Memories ...

Published in issue 18, August 2012

Written by Kirsty from The Little Floating Craft Co

This may sound rather odd but it’s taken me many years to realise that I work my memories of special events or people into quite a lot of my work.  I often think of loved ones or of days out we’ve had while I’m creating and it really does influence the end results.

Living in a metal box (that doesn’t sound nearly as romantic as saying “house boat”, does it?) also influences what you do and means that you must think carefully and creatively about the furnishing and décor you choose to turn your abode into a home, and even those clothes and accessories you keep on board, as space is at such a premium. 

Even on a boat as big as ours there isn’t that much space for lots of decorative items and we also must take into account an adventurous cat, N’Eville (pronounced N-evil, trust me, he earned this pronunciation!) who enjoys climbing. Everywhere. Sigh.  

But as houses get smaller and more expensive it’s not just ‘floaty’ types like me who must consider the dimensions of their home when choosing gorgeous things to keep and to decorate their surroundings.

So when I design things which hold these special memories it’s important to me that these things serve a purpose. It’s lovely to carry memories with you but it’s rather hard to excuse ornaments and a photo album in your handbag but if you were to incorporate those memories into a make-up bag for example, well, that’s just fine!  

Left image: Little Venice Calvacade, 2011

Right image: small sailing boat, Cornwall, 2010

I love to build up elements that make those memories stir. It might be a colour or a texture, or I might incorporate some beads or other physical element I actually collected on the day but more recently I’ve worked out various means of actually getting the images from my camera onto my material or object surfaces.  

I can pick and choose the best method for the finished item.  

This has widened my horizons from my existing block printing or free hand illustrating of different things - decorating and embellishing a storage box, giving a comfy cushion a beautiful finish with an old family photo, a case for your glasses, having a favourite joke or picture of your garden; the possibilities are endless and I’m so excited about it!

There are all sorts of ways of transferring your images to fabric – probably the simplest is fabric transfer sheets which are easily available from craft shops or eBay. 

You simply print your chosen image from your computer and then iron them onto your chosen fabric. In this way it can be perfectly positioned and you can then go on and customise the piece incorporating charms and text and whatever means something to you, or simply makes your finished piece pretty.  

There are also decal sheets you can use to transfer images on to wooden/glass/ceramic surfaces. They don’t need ironing though! 

Don’t forget, it’s always a good idea to seal your work afterwards and something like matte Modge Podge is a great product for doing this, but even a thin coating of PVA glue carefully applied would do the job.

Take a look around you and see if you can give something already in your home a new lease of life and a little more significance?  If you absolutely adore the spring flowers from your garden, keep them with you all year round and make a wall hanging perhaps, or take a memorable holiday or occasion photo and make it centre piece on a cushion or if it’s having your kids smiling faces grinning at you that melts your heart the most, then why not make bunting with lots of different pictures of them having fun combined with their date of birth or the year the photo was taken? Think about what’s important to you and you’re bound to love the end results!  That’s why most of my creations end up involving the water, boats or campervans… Mr LFCC doesn’t like his photo being taken or I’d have Mr LFCC bunting!

Buy handcrafted cards, jewellery and textiles online at:

http://www.littlefloatingcraftco.folksy.com  http://www.littlefloatingcraft.etsy.com

See more of what we do on www.facebook.com/littlefloatingcraftco  - cakes, boats, anything that grabs my attention! 

You can also read my blog at www.littlefloatingcraftco.blogspot.com 

Why we love what we do!

Why we love what we do!
Featured in the February 2011 edition.
Written by Tracey Kifford from WowThankYou

"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do ... but how much love we put in that action."
Mother Teresa

What drives the artist, the crafter, artisan or small producer? Hopefully it’s not always a case of "I must get these orders filled for Valentine’s Day or Easter or else I’m for the high jump!" Surely there must be an element of loving what you do and a sense of satisfaction at producing items that are unique, personal and brilliant? What makes you get out your sewing machine/sketch pad each day - why do you do it?

For some there is an element of breaking free from the mundane day job and entering the freedom of doing what you want to do. For others who have already made the jump and given up the day job there must be a sense of liberation and excitement, of course tempered by the need to pay the bills. How do you feel about what you do? Is it therapeutic ‘chicken soup for the soul’? Does it provide some useful pennies? Does it give you more quality time with your family?

The crafters on WowThankYou have told us their reasons for doing what they do and these range from being able to spend more time with the kids to feeling more at one with the universe.

Ley Holloway from the Vintage Beadery says she works intuitively "If it feels good do it ... I make it up as I go along". Ley adds "Sometimes the best bit about creating is being able to surprise yourself with the result ... and it is not what you set out to accomplish but is just great all the same". Ley recently produced a fabulous piece from the accidental mixture of two sets of beads that occurred simply because she had not cleared away a previous project, "untidy is sometimes good and some of the best work comes from this type of spontaneity ... producing something totally off the wall is sometimes the best way to start a new trend or brand."

Martina Macklin of Sparrow Primitives has a more primeval need to create something new; she says "Creating is something I am driven to do and I have been doing it from when I was old enough to hold a pair of knitting needles ... The best bit for me is seeing something take shape from a piece of fabric and take on a character of its own." She gets a real sense of satisfaction from creating her products and ends by saying "Nothing beats the feeling you get when someone likes your creation enough to buy it."


Pandy Grenville-Evans of Princess Kitten has a more earthy view of crafting and grafting telling us that "the very best bit about crafting is getting all mucky and realising that you have forgotten to cook dinner! You get so involved in what you are doing the whole world disappears." I suppose one could call this the shear organic joy of creating something unique and escaping into your own world just for a little while.


Lisa Galvan-Reyes of Craft on Canvas is an artist and a talented interior designer and uses her skills to do the things she loves. "I have a passion for home interiors and I love to create an individual look." She loves the colours and the challenge of producing a unique design to give an individual look. She sums up her love of crafting, "I love the excitement, the apprehension, the challenge. I also love the variation of painting, cutting and sewing that is involved with my artwork. I love to involve my children, asking them to draw new designs and colour them in. The kids actually give me some great ideas and they know that their opinions are valued in everything I produce."


Charlotte Hupfield from Charllotte Hupfield Ceramics is a talented ceramicist producing wonderful contemporary pieces, which she markets through her own studio and shop. She loves the idea of having her workshop/studio at home and only a few paces away so that when inspiration strikes she can act immediately and produce that ‘killer’ piece. She says "nothing can beat the wonderful feeling when someone buys a piece that I have produced, and knowing that the item will be loved and appreciated as much as I have done."



There are of course added perks to working from home, as Helen Lloyd-Hoare from Moonstone Glass enthuses, "I love crafting, because it means I can be surrounded all day by the people I love. We enjoy working together, and spending fun-filled days at fairs and festivals. My daughters love being part of the family business."





Gaye Milton-Weekes from A&V Designs is of the opinion that most crafters do not do it for the money. She has such enthusiasm that she says "when a new batch of fabrics arrives, I always feel like a child in a sweetie shop!" She loves all her items, and feels this is important, "I know I love what I do and every item I make becomes my new favourite – until I finish the next one! ... Even when I’m not working I find myself drifting into the work room to look at the fabrics which excite me." She concludes, "How do I know I love what I do?" "Well, I’ve not made anything I wouldn’t have loved to keep for myself."

So there you have it - crafters do what they do for a variety of reasons: Immense satisfaction being a great start, an enjoyable hobby that brings in a modest income that can be carried out around being a parent, a ‘release’ from the everyday stresses of modern life ... they do it because they love it and can give over part of themselves in what they do, producing articles from the heart of their creative imagination for the rest of us to admire, appreciate, purchase and cherish.

Happy Valentine’s Day from WowThankYou. I started on a quote, so I’ll end on another one:

"Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."
Voltaire

Make your own Christmas Crackers!

Make your own Christmas Crackers
Featured in the Christmas Issue December 2010
Written by Surf Jewels

The opportunities are endless. You can
use all kinds of paper, from brown to
something colourful.

You can decorate with ribbon or string,
even use holly and ivy for a natural finish.

Handy party coasters, gift tags, gift pouches, hanging decorations, embellishments and patchwork

Handy party coasters, gift tags, gift pouches,
hanging decorations, embellishments and patchwork
Featured in the Christmas Issue December 2011
Written by MinXtures

This is a very quick and easy tutorial with endless possibilities!

　

Materials

Contrasting fabric
3 or 5 mm ribbon

Large needle.

You can use an overlocker, sewing machine or hand sew.

Instructions

1. Cut 2 circles of contrasting fabric.

2. Sew or serge wrong sides together.

3. Fold 4 sides in so they touch, creating a square.

4. Fold corners back to the centre of the square.

5. Thread ribbon, approximately 40 cm, through all corners.

Guest Blog Spot - Betty Bee

Modern Life is rubbish so lets get crafting

It’s been a pig of a day, bad tempered and irritating in equal measures. For many people the only way to redeem it would be to crack open a bottle and put their feet up in front of the TV. That is of course unless you are a crafter.

A crafter will clear the dinner dishes away, put the kids to bed and then with the radio tuned in to something relaxing start working. Not that it feels like work. Whether you are crocheting a blanket, decoupaging a jewellery box or painting a chair you will quickly enter the craft zone and feel your troubles melt away.

The therapeutic qualities of arts and crafts have long been recognised and classes are run in hospitals, prisons, care homes and having been a life long crafter I’m a massive fan of using your crafts as a relaxation tool.

That’s not to say mastering new disciplines is always the fastest way to achieve blissed out contentment. We all know the black clouds that form when an idea doesn’t work out, or a project simply gets the better of us. Our crackle glaze goes lumpy or we sew our tapestry to our trouser leg but often even the moments when you are shouting at your sewing machine are good as they totally force you into the moment. There’s little time to worry about, love, money or kids when you are trying to get the tension right on an ancient singer machine.

For my part I get the most satisfaction from up cycling items. Turning discarded items usually destined for the tip into beautiful pieces you will use and enjoy.

It makes me feel virtuous as it’s a green way to get new things (and I’m a gal who loves to shop) and the feeling of satisfaction I get when I finish reupholstering a chair or make a cake stand out of mismatched pates from a car boot is really hard to beat.

Crafting is also a brilliant way to indulge your creative side and carve out a space that’s just for you. In a world where we are increasingly slaves to our phones and computers (guilty as charged) it actually forces us to step away from the laptop and engage our brain in a more practical way.

So the next time you feel stressed out, don’t buy up all of ASOS.com or eat that family pack of twirls, log onto Creative Craftin and see where the mood takes you. Its natures Prozac-trust me.

Copyright Betty Bee

Betty Bee regularly shares her craft projects on her blog http://talesfrombettybeetowers.blogspot.com and writes a regular column for Vintage Life Magazine “Betty Bees How to…” which show readers step by step craft projects

Betty Bee
0151 625 2842
www.vintagepamperbox.com The alternative hen party for sassy ladies
www.Bettybee.co.uk

www.Bettybeevintage.com

www.bopalena.co.uk