My Weblog

Make your own FAIR TRADE dress kit.

2008-08-28T13:01:13+01:00

Until high street shops stock more Fair Trade clothes the easiest place for me to buy ethically made clothes is online. Unfortunately this means you can't try them on until they arrive in the post and then you may have to send them back!

Which is why I think this is such a great idea! Buy the kit, get creative and make your clothes yourself - deciding exactly how long and how wide to make it - whether to add the frills, or make it waist or knee length. Right now these beautiful Gossypium dress kits are on offer.

New Acanthus Web Site Launch!

2008-07-01T00:44:58+01:00

Today the new Acanthus Jewellery web site launches! To celebrate we will be giving a free pendant with every order placed in the month of July'08. This beautiful pendant has a focal glass bead, pink swarovski crystals, dusky blue freshwater pearl and Balinese silver beads. It comes beautifully boxed and with a sterling silver 16 inch chain. (one per person while stocks last)

We hope you will enjoy looking at our new site. If you have any difficulties with it, spot any problems or have any suggestions please let us know - we'd love to hear from you.

Handmade paper lampshade.

2008-02-16T22:37:05+00:00

These pictures are posted as an example of what you can do with 'junk', imagination and a bit of patience. Also, for friends in Brighton, who were not quite sure if I was joking when I said, 'no really, don't take that manky old lampshade frame to the tip. It's just what I've been looking for!'
It used to be a typical slanting cylinder shape - but I was so keen to start re-shaping it I forgot to take a proper 'before' photo. I bent the wire into petal shapes - you can see where the bending snapped one of the joints so I had to mend it with glue and wire.

Then I cut up bits of handmade paper and sewed a running stitch along the bottom, pulling the cotton taut so that the paper gathered into 3D shapes like petals and sewed the 'petals' onto the frame.

Here is a picture of the finished article, firstly with the bulb unlit.

Now a picture of the lamp when it's lit. Paper lampshades like this are now a safe option thanks to low heat, low energy light bulbs, but it's still important to keep the shade away from the side of the bulb.

Glass bubble pendants.

2008-01-22T21:47:18+00:00

These pendants are made using those little glass nuggets you use to decorate round candles etc. I choose pictures to frame behind them, place two back to back, and silver solder them. Like magic they are transformed into beautiful pendants that catch the light. Looking at the pictures is like gazing into a bubble or crystal ball.

Hand-making Christmas gifts

2008-01-17T23:49:00+00:00

We love to make and receive handmade gifts, so this Christmas we hoped to make something for all our family. It can be tricky not only to find the time, but also to work out what to make. This year my husband has been really getting into painting, especially icons, and I have started learning to mosaic. So that was what we did. He was really organised and got his painting done in good time. I was still up to my wrists in grout after lunch on Christmas day! Everything we made was well received and such a joy to give that it was all worth the work.

My husband cut the shapes out of MDF, then I put mosaic on them and made hooks to hang them out of thick copper wire.
I think the handmade hook finished them well and I love the effect you get when you flatten wire slightly with a planishing hammer and anvil, as you can see on the loop at the top. This week I've made some more of these small mosaics, which are now available from my Acanthus Jewellery Web site. I'm looking forward to taking on some bigger mosaic projects this year. Any good ideas?

Turkish delight recipe.

2008-01-08T20:02:20+00:00

May I recommend to you the very pink '211 things a bright girl can do' by Bunty Cutler.
Including how to mix a Harvey Wallbanger, re-point a wall, do a handbreak turn or ride a space hopper in a miniskirt. And best of all, a recipe for Turkish delight. Bunty writes...

''There is certainly something seductive about Turkish delight, with its evocations of the mystic Orient. It's a delicious combination of perfume, taste and texture, the best-made yeilding to the tooth in a gelatinous but firm way, and glowing beguilingly like chunks of amber or some precious pink crystal. The sparkling icing sugar and starch mixture with which it is dusted not only prevents the cubes sticking together in the box but looks wonderfully pretty too. Of course its taste is divine - owing cheifly to the presence of a secret ingredient which I will reveal in a moment. There are numerous formulae out there for Turkish delight but my 'Sultan's Mistress' recipe is based on a traditional one from the Middle East, where Turkish delight is known as lokum.

INGREDIENTS:
* 4 cups granulated sugar
* 2pts water
* 5oz cornflour
* 1tsp cream of tartar
* 1tbsp lemon juice
* 1 1/2 tbsps rosewater (the magic ingredient)
* 1 cup icing sugar
* Oil for the baking pan

INSTRUCTIONS:
The unique physical properties of proper Turkish delight are the result of a delicious alchemy between starch and sugar that produces a heavy sweetmeat with a density something like that of Jupiter. There is no gelatin in my recipe. Gelatin has a tendency to produce transparent, bouncy and rather ersatz characteristics that are at odds with the opaquely viscous properties of the authentic confection. The best Turkish delight is golden of cast or just faintly pink.

1. Grease baking pan with vegetable oil and line with oiled greaseproof paper.
2. Mix 1/2 pint water, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan. Turn heat to medium.
3. Stir all the time until the sugar has dissolved (the liquid will clarify).
4. Now turn up the heat and let it boil, then turn it down low.
5. Simmer gently without stirring, until the syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, when you cand drop a blob off the spoon into some cold water so that it forms a ball that you can squeeze flat between your fingers. If you have a sugar thermometer, you will see that this happens at 238-245 F / 114-118 C. Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside.
6. In a saucepan over a medium heat, mix the cream of tartar with 4oz of cornflour and the remaining water. Stir out all the lumps and let the mixture begin to boil. When it reaches the consistency of glue you can stop stirring.
7. Mix in the syrup and the lemon juice and keep stirring for about 5 minutes. Then turn it down low and simmer for an hour, stirring frequently. This is when the magic change begins to happen.
8. As soon as your mixture has attained a golden colour, add the rosewater and stir well. Have a little taste and if you can't detect the rosewater add a little more until you think it's right.
9. Pour the delicious sludge into your paper-lined pan. Spread it around evenly and let it cool overnight.
10. Sift the icing sugar together with the rest of the cornflour and sprinkle a little on to a board. Then turn out the turkish delight and cut it with an oiled knife into sensibly-sized cubes.
11. Coat your Turkish delight with the rest of the cornflour and sugar mixture. You can layer it in an airtight container with greaseproof paper between storeys. Or you can just eat it.''

Do let me know if you try making some! I'll post a picture when i do.

the acanthus blog

2007-11-06T18:43:35+00:00

for creative inspiration...