Art Elements Horse Challenge Reveal

It is the Horse Challenge reveal for Art Elements, set by Jenny   (click on the link for the original blog post).  This is a LONG blog post and very photo  heavy as I am lucky enough to host two wonderfully talented Facebook friends, Raven from Raven Craft Creations and Paulette Scott from 'across the pond' on my blog who wanted to take part in this challenge but didn't have a blog of their own.  Please grab a beverage of choice and see their wonderful creations.

You have to read through mine first ;) 

Horses don't really feature in my muse, I love to see them from a distance but I am a little afraid of an animal so big and powerful.  I have a wonderful friend who has horses and she brought one round to my garden a few years ago and let me have a go...

This was a few years ago... 2012!  That is Tanya and the bum you can see is Jazz who came with her.  Tanya was very patient with me she knew she had a complete novice and as you can see I was terrified!  All I kept saying was 'where are the brakes!'.  It is a long way to fall when you are looking down from up there, but I did love the experience and probably would try again.. maybe... in the garden...  possibly...

My month this month has been chaotic.  Gordy, my little cat, has been very very poorly and we nearly lost him but all is well now, except we have a few more grey hairs and worry lines but with my energy completely taken with caring for him and general life stuff I didn't create anything complete, but I did dabble.

I found a photo on Pinterest of a lovely horse with a rider and decided to have a go at a unicorn.  I drew the one on the left one Sunday afternoon.  I was tired, the weather was rubbish and I had a lovely time sat doodling.  I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with it but I carried on regardless.  I showed my husband, who was on his way to work a night shift and he took one look at it and said 'the horn is in the wrong place and it isn't very you, other than that it is ok'.  That put me in a bad mood so on my own I sat and watched a re-run of Speed 2 and sulked!  Then I looked at the drawing again and thought 'he is right.  So I doodled another (not shown).  This one was similar but the horn was moved up.  I showed the husband the next day and he said 'it is better but it just isn't right'.  I tried to tell him unicorns are not real and it is an illustration doodle but something nagged at me.  My third attempt (right) I put away the reference photo and just used my imagination, I work better that way.  I giggled my way through this doodle and when finished I showed the husband.  'That is it' he exclaimed 'that is your style.  It looks gormless'. 

I had to admit he was right!

I did a few horses in glass too, a unicorn - horn in the correct place and a horse and rider.  I might not have completed something 'finished' for this project, although the beads are finished in their own right (and off to new homes ;) ) but I was hoping to do something more but time and life got in the way.

Now I get the pleasure of introducing my first guest for this challenge, Raven from Raven Craft Creations. You can find all the links to visit Raven on Facebook and Etsy beneath her challenge piece, which is amazing!! 

Hello. Yes, my real name is Raven and I am a yarntisan.

I live in the small town of Ligonier here in western Pennsylvania, USA! I have ALWAYS loved to work creatively, however my original medium was food!! I went to Johnson & Wales University in RI and earned my degree in Culinary Arts. I worked in restaurants in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and PA before moving out to Aspen, Colorado right after graduation. Learning to ski (and by that I mean “snowplow”) became a must to say the least! I moved back to PA after one ski season and continued working crazy hours and ALL holidays in restaurants, private clubs and catering companies for the next ten years.

Then, chronic illness caused me to “retire” and go on disability in 2009 at the ripe old age of 30!!

THIS is when the true passion in my story really began. I taught myself to crochet and express my creativity in a way that I could do even on the “not so great” days. It is my outlet, my meditation and my JOY! I love working with quality fibers (none of the scratchy cheap yarn for THIS yarn snob) and making a wide range of products that are functional, artistic or just make people smile. I make everything from clothing to photo props to household decor to one of my favorites, amigurumi toys! I prefer to follow other designer’s amazing patterns so that I can skip all that heavy lifting and just PLAY with my yarn. I get to do what I love every day, work in my pajamas and watch movies and listen to books while on the clock!!! I have a shop on Etsy, a page on Facebook and sell in a local book and gift store in town called Second Chapter Books.

Pattern credit for the sea horse is by Patchwork Moose on Etsy.

Custom orders are always a blast and I love to see where our imagination can take us.

www.facebook.com/ravenscraft.cintron

www.etsy.com/shop/RavensCraftCreations

ravenscraft.cintron@yahoo.com

My second guest is the lovely Paulette Scott and I am lucky enough to own one of her AMAZING dragons... over to Paulette...

I have been a toymaker and seamstress for almost 40 years now. And have been making my own patterns for around 25 of those years.

I wanted to try to see I'd I still had the ability to make a pattern for a new toy..It took almost the entire month to get this little guy made...

I drew the pattern out and thought (wrongly) that I could just jump in and make a unicorn...nope.. I cut out the first one out of satin and, well let's just say it did not look much like a unicorn..( it looked more like a horse that hadn't eaten for over a month.. bad, very bad) made the pattern larger and still, no.. just no...

Next I made the pattern a bit larger through the belly, and made the head smaller...maybe it was the fabric that was the problem, so, I tried velvet, those of you that sew know this was the dumbest thing I could have done....big head and skinny body and legs and when I tried to stuff it....if I wanted something out of a horror movie maybe...nope...

Shrink the head and make the body larger but using up the last of the velvet scraps... oh God help me, I am, upset!?!..Nope didn't work and this one learns to fly across the room...4 tries 4 fails...was my ability to make a pattern lost to age??? One more and if this one fails I give up...

Pull a half yard of fleece out of the scrap box. I cut out the pattern I have adjusted (again) it is looking better... I see it out and it looks a bit skinny but will keep the fingers crossed and stuff it. This one is looking good!! So I sew the ears, horn and eyes on. YES!!!HE IS WORKING!!

Next is the mane and tail, even better!! This guy is going to work!!

Well through the tears and the laughter I found this challenging and almost gave up, but after 4 failures number 5 turned out the way I was hoping it would...Thank You Laney for encouraging me!!

You can find Paulette on Facebook if you want to send her a message.

For even more entries into this challenge please click on the links below

The guest participants are:

Alysen

Anita

Beth

Catherine

Jill

Paulette

Raven 

Sarajo

Tammy

AE Team Members: 

Caroline 

Claire

Jen  

Laney 

Lesley 

Marsha 

Niky 

Sue

 

When the days start to shorten and the lights go on earlier and earlier,  the dew is on the hedges in the morning

 

 

and the bumble bees are not as active or busy; I captured this one on my phone just sitting in the morning mist on todays walk down at the river.

 

 

I start to get a bit down.  I am a SAD sufferer, Season Affected Disorder and when Autumn starts turning all the leaves golden and the hedges give up their sloes for gin making, berries for jams and pies and the tall whispering weeds become fluffy clouds of seeds waiting to be blown into their over winter resting places I start to get miserable.

 

Yesterday, I was walking with my lovely dog walking friends when we came across this little chap..

He gives this gorgeous grin on command, such a happy puppy and he is suffering with a skin condition at the moment which has made him itch and scratch until he is sore, his owner said that the vet has told them he is allergic to something so they are now undergoing various tests and fuss to find out what, but he can still give a grin.

 

My lovely dog walking friend said that she too is a sufferer of SAD and what she does is think lovely things that she can look forward to in the Winter.  Snuggling up with a warm drink and roasting toes near the fire after a long walk with the dogs, through the snow and late Winter sunshine, wrapped up in thick jumpers and socks with welly boots that mean you can crunch the ground whether it be snow or heavy frost.  Seeing the trees shed their leaves making huge piles on the ground that the dogs can charge through and play in.  Watching Defi roll in the muddy fields and knowing I have to go home and bath him seems to cheer her up too, although I am not sure its something I look forward too!

 

But I can look forward to toasty days with the kiln and create my beads, or sit with warm drinks and write my stories in the kitchen or even...

 



finish my crocheting with my favourite little friend, Gordy my little cat, he whose stories we write for Cat World Magazine each month.  He has taken to my unfinished poncho and sits with me whilst I try and finish it, I have plenty of yarn so will be busy this Winter in the evenings.

 

I have plenty to look forward too when the nights draw in and the wind calls at the windows.

 



A few beads from this week, just to remind myself that I have lots to keep busy with.

The fruits of my labour.

 

 

My internet is still playing up, our connection now being the talk of the house, nothing else is more important than who is going to tether me to their phone so I can get on line.  Its going to be at least another week and as its now a long and rather boring story so I have given up lamenting.... almost ... and decided to be positive with the time, oh so much time when I come away from the laptop, and have been busy finishing the decorating in the living room.

Its not quite magnolia but I like it.  Its more a shade of sand and once I sand down the window sills and the wood that surrounds the hearth and the mantelpiece and stain them to the same colour as the window sills, all that will be left is glossing the skirting boards.  I like wood and have always wanted a big chunky wooden cabinet for the TV, I would have liked one of those cabinets that the TV hides in, but the husband likes his big TV so we compromised, its taken several years to compromise but we have.  He found this one for me on eBay, it was from a charity shop up in Birmingham and ticked all my boxes.   

 



 I just love the hinges they are all handmade and aged with that lovely patina of something used and I really love the handle, its like a pair of old scissors and opens a lovely big cupboard that will hide lots of 'stuff'.

You can see from the next picture that our current table for the TV is a glass and chrome affair; I have always hated this thing it attracts dust and living in farm land and with dogs, cats, kids and husband it is always covered in a fine layer of dead skin cells and hair.  Unfortunately my daughter and I between us are too weak and feeble to lift the enormous TV on to my lovely new cupboard, so I have to wait until either my son or my husband returns.... so much for women's lib in this house!

Husband would like me to up cycle this and make it more modern but I just want to use beeswax to seal in its old-ness, so we had another compromise and I put my foot down, its staying as it is, he compromised by knowing when he was beaten!

 

There is something about the onset of Autumn when the sloe berries start to come out in the hedgerows around where I live that makes me want to play with wool in the evenings.  During the day I am in the studio melting glass and getting quietly addicted to listening to Women's Hour and the Archers on Radio 4 followed by the drama of the day, but when the evening starts to close in and end the day, I want to still create, my fingers never really being very good at staying still, my backside being excellent for sitting down for long periods of time so crochet is my Autumn/Winter go to project and this year I am determined to actually use up some of the yarn I have stashed in the wardrobe upstairs.

 

 

It matches the walls!!  This is a nice project a poncho style shawl that is made up of individual squares that are then joined to the main piece on the final row of the square, I am creating about 3 an evening, I am not the fastest hook on the planet, but at this rate with 96 squares to crochet and only 30 done so far this is going to take a while.

 

 

Peonies and Felicity.

So how often do you wander around your garden?  I do it daily, wind, rain, sunshine, snow, hail, I walk around the garden, not because I am mad, ok maybe a bit, but because I am picking up dog poo!  but, I get to watch the garden change through the seasons, it might be an age thing, being over 40 and feeling 20, but you notice things.

 

A few years ago I got a Peony plant.  It did nothing for years.  I got disheartened and before digging it up and chucking it on the compost in a fit of rage, I Googled how to grow them.  Then I dug it up, threatened it with the compost heap, gave it another year and replanted on the west side of the house, it was on the east.  That was probably 3 years ago and it has gone from strength to strength.  Sadly all those years I have watched it bud and then the May winds came and swept it down, so I was disappointed.  Today is May 30th, two whole days left of May and my Peony is glorious, its big, its beautiful and its ready to burst into flower and its still upright!! 

 

 

I have my fingers and toes crossed that the wind will not come and this year will be the year of the Peony!!

 

Defi's Dolls made a debut on Etsy last week, and then I shut the shop!  I can't manage two shops, so I created a section in Izzybeads, called it Defi's Dolls and listed Felicity.

 

Felicity

During the evening, when the torch is off, I sit and crochet.  I can't follow a pattern, at that I am rubbish, so I make it up as I go along and re-create my creatures of glass in wool. Felicity does have three lampwork glass buttons which can be removed if you want to give to a small child. 

 

Nearly June, will we have some sun!!

 

Laney x

 

Daphne the crochet dog

I am still experimenting with the crochet hook.  I am rather chuffed with this stuffed dog, Daphne, as she is completely my own design, I made her up as I went along, from her blue pixie boots to her flappy ears.

 

 

We even had a bit more sunshine for a photo shoot!

 

Lx

Chicken pig and bears, exploring crochet.

What a glorious, sunshiney day.  Its smells like summer is coming, all green and growing. 

 

Iz, Defi and I went to the river this morning, we watched the swans bathing and grooming, the ducks swimming, the golfers on the opposite bank golfing...and losing balls in the river which was most funny... and we smelled the smells that mean summer is coming, wet, green growing smells.  Ummmmmmmm.

 

So.  I have been busy lately, or rather the hubby and son have.  After deciding that the time is right to start giving some lessons in how I make my style of beads, the studio had to under go some renovations.  Both hubby and son are currently on a lunch break, but within the next couple of hours they will be finished.  We just need the pipes tidying away (a quick trip the hardware shop to purchase some clips and bits) and a sweep up and I will be firing up my torch for the first time in over a week....I have missed my torch.  I will be posting pictures of the studio, soon, it still needs a lick of paint to brighten the walls, but I have to melt some glass first, with my nice new torch, the Midrange Plus, and I am now connected to oxygen tanks rather than an oxygen generator so will need a little play to get used to the hotter, faster flame.  I have a massive grin :)

 

Seeing as the studio has been out of action for me to play in, I have been playing with another medium.  Wool.

 

I don't knit, I can only do purl and knit stitch and knitting grows so slowly that I get bored, but I do crochet, not very fast, but faster than if I was knitting.  I have picked up the hooks several times over the years and made crocheted tops and gloves and little things like that, but nothing ever grabbed me as much as making little creatures out of glass, so my crochet stints never lasted long, until now.

 

As I haven't been making pigs and cows and dragons and bears in glass, I thought about filling the gap with crocheted ones.  I have glass buttons, lampworked ones, that I have been wanting to put on something, thought it would be a jumper for me, but had a little epiphany and not much enthusiasm for a larger garment, I found on line a free pattern for a pig and chicken toy by Michele Wilcox, and using my eye buttons gave piggy a goofy look.  Defi loves this toy and is always in trouble for trying to steal it!

 

After I made the chicken pig, as he is called around here when Defi runs off with him, shouts of 'give back chicken pig' echo around the house, I wanted to make something else.  The teddy bear pattern was another free one I found on the internet, again by Michele Wilcox, and when she was made she just looked so naked and cold, so I set about trying to find teddy bear clothes patterns and came up with none.  Very disappointing.  So I picked up the hook, and set about making teddy clothes, with lampwork buttons, of course.  This well dressed bear, has knickers, little top with two buttons, a pinafore dress, hat and shoes.  Best dressed ted in the house I think.

 

Just off out now to fire up my torch and make something in glass, but my interest in wool has definitely been ignited so expect some more animals from me, I have already drawn up plans to create my own patterns, so maybe some glass creatures will find themselves recreated in wool.

 

Enjoy the pictures of Esme and chicken pig in the garden, you can just see Defi in a couple loitering around ready to run off with chicken pig, who is now safely upstairs out of the way!

 

 



 

 

Laney x