Oh, Yeah! Polymer Clay is Fun!

Last week I taught a bunch of polymer classes. It's been while because I've been busy with paintings and fiber projects. There was a point at which I kinda burned out on the clay and drifted away to felting sweaters and making hats. I'm not thinking of getting back into the big vessel projects that I used to do. Nope, I'm having too much fun making jewelry! Some of it is for myself and some will end up in my Etsy shop. I just read an excellent book,The Blood of Flowers. (http://www.amazon.com/The-Blood-Flowers-A-Novel/dp/0316065765)The protagonist is a young woman living in Iran during the 1600's. She and her mother leave their small village after the death of her father. Taken in by her father's half brother, they work as servants. Her talent at designing carpets and her determination to make a better life for herself and her mother kept me reading well past bedtime. The book inspired the paisley pin and pendant. As a funny side note, I learned that the Farsi word for a European trader was farangi, which the writers of Star Trek Next Generation changed to Ferengi. And I thought they just made that up!

New Painting

< Two 8"x10" paintings for the Summer Greene opening. I'm currently working on a 16"x20" of my three Japanese kokeshi dolls.

My Heroes, Kaffe Fassett and Sophie Digard

I'm in love with the work of Kaffee Fassett and Sophie Digard and see them as kindred spirits when it comes to pattern and color. Sure, Kaffee's color is more intense and they work at different scales, but they both hit my design sweet tooth the same way. Small gauge crochet is wonderful, just look at Irish crochet. Sophie takes that scale and makes it work in sophisticated colorways. I would love to own a Digard scarf but it isn't going to fit in my budget and I enjoy crocheting laceweight wool so I'm starting on my own version. I expect that my colorway will be a bit closer to Kaffee's. I'm going to try to harmonize the colors with smaller joining motifs and a border as Sophie does. I'm using a single strand of Persian needlepoint wool and a #7 steel hook. Persian wool comes in so many subtle colors and if you want to, you can felt it. When I get a decent sample done I'll post pictures.

The Dr. At The Jubilee Concert

I love Annie Lennox but I just couldn't resist making this. I can't be the only one who immediately thought this!

New Work

Here are the first scarves made from the silk neckties I took apart and a new hat style, the necktie newsboy. I got a number of men's tweed jackets at a bag sale and the cap is cut from one sleeve. You can see the cuff buttons are still in place.

Free Labels For Craft Projects.

Anybody want these labels from the ties I'm using? I've seen pictures of a jacket covered completely in labels or you could use them in collages. Email me at lydia@wanderinglydia.com if you want them.

Maker's Euphoria

Here's a quick picture of my newest upcycling material, gorgeous silk neckties. I'm in a wonderful makers euphoria these days,loads of ideas and fingers just itching to get going on them. One of my goals has been to design things that will sell all year. Nobody wants to try on a wool hat when it's 95 and humid. So I've turned to an old friend, silk neckties. The colors and patterns, especially the paisleys, are so beautiful! I'm especially happy to have sourced these at a local thrift store, Stars & Stripes. The shop helps vets and their families. I could have gotten them from an ebay seller but Stars & Stripes was able to match the price for me. When I walked in they had just received a big donation of Pillsbury pizza dough, the kind in the cardboard tube that you crack open on the counter. Problem was, they have limited storage space so they were trying to reach the food bank at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop across town but getting no answer. My friend works there and I usually stop in on Mondays so I offered to take some over. Some of the packages had been jostled on the ride to S & S and had popped open and had to be discarded. So I couldn't help thinking on the ride over to SVP that if anybody rear ended my car the explosion of dough would be pretty amazing! It all worked out fine. They were happy to have it and my "rear air bag" did not go off.