Awwww YEAHHHHH I finally get to do a craft along with GIY!!
I have been crafting many things in recent months after a long period of not making anything at all. Many things were made for birthday or holiday gifts. Since the theme was "anything goes" I am going to post a bunch of different stuff!
SILVERSMITHING
Earlier this year, I participated in my second silversmithing class. We learned how to make different hammered textures, ring making, chain soldering, stone setting, tube setting, how to make ear wires and jump rings, and reticulation. It was a lot more organized and informative than my last class!
Reticulation is my favourite. You just go hard on the silver with an acetylene torch until you get a cool texture (there is more technique involved if you are a more discerning silversmith than I, LOL). We also learned to hammer little cups that make cute details.
"ART"
I also got to some drawing and painting. I used to hand draw birthday cards for people when I had more time on my hands, I thought I'd crack one out for my younger sister's birthday this year (she likes hippos).
I also painted some mini-canvases to match her whale-themed bathroom decor. You can get these at craft stores and it's fairly easy to paint something abstract or basic to match your decor.
SEWING
If you need to practice your basic sewmanship and zipper installation skills, try starting with some couch cushions. They are fairly easy to make (I did f*** one of them up and then had to re-do it, full disclosure) and one can quite easily find materials at the fabric or craft store. These were made from outdoor fabric so you can use them on the patio as well.
I made the infinity scarf below for my sister. You can wear it in several different ways. Because I failed to use a pattern, I had to rip this apart and re-do it.....it seemed so simple in my head ARGH!!!
ICE DYEING
I have seen many online tutorials that say you can't screw up ice dyeing and thus I decided to try it out. I found a nice piece of textured white linen with which to make a cowl neck scarf for my friend. Since linen is a natural fabric, it takes dye well or something like that. First, I dyed the scarf blue as I didn't want any white showing through. Then, I did the ice-dyeing on top of the blue colour. You basically put some drying racks in a bucket or container, scrunch up the fabric, put ice cubes (or snow) on top of the fabric, and then sprinkle powdered fabric dye on top. It is then left over night and as the ice melts it deposits dye onto the fabric. I used black and navy blue dye for this part.
I got a pretty nice pattern out of it for not knowing what the hell I was doing.
Here is the finished scarf. I will have to make one for myself one of these days!
I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone made this month!