Jewellery trees

Went mushrooming last weekend and found some cool branches.

1. Collected pretty branches and took them home

2. Cleaned them and snapped off any brittle bits

3. Drilled and glued a few together

4. Slapped on a few golden paint highlights

5. Popped some wooden beads on the ends of a few branches

6. Hammered to a painting easel 

(long story involving some very slow drying clay and a failed attempt at making a clay stand) 

7. Hung some bracelets and necklaces from it

It would look really cool on a wall as well, 

but I have no available wall space on walls that aren't rock hard cement..

Here's a ring holder I made a few years back, also added some beads to it yesterday:

And of course this would look really cool au naturel, sans paint and beads!

Chain ch-chain-chain, chain with beads

Here's some prototypes of an idea I'm working on.

So complex and ground-breaking.

Beads. On. A. Chain.

*gasp*

Out and about

On Saturday (12.5) we had our first Siivouspäivä in Helsinki.

I went to town to see what was happening...

Made this fox/shrimp/babycarrot inspired thing from rope at a tent where you could use sewing machines (for free) to make bags, clothes, whatever, from old pieces of Marimekko fabric (for free).

I can't sew (yet..!), so I picked up a ball of rope they had used to secure some tents, cut up some rope bits instead and braided them. 

And it turned in to a necklace somewhere along the way.

Artist Katja Tukiainen was there, and she drew this cute picture for me on a piece of fabric, which I will absolutely have to frame.

One of my friends is working in Laituri, so I dropped by for a visit. 

The exhibition going on right now is about urban design, 

so I picked up this interesting booklet on the subject:

 Here's the evolution of street lights in Helsinki from 1860 - 1970.

Here's the evolution of kiosks (1890 - 1970).

Park benches from 1890 to 1980.

 Loving the plan they have for the walking street:

Some funky tiling:

Necklace anatomy

Picked up this necklace from a fleamarket for 1.50e and took it apart.

I think all those components were well worth the money, I've already used some of the bead caps for earrings, now all I have to do is decide what to make with the rest...!

Curtains and skipping ropes

I visited the UFF on Freda (street in Helsinki) a few weeks back, they had a everything-5-euros day and I found this retro pink and orange curtain that I just couldn't leave behind... 

and I'm not quite sure what I plan to do with.. 

It's serving as a table cloth for my coffee table for now. 

Maybe I'll line it with some waterproof fabric and use it as a picnic blanket in the summer, who knows..

The colours are a lot more vibrant in real life! 

More vibrant colours: 

I found this neon kids skipping rope in the free section at Kierrätyskeskus 

and I plan on making a necklace out of it. 

Just need to buy some good colour string to sew/tie it up with!

Here's some squiggles depicting my plans for making the necklace!

 Not gonna plan it out though,
just twist and secure with thread/string/rope, or maybe even wire, as I go..!

Chevron necklace inspiration

I must must MUST make myself some version of this craft by Evie S. I found from design*sponge:

A necklace full of chevrony goodness made with PASTA. Ah-mah-zing. 

I am having trouble stopping myself from staying home to do this right now (instead of getting ready to go to uni to do some work on my thesis...)

(http://www.designsponge.com/2012/01/diy-project-graphic-chevron-accessories.html)

or

(http://evie-s.com/news/2012/01/03/wearable-art-from-pasta/)

Necklaces

Due to the fact that I usually opt for earrings instead of a necklace, I haven't bought or made many. Right now I'm craving a neon yellow necklace, so maybe I'll get one done in time for spring... In the mean time, here's a few necklaces I made last year: the first is made out of socks. 

Which sounds somewhat unpleasant, but I can assure you, these socks we're thoroughly washed before I used them for this...! And they'd been sitting in a plastic bag in my cupboard for... about 3 years before I finally figured out what to do with those dear, holey, worn-at-the-heels things. I'd seen a tutorial on making roses out of strips of fabric (will link if find it again), and I figured I'd try making them out of strips of socks. It turned out better than I thought it would, I've still got a bunch of those sock roses in my crafting cupboard, so perhaps I should make a headband or something out of those...

The second (above) necklace is just a very quickly done one: I was in a hurry to get to a christmas party, and the theme was white, so with about 15 minutes to spare I cut up some felt, did a bit of glueing, and that was that, out the door. Haven't worn it since though... hmm.. maybe need to make it more... wearable... somehow... 

Roses are red, roses are blue, these ones I made from an old sock or two.

My poetic aptitude is off the charts.