Blackbird Beads

New Year - New stuff

2012-01-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Good day,

I hope you had a lovely christmas and new year (imagined reader), I know I did. I've been working nights all through January, and so most of my free time has been filled with sleep and early morning bus journeys; that being said, nights can be pretty quiet at times so I have managed to do quite a bit of crochet.

I started making my first blanket, which I have dubbed my bumblebee blanket and it is coming along quite nicely.

My first batch of granny squares!

1. Cream and purple square.

2. Multicoloured Circles.

3. Baby pink flower.

4. Earth-tone square.

5. Blue and cream flower.

New Blackbird presentation cards (so pleased with these!)

Various earrings.

Slightly simple looking bunny amigurumi.

Blackbird ring.

Experiments in scrap - compressed scrap sculpy slices. These remind me of cherry blossoms.

Festive cranberry/apple/bauble earrings.

Equally festive swirly bauble ring.

Anatomically correct heart brooch.

My (very nearly complete) Sex Bob Omb cross-stitch set :D

A beautiful paper snowflake that Steve made.

And finally - one of my presents. A hot glue gun, yay! Im gonna glue so much stuff!!

Merry Craftmas

2011-12-11T08:36:00.001-08:00

Seasons Greetings!

Its been a while since my last post, so thought I'd update you (imagined audience) on what I've been making recently. I ran out of sculpy about a week ago and have been pretty busy with work, so I've been crocheting more than usual (taking advantage of the bus journey).

I also thought I'd run out of aida, which made me sad because I've been aching to cross-stitch recently. Fortunately however I found a couple of offcutts which were big enough to use. Being December I figured I should make something festive, so I made my 2 closest friends some lovely Christmas cards.

Made almost entirely from scratch. I painstakingly cut out the card with a window for the cross-stitch, lined it with paper (to cover the card holding the aida in place) and made a cute little tassel.

Closer pic of the stitching and tassel (the second one came out better). I didnt really think about adding writing until I had finised the border and tree. When I came to do some text I realised there was no way that "Merry Christmas" was going to fit. Oops. I think Merry Treemas is a bit cuter and quirkier anyway.

I even made my first envelope!

On to the crochet! After making the little grey bear amigurumi (from the last post) I decided I really liked the contrast between grey and orange. With this in mind I took a ball of grey wool with me to work and arrived home with a longish grey rectangle. I then cut a smaller rectangle out of an old orange t-shirt and sewed it to the middle of the crochet.

I folded and stitched the bottom third into a pouch, first with grey thread (for strength) and then added some chunky orange stitches and a big orange button to achieve that contrast. I added a press-stud for fastening.

This is the perfect size for any small bag (especially compared to the huge purse I use at the moment).

Crochet phone case with button fastening. Big enough for my HTC Hero.

Three little duckies.

I spent about 2 hours re-organising my thread box. It makes me smile to see it so organised.

And finally! Our Christmas tree :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful festive season! See you in the new year!

A productive week indeed (plus some old pictures).

2011-11-25T01:22:00.001-08:00

Ciao!

I started my first real job as a qualified psychiatric nurse last week, hence the lull in updates. I've really enjoyed it and am settling in nicely. One of the things that concerned me about starting this job was the commute. For the past three years (whilst at university) I'd been taking the train, which took about 20 minutes each way and gave me time to get some reading done. I am now having to get the bus, which takes about an hour each way. I'm one of those unfortunate people who gets sick if they read on a bus or in a car, much to my annoyance, but I have found that I can crochet whilst travelling. Better still, it makes the journey practically fly by :) So I've managed to get quite a bit done.

A weeks work.

A little grey bear.

Blue button-eyed bunny.

Pinky grey bunny.

Not 100% sure what this is, possibly a mouse?

A couple of shots of the llama.

Fluffy coat, made by splitting the wool.

Finished product.

Pocket monster/alien things. Very quick to do.

With Sculpy mouths/teeth.

Thread-craft.

2011-11-10T04:22:00.000-08:00

Konichiwa!

I learned to cross stitch when I was about 8 or 9 (I think) in the usual way I picked up a craft. I was bored. My poor mother has spent so much money on me being bored over the years - sets of acrylic and watercolour paints, a violin, those awful scratchy copper pictures, bags of beads and big bundles of fabric scraps to name a few purchases. We bought a beginners cross stitch kit, I cant remember the pattern, but It was one of those with everything included. So, I had a go, enjoyed it for a few days and then got fed up (curse you short attention span!). I remember my younger brother (by 2 years) picked it up and actually got quite into it, which I, the mean big sister I was, laughed at him for (sorry Ben).

2 years ago Steven's mum (who knows what a craft fiend I am) gave me a box full of multicoloured thread, which up until a couple of weeks ago I had used mainly for friendship bracelets and a couple of bits of jewellery. I decided to buy some aida and have another go at cross stitch. I LOVE 8-bit / pixelated things and thought it'd be fairly easy to work out the pattern from a picture, one pixel equalling one cross.

Boo (tried to edge it, but I don't like how it looks).

Bob-Omb.

Goomba.

Scott Pilgrim <3 (Getting more adventurous by this point. Scott and Kim form part of a set but I ran out of aida before I could finish Stephen Stills).

We are Sex Bob-Omb (ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!)

My coffee table, covered in supplies!

Some freehand embroidery practice and button flowers.

Dayglobots (freehand stitching on black fabric).

I spent about 3 hours yesterday trying to hand appliqué a Cylon onto a black background, but I think I need to practice a bit more before taking on something tricky, especially when I'm only just learning.

Today's plan involves more robots. Yay robots!

Alex

I've fallen in love with tiny things!

2011-11-08T02:29:00.000-08:00

Guten Morgan!

I've always worked under the premise that smaller equals cuter, and seeing as cuteness is one of my main criteria when I make anything, it only seemed like a matter of time before I was scaling things down even further.

These were inspired by this little hedgehog/mushroom scene, which is to become a ring at some point in the future.

After making that, I sat and drew some more designs for other tiny creature scenes, all of which (I think) will become rings.

I called this one 'Mother and Baby' and it is sooo sweet!

Crab on Beach. I love the level of detail in this one; there is seaweed, shells, rocks and I've tried to make the base itself look like sand, just by using a little pokey tool.

Me and my wonderful boyfriend Steve spent close to an hour (if not more) trying out 5 different cameras, just to see if we could get a better image, but alas, these were the best we could manage with what we had.

Frog on a Lily. Steven said this looked really sad, but I don't see it...

This is one of my favourites. I don't think its true awesomeness can be appreciated in the pictures, but its a happy robot, taking a break from his tough day at the rubbish dump (where he works, obviously), leaning against a washing machine. The base is littered with copper tubing, sheet metal, wires and rocks.

I'm particularly proud of the washing machine :P

And finally, because I managed to get some better pictures, here are some from a couple of days ago. Swirly rainbow snail brooch.

Abstract green ring.

And that is that!

Alex

Comfort Food :)

2011-11-08T01:13:00.000-08:00

Good morning all!

Just a quick plug for an old friend. Anyone who loves, or eats, should take 10 minutes to watch this! www.comfortfood.tv

Written by my ever so talented friend Sandy Nicholson, its a sweet, funny and poignant webseries about the trials and tribulations of a young couple trying to make their long distance relationship work, fuelled by the power of baked goods and desserts!

I cant wait to see where it goes next (and learn some more yummy recipes). But yeah, check it out and if you really like it you can contribute to the cause - http://www.indiegogo.com/ComfortFoodTV?a=267196&i=addr and be in with the chance to win AWESOME prizes (and anyone who knows Sandy will know just how AWESOME the prizes can be).

Anyway, that is all. I'll be back later with a longer post!

Alex

A photo history - Jewellery version.

2011-11-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

Hola!

This one will be a bit longer than the crochet version, mainly because Sculpy provides pretty much instant gratification (and thats what I like!). This is another one that I can attribute to Geek Central Station; the creator's boyfriend uses Sculpy to make tiny weapons for her amigurumi characters. I was intrigued and bought a couple of blocks from my local craft shop. The first things I made formed a tiny christmas set; a santa, reindeer, tree and some snowmen. My mother saw these online and liked them so much she wanted me to send them down to Devon for her.

I started fiddling about with jewellery, (like the Totoro necklace pendant below) but without fixings it was all a bit lacking. Unfortunately for my bank account, there is an amazing craft shop practically next door to university (Leeds Met if your wondering). I had been in there before, for poster projects and the like, but I'd not really looked around. I found a rainbow of Sculpy wonderfulness, as well as fixings galore! £20 later and I was on my way home to get creative.

I can only apologise for the quality of these pictures, my camera phone and actual camera are both terrible.

Totoro necklace pendant.

Bob-omb earrings.

Power-up bracelet (Yes, I like Mario).

Dread beads for my friend Charlotte - Boba Fett and Yoda.

Blackbird brooch (I had the Beatle's song in my head the entire time).

Swirly snail brooch. My first experiment with swirly colours.

Rose studs (my biggest seller).

Goomba studs.

Artists palette pendant.

CND logo (psychedelic maaaan).

Rainbow necklace.

Rainbow heart bracelet <3.

Liquorice bracelets. Not as tasty as the real thing.

First globe brooch. Spent aaaages trying to get it geographically correct.

Purple starts with a yellow spiral. Some of my favourite earrings!

Swirly turquoise heart brooch.

Biscuit bracelet. This makes me hungry.

As does this cupcake bracelet.

Eeew, fruit!? No thanks! (I actually love fruit).

An eternal circle of eat or be eaten.

Second attempt at power-up bracelet. I think they work so much better.

2nd globe. Gave up on geographic truths and made up my own world.

5-a-day!

My tribute to Prof. Brian Cox. Our solar system.

Watchmen bracelet. Another of my faves.

Artoo dread beads. I love these!

Owl brooches.

WOW Horde pendant, made for Jo (as a gift for her boyfriend).

Sunflower ring.

Can't remember what this meme is called. But I made this at the request of my brother.

2nd Yoda dread bead.

I LOVE zim. So, I made a Gir pendant :)

Teeny, tiny controllers. Time consuming, but totally worth it!

My first collection, as it were.

Mario cube bracelet.

Bender Bending Rodriguez. My hero.

Tree frog brooch and matching earrings.

Snail brooch. I think it looks pretty forlorn.

Some doodles and the resultant pieces.

These will become rings at some point in the near future.

Absolutely adorable little autumn scene. (Also to become a ring).

Collection of rainbow heart studs.

My newest design. An abstract green ball ring. Or something like that.

A photo history - Crochet version.

2011-11-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon!

I learned to crochet in the 7 week summer holiday between my first and second year of uni; my boyfriend's mother gave me a hook and an incredibly retro crochet pattern book (which I have yet to make anything from) and within a couple of days I was obsessed. I stumbled upon an awesome blog (http://geekcentralstation.blogspot.com/) and learned of the existence of amigurumi. I loved how quickly these would grow out of chaotic balls of wool in to supercute little guys. At first patterns confused the hell out of me so I worked on the fly, which in a way was better as I got a feel for making various shapes. I can only just understand patterns now, but I still prefer to make it up as I go along (that way it can never be wrong).

So yeah, here are a selection of pictures, beginning with my first effort, up until now.

Just a body and some arms... primitive almost.

This sort of became Frank, from Donnie Darko.

Myself in crochet form.

Pink bunny for Olivia.

Blue bunny with awesome ears.

My little cephalopod :)

Pink and blue.

A duck for a duck.

Nesting Owlets.

Pretty kitty for Olivia.

Second squid.

Big blue dragon.

And finally... my most ambitious and favourite amigurumi, a yellow llama for my wonderful friend Laurabeth. Complete with massively fluffy coat, Sculpy nose and eyes and tiny braided scarf. D'aaaaw!

The (awkward) first post.

2011-11-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

Hi.

I've never written a blog before (I did have a livejournal as a teen, though that hardly counts). I've always considered myself far too dull for anyone to WANT to read about, but after I started getting into crafts about 3 years ago the uploaded photos of my crochet/jewellery got quite a bit of attention, albeit from friends and family.

When I began making jewellery to sell I set up a facebook page, as you do if you find eBay a bit too intimidating, and within a few days I was receiving comments and orders from people I didnt know. This made me squee with happiness and my faith in my abilities and my trinkets grew substantially. I even had business cards printed! Okay, so the majority are still in the box they came in, but the confidence was there!

Due to a heavy workload in my third year of university I had little time to work on anything that wasnt related to mental health, so Blackbird Beads fell by the wayside. By the time I finished, I was waiting for a number of things (NMC pin number, CRB check and a start date for my new job) and had a lot of free time and not a penny to my name.

What I did have, however, was a huge bag of wool, my sewing kit and a box full of unused Sculpy. And this is where my story begins....

I dont know if anyone will read this, but I hope they do. I'm mostly doing this out of an appreciation for craft blogs in general, as without them I wouldn't be anywhere near as full of inspiration as I am today. If one person reads this and feels an urge to pick up a crochet hook or try their hand at Sculpy-craft then I will be a happy bunny.

Much love,

Alex