure out how to draft paper piece patterns that I can use and maybe sell one day (I gotta pay for these damn hobbies somehow). After some googling I found this delightful little programme called Quilt Assistant (best part about it is it’s free!)

It took me a few tries to figure the basics of it, but once I did I loaded up a picture and away I went. (the image is mine, she’s one of my babies and she’s called The Wriggler)

So, anyway, now I’ve got my QA plan, and my traced pattern, all I need to do is copy it onto some iron on interfacing and pick the ties I want. Whether or not this’ll work is a whole other story.

But that’s something I’ll have to figure out tomorrow, it’s far too late now to be digging around in my tie box and turning on the iron.

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Attempted a wire tree on a rock...well, a stone.

For a first attempt it ain’t too bad.