tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36434487298502082612024-03-13T18:44:15.831+00:00vintage beaderyChat about me,my,family,my art work and my jewellery. Local info when I hear about it as well.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-78451208189857314752018-10-24T22:32:00.000+01:002018-10-25T00:20:51.909+01:00Back after ridiculous time awayWell, I haven't written anything on here for an insane amount of time, so here's a short hello.<br />
I've been doing a lot of stuff fusing silver to copper, making pendants. Having spent a lot of time making intricate beaded jewellery this technique is a really great antidote.<br />
Recently I experimented with making a bowl. For the jewellery I use pre-cut shapes as they are really very well priced and I couldn't make them myself for the same amount, but for the bowl I needed to cut the shape by hand, this was easier than I thought, takes a little care as the blades are very fine and break easily.<br />
I used a pair of long silver earrings bought from a second hand market, very 80s. It's very small bowl as I only have a little doming block to make the bowl in.<br />
Here it is, not completely finished in these pictures, needed a little more polishing.<br />
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Not too bad for a first attempt I thought.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0Ilfracombe, UK51.205163 -4.126761999999985251.165362 -4.2074429999999854 51.244963999999996 -4.0460809999999849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-27520487368954915082017-03-01T00:45:00.003+00:002017-03-01T00:45:35.609+00:00Finished Moonlit Water pendantI've been working on a little piece which I've called either Moon Water or Moonlit Water, although I think I might have used the second version for a much earlier piece.<br />
The piece uses white sea glass and silvery and white beads, both vintage and modern. I frequently use silver wire torcs to hang these pendants but I decided that this time I would make a beaded necklace.<br />
(For people who think I've misspelled torc, that's the right spelling, torque has something to do with engines, sorry bit of a pet hate of mine)<br />
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This is very unusual for me, I actually drew a design for this piece, it's even turned out not too far from this!<br />
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Here's a very early stage of the piece, fixing the sea glass to a backing with rows of hand stitched beads.<br />
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This is the pendant finished, slightly out of focus sadly.<br />
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I've recently started using metals, fusing them together. So I decided to make a fastener for this piece out of silver wire.<br />
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The clasp is a T Bar style with a loop which the T bar fits through. It's made by twisting wire round itself and then fusing it with a blow torch. This wire was quite fine so I had to be careful not to just melt it. After cleaning the fused wire is hammered flat, this makes it much harder, work hardened.<br />
In the top image you can see the mini anvil I use to hammer the shapes with a small modellers hammer.<br />
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Here's the finished piece on my work mat. I've added some embellishments to the simple beaded necklace, partly because it felt like it needed something, and also so that the pendant will sit with it's clasp visible at the side rather than at the back as usual. After all if it's such a nice fastener why hide it?<br />
There are a some tiny baroque pearls in this piece which I found on an antique/junk stall, it's a great multi strand necklace so lots of pearls available.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0Ilfracombe EX34, UK51.205163 -4.126761999999985251.165362 -4.2074429999999854 51.244963999999996 -4.0460809999999849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-49173397894807353832017-02-10T21:58:00.001+00:002017-02-10T22:04:40.014+00:00Update on the jewellery front.I've been shamefully neglecting this blog recently, so here's a general catch up on what I've been up to with my jewellery and stuff.<br />
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I still haven't finished the big sea inspired piece with the lace, it's a lot further on but still not finished.<br />
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This is the stage it's at now, I may have to adjust the lace a little in order for the piece to hang correctly when worn. We'll see when the other half of the actual necklace is made</div>
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I've been playing with copper and silver recently, fusing the silver onto copper shapes with a blow torch.<br />
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<a href="https://folksy.com/items/6961410-Copper-and-Silver-Planet-Pendant" target="_blank">https://folksy.com/items/6961410-Copper-and-Silver-Planet-Pendant</a></div>
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<a href="https://folksy.com/items/6965432-Map-of-My-Heart-Copper-and-Silver-Pendant" target="_blank">https://folksy.com/items/6965432-Map-of-My-Heart-Copper-and-Silver-Pendant</a></div>
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All of these will be in my Folksy shop if you're interested, a couple already are, follow the links.<br />
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This stuff is huge fun to make but very unpredictable. It involves blasting the silver with a blow torch until it looks shiny and starts to run. You have to take it through that cherry red stage and out the other side. The trick is to catch it just at that point where it still looks like a piece of silver rather than a puddle, but melts enough to fuse to the copper. I'm getting better at it but it still plays up sometimes.<br />
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The third one down is interesting because it's using a failed silver clay piece. I made some moulds from very fragile shells and tried to recreate them in silver clay, all but one broke when I tried to polish them so I tried using one of the failures this way, very pleased that it worked.<br />
I buy the copper shapes, they are incredibly cheap so why bother making them?<br />
Fine, or pure silver works more easily but it's more inclined to disappear into a puddle too.<br />
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Most of this year has been taken up with decorating, or rather renovating, my living room. More about that in another post perhaps.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0Ilfracombe EX34, UK51.205163 -4.126761999999985251.165362 -4.2074429999999854 51.244963999999996 -4.0460809999999849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-67354014260453740392015-07-01T22:21:00.002+01:002017-02-09T23:17:34.117+00:00Revisiting a piece of jewellery started ages agoI believe I may have written about my plans for a blue and white ceramic piece quite some time ago. I've recently started working on it again and have got to the stage of attaching some vintage lace to one side of it.<br />
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This is the stage it got to before being put aside for months, I've taken it much further now, it's not been planned on paper, as most of my stuff isn't, but there's a definite image in my head of what I want it to be.<br />
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Here it is with all the beading finished, the problem with these 'plate' pieces is the amount of time it takes to attach the beads so that none of the backing shows anywhere. You can tell that it's been sitting around for a while in the first picture, as something has stained the backing! Not sure what but luckily it gets totally hidden in the finished piece.<br />
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In this picture you can see the edge row, this hides the join between the original backing and the leather which covers it and hides the tangled spiders web of stitches that hold all those beads in place. The lace behind it was my first idea for what to use I've sinced added another layer of different lace to go under it.<br />
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the underlayer of lace is attached to one edge of the piece, the other piece of lace will go on top and the two will be gathered and ruched and beaded within an inch of their lives. I want an effect of surf, or at least a suggestion of that, the ceramic pieces and the beads are the waves you see. I know what I mean anyway.<br />
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Here is where it is at now. Totally ungramatical sentence I know but I'm tired and it says what I mean sort of. Hopefully you can see the beginnings of the ruching. The two pieces are joined along the long edges of the top piece, both are attached to the ceramic 'plate'. Eventually there will be bead weaving extending from the end of the lower lace piece to form one side of a necklace. The other side will be all beading, but I expect I'll throw some wierdness in there, holes and twists, that sort of thing.<br />
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As an after thought I recently altered a piece I made a few years ago, which I was never happy with, I realised that it didn't hang right because it was too long. Now any one who does bead weaving will know how hard it is to take it apart, especially if you only want to take a little bit apart and leave the rest intact, well I finally got the time and the nerve to tackle it and I'm much happier with it now.<br />
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The bottom picture show my much younger neighbour modelling the original, the other two are me showing it shortened, it looks much better on Caz but I still think it looks better shorter.<br />
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another 'plate' piece, I call it River.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-5451900490609172812015-05-03T23:09:00.001+01:002015-05-03T23:09:41.978+01:00A new adventureIt's been a while since I've done anything here. Lots happening in my life, after finally passing my driving test in January I now own a little car. It's a Citroen Saxo and although it's quite old it runs ok. Lots of people told me that after you pass your test is when you learn to drive, they were absolutely right. I'm getting used to not having power steering, hard work, but it's good exercise for my arms!<br />
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Well, since picking the car up on Wednesday 28th I've driven home from Barnstaple and back in again twice, have shopped in Tesco and driven down to Ilfracombe. I have a couple of people to thank for this new found freedom. First of all my incredibly patient instructor, <a href="http://driveskills.uk/" target="_blank">Paul Troke</a>. If anyone in North Devon is thinking of learnng I can thoroughly recommend Paul. Secondly my very kind neighbour Ross who came to look at cars with me, I know nothing about them, certainly not enough to choose one to buy, he also helped me park it properly the first time I brought it home, had trouble reversing up hill.<br />
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Today was a big one I drove all the way to Parracombe for lunch at the <a href="http://www.foxandgooseinnexmoor.co.uk/" target="_blank">Fox and Goose</a>. Lunch was delicious, I took my friend Mike up on his offer to park the car for me, got to get better at that. Thanks to Fran for organising the lunch. I then drove in to Lynton to visit the <a href="http://www.lynvalleyartandcrafts.co.uk/" target="_blank">Art and Craft Centre</a> for some gardeners soap. I bought a bar a couple of years ago and it's down to a tiny sliver. Unfortunately the people who make it haven't put their name on the packaging so can't tell you who they are.<br />
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I'm taking part in the first <a href="http://artilfracombe.co.uk/" target="_blank">Ilfracombe Art Trail</a> next weekend. My little house will be open from 10.00 - 5.00 on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th May.<br />
I've just completed a piece that's been waiting for me to finish it for ages. Really quite pleased with it, I bought the sari silk strips recently and it seemed the ideal thing to make the support for this pendant.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RHg7HI0LNuM/VUaX_T5X9oI/AAAAAAAADWk/F4YYqaNUKrY/s1600/Aventurine%2Btwist%2Bnecklace2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RHg7HI0LNuM/VUaX_T5X9oI/AAAAAAAADWk/F4YYqaNUKrY/s1600/Aventurine%2Btwist%2Bnecklace2.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-48407998127404442472015-02-08T22:18:00.000+00:002015-02-08T22:37:01.775+00:00Just a bit of a rambling catch up and new jewellery.It's been a while since I wrote anything on here. Lots happened recently, first of all, and most exciting, I passed my driving test, took 2 and a half years and three attempts. Many thanks to my instructor, of infinite patience, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/driveskills/reviews?ref=page_internal" target="_blank">Paul Troke</a><br />
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All I need to do now is buy a car! That could take a while.<br />
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Secondly I took on the role of chair for the conservation group I belong to, only because we have to have one and everyone else was avoiding the question!<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/CairnConservationCarers?ref=hl" target="_blank"><img alt="Cairn Conservation Carers" class="profilePic img" src="https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-1/p160x160/1920091_427235494045576_1991811175_n.jpg?oh=23578257bacc3e164b5b5a439456d027&oe=554D93E9&__gda__=1435640473_e1313b0b44cba70d4226f5af81d4e518" /></a><br />
So far nothing too scary, just signing forms and supposedly chairing a meeting. <br />
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Few bits of jewellery I've made recently:<br />
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This needs finishing a bit. silver wire melted onto copper heart.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wowthankyou.co.uk/vintage-beadery/products/open-heart-silver-on-copper-pendant/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.wowthankyou.co.uk/vintage-beadery/products/open-heart-silver-on-copper-pendant/" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jct6u_I9uSo/VNfW1ylZ0CI/AAAAAAAADUQ/7nMqiqwtsRo/s1600/Open%2BHeart%2Bpendant%2Bon%2Bchain.jpg" height="385" width="640" /></a></div>
Open Heart, simple silver and copper pendant.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XAR3NKXIyhI/VNfcEO4-SiI/AAAAAAAADUg/43jPBu6QHMM/s1600/DSCN2525.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XAR3NKXIyhI/VNfcEO4-SiI/AAAAAAAADUg/43jPBu6QHMM/s1600/DSCN2525.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is a brooch I was commissioned to make for a friend. sea glass in the centre, czech glass flowers around it and a row of flourite beads with my usual vintage and modern seed beads. The pin is silver wire.<br />
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<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sc-gUYj5DR0/VNfd_pXAnXI/AAAAAAAADUs/bgN-uniKWWw/s1600/silver%2Bwire%2Band%2Bbead%2Bbrooch.jpg" height="516" width="640" /><a href="https://folksy.com/items/6597799-Silver-wire-and-Aventurine-Orbit-brooch" target="_blank">https://folksy.com/items/6597799-Silver-wire-and-Aventurine-Orbit-brooch</a></div>
This is a new style of work, I had this idea running around my head for a while and I made it up as another suggestion for my frend's commission. Just silver wire wrapped around an Aventurine bead. The bead measures about 3/4" (2cm) long.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0North Devon Heritage Coast, Ilfracombe, Devon, UK51.206883394865621 -4.125366210937551.127275894865619 -4.2867277109375 51.286490894865622 -3.9640047109375tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-41025250813862568932014-11-16T20:25:00.000+00:002014-11-16T20:25:53.960+00:00Magic 'Diamonds' from my metal cleaning solution.I've been using cream of tarta,r in place of more usual solutions, to clean fire stain from my pieces after heating. Recently it's been much harder to buy in sensible quantities, I bought some from a local healthfood and baking supplies shop and it was obviously much better quality than I've bought before, I may have been buying the substitute version, or an adulturated version, previously as something has happened which never happened before.<br />
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These amazing crystals grew in the pot, I had made a solution a few days ago, maybe as much as a week, and wanted to use it again today, I stirred it with my finger to get the sludge off the bottom and found what appeared to be a piece of glass in there. Puzzled I pulled it out and found the largest crystal you can see on the left above.<br />
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At first I thought, broken glass, but I haven't broken anything recently and I live alone apart from the cat. Further investigation produced all these beautiful crystals.<br />
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Sadly they will react with moisture and dissolve again eventually otherwise you can bet I'd find a way to make jewellery from them!<br />
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Apparently they will carry an electric charge and there's all sorts of stuff on the net about how to use them, none of the crystals I've seen there are as big or as beautiful, I did add lemon juice to make the solution a tad more acid, maybe that makes the difference?<br />
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I shall just admire them for now until they disappear.<br />
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Just beautiful<br />
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I'd appreciate any knowledgeable person giving me some more info about these beauties.<br />
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Meanwhile here's some of the work that I've made that needed to be cleaned <br />
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This is a bit of an experiment, I bought these copper stars and up to now I've made pendants just using one, I wanted to see if I could make something more complex, there's a bit of an industrial feel with the copper wire, because the silver is applied by melting with a blow torch the results are unpredictable so the earrings are not an exact match. I quite like that, hopefully others will too.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U-mD6Kj_FHM/VGkGW5px4DI/AAAAAAAADRk/Z-lW1OjScCc/s1600/planet%2Bcopper%2Band%2Bsilver%2Bpendant%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U-mD6Kj_FHM/VGkGW5px4DI/AAAAAAAADRk/Z-lW1OjScCc/s1600/planet%2Bcopper%2Band%2Bsilver%2Bpendant%2B3.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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I call this one Planet, it has a sort of Jupitery, Saturny feel to it. There are actually two stripes of silver wire but the top one was thinner and almost melted completely. </div>
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These random effects are really lovely in my opinion. This one is domed slightly to give a more substantial feel to the piece. The chain is a recycled silver trace chain, bought from a collectors market with a fairly naff pendant on it which I discarded.</div>
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There are two new pieces soaking in the magic cream of tartar solution now, a heart and another disc.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-21752798319478099862014-08-24T22:51:00.004+01:002014-08-24T22:54:20.725+01:00Finally getting round to this one, copper and silver star set.I have had these 5 brass and copper stars around for quite a while, I fused the silver onto them with the intention of making a necklace and earrings. Several months ago to be honest.<br />
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That's a very old laminated table top. had a lot of stuff thrown at it over the years.</div>
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As you can see I've finally linked three of them to start the necklace.<br />
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The reason for leaving it so long was the fear of drilling holes in those narrow points!<br />
I have done it before, but only one hole, I don't have a drill stand, just a little cheap modelling tool.<br />
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Here it is in action.</div>
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Without a stand to lower the drill precisely down onto the piece the sliding around is really hard to control, I found that making a small dent in the surface with a tack (I'm sure there are more professional ways to do that) helped, I developed a technique starting with the drill in the dent and switched off, then turned to it's slowest setting and gradually turning up the speed.<br />
You need three hands really, I taped the pieces to the wood with masking tape and held the wood still with my right hand, I had to use part of that hand to steady the drill too its a complicated manoeuvre. I actually had the wood on the heating block you can see on the table, (bit of a staged shot that, drill not switched on and a hole already drilled).<br />
So right wrist braced against the edge of the block, thumb and 3rd and 4th fingers holding the wood, 1st and 2nd fingers against the side of the drill near the chuck, left hand holds and operates the drill at the same time, phew what a way to work. Don't recommend it but worked for me.<br />
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Well eventually got all the holes drilled, the wire linking them is copper wire twisted and then fused, again a tricky job as I didn't want to heat the stars or melt the untwisted wire loops through the holes, I use this stuff to try to prevent that:<br />
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Its a thick paste which coats where you don't want the heat. Not 100% but pretty good.<br />
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Here are the earrings, not an exact match of course, not possible with this technique, you can see the raw copper wire before melting/fusing. On the right you can see how well the paste has preserved the star while I was fusing the wire link. You can also see where the drill has made a total mess of the bottom point of the left hand star, will have to see what I can do with that.<br />
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Heating the copper to melt and fuse the twists, you can just make out the grey blob of Technoflux paste to the left of the flame, unfortunately I foolishly forgot the loop at the other end, it's burnt through so I shall have to redo this bit! My excuse is that I was getting rather tired, it was after 7pm and I'd been at it for a couple of hours or more.<br />
Well there you go I will have to look into getting a little drill stand sometime, if there's one that will fit my little drill. (It came from Lidl in case anyone wonders, very cheap and very reliable, my more expensive cordless one doesn't have variable speed! Amazing shop, keep an eye out they're bound to have them again sometime)<br />
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I'll post again when the set is finished.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-26020724317530381842014-08-18T22:27:00.000+01:002014-08-18T22:35:59.010+01:00Fusing Metal ExperimentsI've been making stuff by fusing metal together without solder, some of it quite simple, just a copper shape with some silver wire melted onto the surface. Yesterday I tried creating a 'cage' of wire for a piece of sea glass.<br />
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This is the result.<br />
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You might be able to see in the lower picture that a small section of the glass has become clear and shiny, as it would originally have been before it's time in the sea. I'm slightly amazed that a blowtorch could produce enough heat to apparently melt the surface of the glass. A friend tells me this is probably quite impure glass if it did that. The fusing is more obvious in this image too.<br />
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This is quite a nice technique, it works most easily with pure silver wire. You can create jump rings this way but it's tricky to do as part of an existing piece of jewellery, because of the chance of fusing other parts of the piece.<br />
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The basis of the technique is to play a blowtorch flame over a piece of silver wire that has been formed in such a way that two or more sections of the wire either touch or cross each other.<br />
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You need to use the end of the inner paler blue cone of the flame. This is the hottest part of the flame:<br />
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My technique, very technical, is to play the torch onto the piece until it gives in and melts. To begin with it should glow bright red and at the melting point it will become shiny and slightly shimmery, let it stay like that for a second or two and then remove the flame. Watch carefully, if you don't want it to run over a surface (as in the pieces below) keep a close eye on it. With luck, and practice, the wire will be fused.<br />
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Most of what I've done up to now has been these sorts of things, using pre-cut metal blanks in copper and brass:<br />
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The star has an old bone counter behind it, held in place with a copper wire loop.<br />
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This technique works with sterling silver too, it's not so easy as the melting point is slightly higher. The wire cage at the beginning of the blog is made using<a href="http://www.cooksongold.com/Ecosilver/Ecosilver-Sheet-0.70mm-prcode-CSA-070E#product-description" target="_blank"> eco silver</a> - recycled silver wire, it doesn't say sterling but I guess most silver scrap will be sterling.<br />
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I love this technique, it's very unpredictability is it's attraction for me. Have fun playing but be careful with blow torches they are not toys! Use a soldering or charcoal block to heat your work on, and keep flamable items clear obviously.<br />
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As a last tip, I use a mixture of cream of tartar, water and lemon juice to clean the firescale off the pieces, leave them covered in a solution the thickness of single cream overnight and voila! Of course pure silver doesn't tarnish but if you're fusing to copper it will go black.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0Ilfracombe, Devon, UK51.205377703854062 -4.130172729492187551.18548120385406 -4.1705132294921876 51.225274203854063 -4.0898322294921874tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-46580661128378030672014-07-02T23:10:00.002+01:002014-07-02T23:17:42.623+01:00A sort of round-upI'm really bad at writing this blog so this is a quick round-up of the last couple of weeks, which have been really busy one way or another.<br />
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Remember the shed? <br />
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Well, hooray, the new one arrived on Friday 20th of last month, </div>
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big heap of wood in the front garden, tidy heap, but still a heap.</div>
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Later that night my daughter arrived for a stay, </div>
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we spent Saturday together and went to a hilarious show </div>
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that was part of the Theatre festival in Barnstaple:</div>
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If you get the chance to see this fabulously funny, and rude, show, go, definitely go. Haven't laughed so much in ages.</div>
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Sunday I took a bus to Okehampton to meet my sister and her husband who'd invited me to share their rented cottage in Mary Tavy for a week. Had a lovely relaxing week with great weather while my daughter fed the cat and got on with some work and took advantage of the peace and quiet of Devon, she lives in Hackney so a huge contrast.<br />
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Visited a gorgeous place called <a href="http://www.thegardenhouse.org.uk/" target="_blank">The Garden House </a>, a beautiful, relatively small garden near Buckland Monachorum wonderfully clever design that makes a smallish area seem huge, with lots of different areas to look at and a new arboretum. the arboretum is still tiny saplings with protective fencing round them but will be great in a few years.<br />
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Part of the wildflower meadow, there's a view towards Buckland Abbey at the end of this.</div>
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Took loads of pictures, but don't want to bore you all to death! </div>
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My sister and her husband, pity he was looking at his camera!</div>
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We also spent a day in Bellever Forest, a very nice part of Dartmoor with a river and some useful trees for shade, very hot weather!</div>
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Lovely place, pity we got invaded by a noisy school group in the afternoon, but they weren't there long.<br />
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Next stop Cotehele, a lovely Tudor Manor house, National Trust. More lovely gardens and some white doves who kindly posed for us on the dovecot.<br />
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Went down to Cotehele Quay for lunch, very picturesque and lots of nice information about the history<br />
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Very nice week altogether, my sister and I visited some stone rows and hut circles up on the moor, nicely misty and mysterious weather.<br />
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For some reason blogger can't put the photos side by side!<br />
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Meanwhile back in north Devon my lovely neighbour is putting my shed up, with a little help from my daughter, many thanks to both, I did pay him, but much less than he could have asked for.<br />
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Here's the shed...........<br />
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Weatherproof and everything! It now has a proper door fastener, the one that came with it looked like it was made for a dolls house, you can probably just see it in the photo.<br />
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My daughter and I had another day together on the Saturday, didn't do much had a mooch about on the ebach, wandered into a few shops and had fish and chips before heading home. She had a seat on the very early coach on Sunday morning, so I walked down with her and saw her off then had an early mornng walk on the beach and found these two great pieces of glass.<br />
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I have plans for a double heart necklace, possibly even made so they can be worn together or separately, we'll see.<br />
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Well that's my last week and a half, gradually getting everything back into the new shed, but if anyone wants three rather rusty mountain bikes.......... oh and a spare strimmer.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-29947349359870614892014-06-02T22:14:00.000+01:002014-06-02T22:25:48.215+01:00Another busy weekend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This weekend I went to South Wales, Newport to be exact. An aunt of mine has recently gone to live in a care home and has decided to sell her house.<br />
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I turns out that there is a relatively new washing machine in the house and as mine was not great I decided to find a way to get it from Newport to Ilfracombe.<br />
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As you can see North Devon and South Wales are relatively close, pity about all that blue wet stuff in the way! So we have to take the long way round via Bristol and the bridge.<br />
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A lovely friend of mine has a small van and agreed to be my transport. <br />
We set off Doreen, her elderly dog Bonny and I, on Saturday morning. We took our time getting there as we couldn't load anything until Sunday morning.<br />
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Some entertainment at the services we stopped at, it had a barrier to get under as the car park was multi story so it's necessary to check you can get into it; 2 people drove in with bikes on their roofs! The first man, despite yells of No! NO! NOO! from the cafe patrons, drove right under, ripping the bike off his roof and damaging his rack, the second guy had slightly better reactions, or possibly memory, as he stopped as soon as the bikes hit the barrier. There was, of course, another entrance leading to the other car park above ground, but these clever people missed that fact.<br />
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Later on we stopped to visit <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/tredegar-house/" target="_blank">Tredegar House</a> near Newport, a National Trust Property, lovely gardens and a great surprise on two of the large trees on the lawn.<br />
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Now that's a tyre swing! These superb horses are made from one tyre, so cleverly cut and bolted together into horses, what's really clever is that the child is sitting on the inside of the tyre, the tread is underneath. With the addition of a little rope you have a wonderful, lovable horse to ride.<br />
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If anyone knows the genius who designed them I would just like to say - brilliant!<br />
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The gardens are lovely and will probably be even more so when the roses are out. Both Doreen and I like to follow out of the way paths so we came across this little grotto, there are bits of maintenance material in the background and there's a cone in front to stop you going in but what a pretty picture it made.<br />
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We had a pleasant evening with a glass of red, drunk from small whisky glasses as my sister had taken the wine glasses away previously. A good explore to see what else I might want to take, got the machine disconnected from power and water and we collapsed into bed ready for the major loading in the morning.<br />
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We had help from a lovely neighbour who has known my Aunt amost since she and her husband moved there, in the very early 70s I think. My uncle died a long time ago and Auntie has lived there on her own for years. Luckily we found some old blankets to wrap things in, Doreen managed to get an enormous full length mirror off the bedroom wall for me. I also took a large old Z bed, some bits and pieces of china and an elderly Kenwood chef. My brother in law requested the small tv from the living room which we managed to squeeze in, along with a step ladder and a folding hostess trolley. I found an old brass oil lamp in the utility room so we squeezed that in too. <br />
Before the major loading we had a little walk up to the green behind the houses and found these lovely millennium chairs.<br />
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Anyone who knows the area will now know where my aunt's house is.</div>
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I now have a house full of old blankets, towels and some old regency stripe curtains, I might even use them as they are pretty much what I had in mind for my living room; soft, sort of regency colours.<br />
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With a fully packed van we set off back to home, stopping off near Cheddar to visit a friend of mine, who provided tea and lemon drizzle cake, thanks Anthony, sorry we couldn't stay longer.<br />
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Once we got close to home I starte asking for help with unloading, unfortunately the neighbour I was hoping could help was visiting his parents. when we reached home the other possible source of help was also out. Luckily I spotted the guy across the road in his garden so Andy was kind enough to get the machine in to the house, he picked that heavy mirror up under one arm! He and I carried the zbed in but getting in to the bedroom had to wait 'till today. My neighbour Ross kindly came and helped me carry it up to the bedroom.<br />
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I now have two nice 70s storage canisters to sell along with a large Colmans Mustard recipe storage tin.<br />
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These are really nice, both quite large but the one at the back is bigger. Just couldn't leave them behind.<br />
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If you like them make me an offer.<br />
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The washing machine has done three loads already! I've been without one for a week!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-31908042239190252212014-05-27T22:30:00.002+01:002014-05-27T22:31:21.543+01:00Shed DestructionThis weekend instead of having a lazy time and enjoying the sun on Monday I spent the time taking down an old shed.<br />
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As you can see this was not an easy job. This is the shed after I emptied all the stuff out. The back wall was completely rotted along with most of one half of the roof, the ivy was holding it up I think. In fact once I got inside I found a large ivy stem literally holding up one piece.<br />
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This shed was standing up when we bought the house but had a piece of felt missing from it's roof. There was a roll of felt inside it but somehow it never got fixed with the result you can see.<br />
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Inside of the shed, there's what's left of a trestle table leaning against the remains of the back wall.<br />
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Now in that state you'd think taking it down would be easy, yes?<br />
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Oh no!<br />
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Having dug out all the rusty old tools left by my ex in this wreck, a bowl of tiles, buried under a ton of muck and rotten vegetation. 4 bikes, a bike rack, lawnmower, two strimmers, a dehumidifier etc etc. Took me most of Sunday to empty it out, fighting the ivy tendrils for posession of the stuff. There was also a drafting table which, amazingly, is still ok! Will need some major woodworm treatment pretty soon to protect the house.<br />
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A previous owner must have been a plumber or something I think, as there is a lot of old copper piping, what appears to be welding rods and some kind of tool which looks like it might pass a current across the prongs at it's end.<br />
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This is the good side of the shed, but you can see at the corner where it's started to fall down, or so I thought............<br />
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Those three windows you see there, I thought I could save the glass, good idea. Having chipped away cement hard putty from the outside, I went inside to prize them loose from the frames. Well, they are now a pile of fragments!<br />
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With a crowbar, a heavy hammer a saw and a rubber mallet I attacked the shed. It took all day to get the ivy off the roof, and remove the roof itself.<br />
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With a lot of effort I had prized the corner loose by about 1/4 inch and was standing looking hopeless when a neighbour came by and asked how I was getting on.<br />
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I told him it was hopeless and I had no idea what to do next.<br />
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Stand back says our hero and proceeded to kick it with his big gardening boots. No effect except a little gentle rocking.<br />
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Well after some judicious work with a large sledge hammer here's what's left of it:<br />
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Plus a wheelie bin full of felt, nackered tools, really rotten wood and a bag of dried cement etc.<br />
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These sorts of jobs make being alone so much harder. This could be actually fun if done with a partner and good humour, done alone it's depressing, miserable and utterly exhausting, plus I hate spiders!<br />
There are a lot of homeless invertebrates in my garden now.<br />
There were hundreds of empty snail shells, lots of them jammed in the gap between the two roof beams, if I could have got to the camera when I took the roof down the sunlight through these shells was lovely but I was stuck there and they fell out before I could get it.<br />
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I now have three bikes to get rid off, rusty and looking rough, with probably seized chains from being shoved in this damp relic for so long. Plus the carrier for a car and some roof bars.<br />
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One amazing thing; the box of ceramic floor tiles the ex foolishly trusted to a shelf on the wall of such a rotten building, had all survived their fall unbroken, this may have a lot to do with the levels of leaf litter and ivy that cushioned their fall!<br />
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Well all I have to do now is dispose of the remains, easier said than done without a car, still one thing at a time eh.<br />
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The antidote to all this filthy hard work, I've been working on this piece of jewellery. I haven't done much with netting stitches lately. Should be pretty hopefully.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0United Kingdom51.206883394865621 -4.125366210937550.889017394865618 -4.7708132109375 51.524749394865623 -3.4799192109375tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-54985558817226313302014-05-04T22:59:00.000+01:002014-05-04T23:08:08.484+01:00Day in picturesWent to the <a href="http://www.thenewinnatgoodleigh.co.uk/find.html" target="_blank">New Inn at Goodleigh</a> for lunch with my local U3A, very nice lunch in a very pretty village.<br />
Took this photo of a fuschia while waiting for my lift.<br />
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Tiny pink Fuschias and somefkind of wild flower, possibly related to garlic. </div>
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After lunch wandered around St Gregory's Church, not sure how old it is but we found a gravestone dated in the 1780s<br />
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The Lytch Gate</div>
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Acorns and oak leaves on a column</div>
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gorgeous vaulted ceiling over the Chancel with a lovely window behind the altar.</div>
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The roof over the nave, with one of the angel carvings on each of the main beams.</div>
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A lovely old door, leading into the tower I think.</div>
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We stopped off at <a href="http://www.marwoodhillgarden.co.uk/new-site/" target="_blank">Marwood Gardens</a> for tea on the way home, and to visit their plant sales place.</div>
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Took this picture while I waited for my friend to bring the car, bought too many plants!</div>
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Lovely copper leaves against that blue sky.</div>
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Then there was this beautiful Camellia.</div>
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Thanks to Helen for taking me and showing me Marwood Hill Gardens, somewhere I will definitely visit again once I'm mobile. Thanks to Fran for organising the lunch.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0Swimbridge, Devon, UK51.084978552372114 -3.99765014648437551.045078052372112 -4.0783311464843752 51.124879052372115 -3.9169691464843748tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-65329505439876119102014-04-16T20:58:00.000+01:002014-04-16T20:58:23.368+01:00A Different Kind of CraftI made a little batch of Strawberry and Rhubarb butter today, I love the combination of flavours and it's a beautiful colour.<br />
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Here's the beginning, doesn't it look pretty, the recipe came from <a href="http://www.yummly.co.uk/recipe/external/Strawberry-rhubarb-butter-368190" target="_blank">Yummly</a>, it was in cups as it's American but the quanitities can be easily adapted, you just have to work out the ratios, I worked on 1lb of each fruit and <br />
1/4lb of vanilla sugar, the recipe asks for a vanilla pod but I keep a jar of sugar with a vanilla pod in it so I used that. I also added a squirt of lemon juice and a sprig of mint, don't know if it made any difference to the flavour as I haven't made it before.<br />
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Here's the finished butter in it's saucepan<br />
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I like it quite sharp so I didn't add any extra sugar, but the recipe says you can add up to 1/3 more if you like it sweeter. I think the strawberries add enough sweetness to the rhubarb without any extra.<br />
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Here's the jar of finished butter, I suspect it might be a little soft, but it will taste wonderful.</div>
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I also replaced a ceiling rose in my spare bedroom today, very scary but I made sure the power was off and double checked the wiring order about 10 times, definitely had my fingers crossed when I switched the power back on, it worked! I'm quite amazed at what I can do now I have to.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0Ilfracombe, Devon, UK51.205163 -4.126761999999985251.165362 -4.2074429999999854 51.244963999999996 -4.0460809999999849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-31265694047158482662014-03-16T22:36:00.001+00:002014-04-16T21:01:54.808+01:00The finished bag<div style="text-align: center;">
Here it is, with no time to spare! My entry in the Hillary's Blinds Country Crafts Competition</div>
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The bag is finished I have a couple of the intermediate steps to show first.<br />
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The earlier steps are in a couple of other posts.</div>
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The lining with a little pocket stitched in place, I've attached some stiffening material to the gussets of the lining. This is a tip for people who, like me, don't plan very well, stitch the stiffening in before you join the gussets to the front and back of the lining, stitching it in afterwards was not<i> quite</i> impossible!</div>
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Here's the lining showing the stiffening tacked in</div>
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I've put a little beading onto the largest flower on the bag's flap so here's a closeup of it.</div>
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The bag has a magnetic fastener, these are really useful and very easy to fit, I've put a double layer of stiffener behind the section fixed to the bag itself to give extra support.<br />
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The bag with the lining stitched in place<br />
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A view inside the bag to show the pocket.<br />
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After a lot of hand stitching and top stitching here's the final thing with a little flourish on the handle, this was inspired by watching a programme about the royal ballet, I wanted to suggest a tutu. I cut out one of the largest poppies and backed it 4 layers of red chiffon, recycled from the wrapping around a box of chocolates I was given for Christmas one year. (Never throw anything away!)</div>
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I'm really pleased with it, I sort of knew what I was going to make as soon as I chose the fabric, I'm glad it worked, lots of work and a few mistakes, very difficult to un-pick such a loose woven fabric but I had to do it several times!</div>
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Very enjoyable to do and a lovely fabric, thanks Hillary's</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-72792943015607635212014-03-05T22:10:00.000+00:002014-04-16T21:02:52.793+01:00Next step in my Hillarys Blinds entry.Here's the front of the bag I'm making for <a href="http://www.hillarys.co.uk/inspiration/the-hub/2014/country-craft-competition/" target="_blank">Hillarys Blinds Country Crafts Competition</a><br />
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I'm doing a bit of beaded embellishment. Should be nice when it's finished, but I'm working in my usual 'make it up as I go along' way so it's a bit slow.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-67415793501312791642014-03-02T21:45:00.000+00:002014-04-16T21:03:11.703+01:00Hillarys Blinds competitionI've entered a competition run by Hillarys. They're giving away 100 x 100cm squares of fabric and giving a prize for the best craft project made with them. The competition is called <a href="http://www.hillarys.co.uk/inspiration/the-hub/2014/country-craft-competition/" target="_blank">Hillarys Blinds Country Craft Competition</a><br />
My piece arrived the other day and I've been mulling over what to do with it.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8z4JRzLVKEw/UxOjsnjsstI/AAAAAAAAC7I/QgRuNheZb7s/s1600/DSCN2402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8z4JRzLVKEw/UxOjsnjsstI/AAAAAAAAC7I/QgRuNheZb7s/s1600/DSCN2402.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is the design I chose, there are three others to choose from.<br />
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Here's my scruffy workspace, it's in the process of being turned back into a bedroom, hence the stepladder, I've picked out some other stuff to use in my design, watch this space.<br />
The cat is supervising of course.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-26090066391713844062013-11-28T22:21:00.002+00:002014-04-16T21:05:21.605+01:00New ways to use Vintage LaceI had a sudden inspiration the other day when thinking about the only craft fair I'm doing this year.<br />
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I have gathered a ridiculously large collection of old lace, I've used a small amount to make pieces of jewellery, but while thinking about what to make that would be 'Christmasy' I decided to make some garlands, or something like them.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qYFQHNJ4xnw/Upe_0Wg3O_I/AAAAAAAAC58/LeDGhx-1FOg/s1600/Lace+ruff+garland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qYFQHNJ4xnw/Upe_0Wg3O_I/AAAAAAAAC58/LeDGhx-1FOg/s320/Lace+ruff+garland.jpg" height="320" width="305" /></a></div>
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The first idea was to gather a length of lace into a circle and embellish it with beads, I've started on that but it's taking a crazy length of time to make. The next idea was to gather pieces of lace into little 'flowers' and stitch them onto ribbon to create a garland. This has worked much better The first one is made from lengths of fine lace from a tray cloth, tightly gathered, stitched onto a ribbon and then stitched to a circle of wire.<br />
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The centre of each flower has an old glass pearl from a broken necklace. The lace is quite heavily stiffened as it was originally very soft. I'm very pleased with this.<br />
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The next idea involved an old length of fabric, it might be silk, but it might not. It was labelled as hand embroidered and it's sufficiently uneven that it probably is, this has become more of a bouquet than a garland but I love it. The 'flowers are very lightly stiffened, and the centre of each one has little vintage metal beads stitched into them, unfortunately they can't be seen in the photo.<br />
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the ribbon in this one comes from the 70s, I know this as it was around the hat I got married in. The metallic braid comes from an old skirt that I bought second hand and then took to bits, I've owned it since about the end of the 80s.<br />
I have a couple of other bits on the go but I shall have to stop at the weekend so I can get ready for the fair itself.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-30618069790555481262013-10-18T21:58:00.001+01:002014-04-16T21:00:14.944+01:00Re-started WorkAfter 18 months of total meltdown, having been put in a position I've never been in before, I've finally persuaded myself to do some work.<br />
I've restarted work on the blue and white piece.<br />
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It's started slowly but I'm getting back to normal .<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-88146376882959500372013-07-27T22:43:00.000+01:002014-07-16T21:09:54.588+01:00Wedding JewelleryI've made a few pieces over the last couple of years using vintage lace, for a while some of them were in a local gallery but they didn't sell so I had them back here. When I was looking through the stuff for something for a wedding showcase with UK Handmade I came across them again. I realised that I hadn't taken photos of some of them.<br />
I have taken a series of pictures, including some on a mannequin head I bought recently.<br />
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I have a fairly large collection of vintage lace so I plan to make some more, I've also been collecting old and broken jewellery to use as focal points with the lace and beads.<br />
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This piece has a floral diamante brooch as it's focal point and is made on a fairly narrow piece of simple lace.<br />
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This one has a circular diamante buckle at the centre, and is made on the same simple narrow lace as the previous piece, there are five short strands of beads hanging below the buckle ending in vintage crystal beads, four small flat conical ones and a faceted teardrop, this bead came from a 1960s dress that belonged to my mother.<br />
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This piece uses a more fancy piece of lace, the lower edge is scalloped and it is made on a fine mesh, the focal piece is possibly an old brooch, or maybe part of a necklace, it consists of three large white stones in a slightly curved setting, the setting is probably brass.<br />
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All the pieces have bead woven ends to finish them and create the fastenings.<br />
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They would all make really lovely wedding jewellery, they also look great with a summery T shirt.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-68863844457743625962013-07-22T23:02:00.000+01:002013-07-22T23:02:52.448+01:00Hello, folks I've just had a piece put in the Uk Handmade Wedding Showcase<br />
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<a href="http://issuu.com/ukhandmade/docs/ukhandmadeweddingfinal/3?e=7951910/4126808">http://issuu.com/ukhandmade/docs/ukhandmadeweddingfinal/3?e=7951910/4126808</a><br />
Have a look if you are getting married, or thinking about it, lots of lovely things.<br />
This is mine:<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-19533655062579246212013-06-19T22:26:00.000+01:002013-06-19T22:26:24.741+01:00InspirationI was inspired today, it happened on my local antiques and collectors market in Barnstaple, I found a 'thing' it's one of those nameless random broken things that turn up on occasion.<br />
The man whose stall it was, selling lovely old stoneware and glass bottles mostly, told me it was found in Budleigh Salterton on a site dating from around 1928, a lady chatting to him suggested it might be one of those scissors holders from a chatelaine, it could be, but it could also be almost anything else.<br />
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Here's one side<br />
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and the other, the pictures were taken on an old piece of slate in my front garden.<br />
It's broken off at the narrow end and a bit damaged at the other end as well.<br />
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I've started to clean it a bit, it's obviously going to take a while to get it cleaned properly<br />
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The 'thing', beginning to clean it.<br />
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It appears to be brass and made from a thickish sheet, rolled and joined down one edge, I would say it was never an expensive item although it has a nice stamped and engraved pattern.<br />
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I have an idea to create a fairly flamboyant piece of jewellery, the image in my head has a fountain of beads coming out of the top and another falling from the bottom, can't decide if it should be a necklace or a brooch, the brooch option is harder!<br />
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This could be an opportunity to use all, or some, of the other 'things' I've acquired over the years.<br />
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Watch this space...............<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-58348404056854285862013-06-08T23:03:00.000+01:002013-06-12T16:32:33.619+01:00Labyrinth WorkshopSpent a very happy day today, at <a href="http://www.barnstapletowncouncil.co.uk/st-annes-chapel-barnstaple-history.asp" target="_blank">St Anne's chapel in Barnstaple</a>, working with environmental artist <a href="http://www.lindagordon.co.uk/" target="_blank">Linda Gordon</a>, making a labyrinth to celebrate the <a href="http://www.northdevonbiosphere.org.uk/welcome-to-a-very-special-place" target="_blank">North Devon Biosphere's</a> 10th anniversary.<br />
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We started with an illustrated talk by Linda about the history and significance of the labyrinth and it's prevalence in so many ancient cultures. Following from that we drew a classical or Cretan labyrinth to instructions provided by Linda, a lovely meditative activity itself, this is a picture of a badge I bought years ago with a classic labyrinth on it.<br />
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A drawing in my little A6 sketch book.</div>
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Having mastered, sort of, the art of drawing a 7 path labyrinth we went outside onto the grass and into the sunlight. Linda had laid out a cross of string to define the size of the labyrinth, she had worked out that each pathway should be 2ft wide so we laid the central cross of sticks with 4ft arms. To lay out the labyrinth you need this central cross, and then 4 'half squares' with a dot to mark the 4th corner of each of these 'squares', The picture below shows where these lines are on my hand drawn version. If you were making a proper labyrinth you would measure carefully and make an effort to keep the paths even. You can see that I definitely didn't do that!<br />
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The labyrinth is constructed by joining the lines starting with the top of the central vertical line joining to the top of the next line over, either right or left I suppose, whichever feels correct to you, I've gone right every time, maybe because I'm right handed. Linda's instruction indicated right but the one on my badge seems to be left handed.<br />
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There's a whole load of sites out there to find out about labyrinths, there's even an international labyrinth day.<br />
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We used sticks to build our labyrinth in the grass with Linda's patent measuring stick keeping us on track. Once we had it all laid out with a single line of sticks, we added more to bulk up the lines and give them more presence on the ground.<br />
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The finished thing looked really great and seemed to really belong there, among the daisies and including the odd jackdaw feather that had been found as we built.<br />
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Here's the finished labyrinth, I couldn't get high enough to fit the whole thing in on my little camera, but here is most of it, in the background you can see Linda leaning on her measuring stick, with one of the other participants. As you can see it was a gorgeous day and the sun dappled the ground through the lime tree canopy. amazingly the centre of the labyrinth seemed to be under the centre of this canopy, created by two large lime trees.<br />
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After lunch in the sun, we all walked the labyrinth, this is what it's all about, making the meditative walk around the paths. Once in the centre I noticed a great view of the sky, with the roof of the chapel framing it with the dancing lime leaves, so I walked in again with my camera and took a photo.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tg2VnR7WNiY/UbOlA4ZOzUI/AAAAAAAACwU/OzjWEDcHJzs/s1600/view+of+St+Anne%27s+Chapel+and+the+sky+from+the+centre+of+the+labyrinth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tg2VnR7WNiY/UbOlA4ZOzUI/AAAAAAAACwU/OzjWEDcHJzs/s320/view+of+St+Anne%27s+Chapel+and+the+sky+from+the+centre+of+the+labyrinth.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
I love this picture, it's an image of me feeling calm and happy! Something that is quite rare these days, my life this last year has been pretty grim in places and I'd like to think this day is some kind of turning point for me. I intend that it will be.<br />
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I thought I would take a picture from ground level to show the labyrinth in it's setting, but it's almost invisible! I quite like that, it's a very ephemeral piece of art and the fact that my camera can't see it is really fascinating. Shows how good the human eye is compared to a camera!<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mw-_c6FUM28/UbOl_E9di_I/AAAAAAAACwg/1HEK8vOHa8o/s1600/from+ground+level+-+the+labyrinth+almost+invisible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mw-_c6FUM28/UbOl_E9di_I/AAAAAAAACwg/1HEK8vOHa8o/s640/from+ground+level+-+the+labyrinth+almost+invisible.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The feather sticking up at the right there, is the entrance to the labyrinth and you can just make out some sticks in front of the tree on the left. I could see it clearly, how come the camera can't?<br />
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Here's a closer view looking across the labyrinth towards the centre from the right hand side<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M_AXhpsRJiQ/UbOnSkxDYQI/AAAAAAAACww/9t7NYRdcnbg/s1600/looking+towards+centre+from+rh+edge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M_AXhpsRJiQ/UbOnSkxDYQI/AAAAAAAACww/9t7NYRdcnbg/s320/looking+towards+centre+from+rh+edge.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Thanks for a great day Linda, I've got plans for a small labyrinth in my back garden now, and I'll be doing something along jewellery lines I think.<br />
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<img src="http://www.northdevonb10.org.uk/uploads/1/5/4/4/15448192/5857632_orig.jpg" style="width: 515px;" /> <br />
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This picture is from the news section of the <a href="http://www.northdevonb10.org.uk/news.html" target="_blank">biosphere website,</a> me, with hands in pockets, Linda in the centre with a young fan and another participant walking the labyrinth.<br />
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Just as an aside <a href="http://www.barnstapletowncouncil.co.uk/st-annes-chapel-barnstaple-history.asp" target="_blank">St Anne's Chapel</a> is about the oldest building in Barnstaple and a fascinating little place which is adding to the town's cultural life considerably.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-53523438881748971352013-05-27T16:58:00.000+01:002013-05-27T18:47:09.478+01:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5lVXkgGc9eo/UaOAzCyHlBI/AAAAAAAACvE/4pUAkgW25CI/s320/waterfall+necklace.jpg" width="310" /></div>
This my entry in the Creative Connections Monthly Craft Challenge, it's called Waterfall but I was going to call it rain so I hope you won't mind me putting it into the 'weather' challenge.<br />
<a href="http://www.getcraftywithcc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/get-crafty-with-creative-connections.html" target="_blank">http://www.getcraftywithcc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/get-crafty-with-creative-connections.html</a><br />
This one's not actually for sale any where at the moment but I'll probably put it on <a href="http://www.wowthankyou.co.uk/vintage-beadery/" target="_blank">Wow Thank You </a>soon. Or contact me with an offer?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643448729850208261.post-37626051493584304882013-05-27T16:11:00.000+01:002013-05-27T16:11:23.199+01:00Hi, been very busy trying my hand at a more practical kind of creative work recently. Discovered that the window frame on my living room window was rotten at the bottom, so I started hacking away at the rotten bits thinking I could fit a new piece of wood in to replace it. Well several days later I had cut the wood back entirely! Luckily a very nice friend was able to let me have a piece if wood that was more or less the right size so yesterday was spent re-puttying the bits that had fallen out as well and cutting a very thick piece of wood to fit. I had a visit while I was working from this little feller:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dv0Up3p4D0E/UaN12UscMXI/AAAAAAAACu0/rGeGo-ngOxs/s1600/snail+on+old+wood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dv0Up3p4D0E/UaN12UscMXI/AAAAAAAACu0/rGeGo-ngOxs/s320/snail+on+old+wood.jpg" width="273" /></a></div>
You can see the raw wood that I cut away, this was 3" thick and mostly rotten except for one section that had a knot in it and took a day to remove! Ever wish you'd never started a job. The big problem now is that it's raining and I didn't get time to paint or seal the new wood. I'll have to go out and tape some plastic over it because I think it's going to rain for several days, typical roasted alive for two days getting it in place and now it rains.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16905601455719226538noreply@blogger.com0