Homemade Wooden Jewelry Displays

Those of you who do craft fairs know that jewelry displays can be expensive, and the ones that aren't don't look that great. Personally I don't like the look of the typical black velvet or white leatherette ones, and the alternatives seem to be very pricey. After doing a lot of searching on the internet, I came across this article explaining how to make a silhouette jewelry display bust. I wanted to try it for myself but since I don't have access to a jigsaw, I had to look into how to do it by hand. Turns out you can cut wood with your jewelers' saw if you get scrollsaw blades without pins. I had to go to a specialty woodworking store to get them, but they weren't too expensive. I drew out the shapes I wanted and stuck them down to a sheet of 1/4" plywood with spray adhesive, then cut them out with my extra deep sawframe. I glued a little piece of wood onto the back of each to make a stand, and painted them with spraypaint. I'm also going to glue a little piece of cork onto the back of each so I can secure the excess chain with a pin.

Cutting out the pieces

Ready to Paint

Knitting is for Babies

Little beanie hats are probably my favorite thing to knit, but I have made so many for myself that making any more seems a little silly. Now with the impending arrival of baby copperheart, I have a new opportunity to make even littler beanie hats.

I've never really been good at following knitting patterns, so it took a little trial and error to scale my usual pattern down to baby size. This little hat is 7" wide, which I'm guessing should be good for about a 3-month old baby. I used a size 6 16" circular needle to start, and then switched to size 6 double points as the hat got smaller towards the top. I used Bernat cotton tots, which is a little thicker than some baby yarns but nice and soft and light because it's 100% cotton.

I started by casting on 54 stitches and joining them to knit in the round. I knit the ribbing for about an inch and a half, and then switched to stockinette stitch. When I had about 3" knit I started decreasing. I divided the stitches into seven groups of eight with stitch markers, and then knit together the last two stitches of each group on every other round. When there were just seven stitches left I ran the tail through the stitches and wove it in. You'll have to excuse my inability to write up a proper pattern. I guess my brain doesn't work that way.

The finished hat is about 6" tall, but you could easily make it taller by knitting more before starting the decreases if you wanted more of a stocking cap than a beanie. You could also easily size it up or down by changing the number of starting stitches. I think I might make some more with different textured knit and purl patterns, or maybe stripes. Anyways, these are super simple and fun to make, and they're great for taking along in the car or to family functions.

Adventures in Tie Dye

Today we made tie-dyed t-shirts with the 6th graders at school. Believe it or not, these shirts were dyed with house paint! To do it, you just mix a little house paint with a lot of water and put it in a bottle to squeeze it out (we used plastic drink bottles with holes punched in the lids) You twist and rubber band the shirts just like you would for normal tie-dying, then squeeze on the the color on, squoosh it in, and voila! Then you just let the shirt dry completely (it will be crunchy) wash and dry and you have a beautiful tie dye t-shirt. I was really surprised how soft it turned out after it was washed. My cooperating teacher tells me she has been using this method for years and the shirts really hold up well. It's a lot easier to do with kids than real tie dying with reactive dyes and such, since you don't have to soak the shirts and the paints are really easy to use. We had a great time and the kids shirts look great!

Adventures in Knitting

I enjoy knitting, but I'm not very good at it. I can only really make scarves and hats, so I just make a lot of them. This is my latest hat. I knit it in the round and alternated rows of knitting and purling to get the garter stitch. All you knitters out there will probably be able to see where I messed up, but I think it's still pretty cute so I decided not to worry about it. The button is a neat replica of a vintage button from the late 19th century.
As an unrelated side note, you can really see how big my nose is in this photo! I like to think of it as a Roman nose, but it's probably too bumpy for that. More of a Polish nose.

More Adventures in Papermaking

I got to try making paper in one of my art education classes last year, and since then I've been wanting to try it again at home. Winter break is the perfect time to do projects and make huge messes in my kitchen, so I decided to go for it.
I used recycled scraps of paper this time (mostly junk mail and brown bag paper), tore them up and soaked them in water, then pureed them in the blender. Then I dumped the pulp into a sink of water, and used a homemade frame to pull sheets of paper. I made the frame out of old stretcher bars, stapled on some window screen and covered the edges in duct tape. Once I had a nice even layer of pulp on the screen, I let the water drain off and then squeezed out the extra water by laying the frame paper side down on a towel and blotting the back with a sponge.
Basically I figured out what I wanted to, which is that you can easily make paper out of scrap. I think this would be a great way to use up scrap construction paper in an art classroom- you would just have to sort it by color so you wouldn't end up with mud. I also learned that if you use brown paper bag to make recycled handmade paper, you end up with something resembling institutional brown paper towels. Like the kind from school bathrooms. I bet the results would be a lot more fun using a mix of coordinating colors of construction paper.

Rome 1967

My grandmother recently gave me a box of my late grandfather's slides from his tour of duty in the Mediteranean back in the 60's. He had all these great pictures of Italy and Greece. I'm working on getting them all converted to digital images. So far I have photos from Pompeii, Naples, and Rome on CD. Here are a few of the images.

Fun With Stamps

I've been sprucing up my packaging and making my own business cards and thank you cards with rubber stamps for a while now. My rubber stamping skills are pretty basic, but I wanted to try something new, so I decided to make some hand-carved stamps. I found this nice little tutorial from Weirdbuglady and decided to give it a try. I already had a set of linoleum tools and some ink pads, so all I had to buy was the rubber stamp material. I got a small piece of it from the local craft store for a few bucks. I decided to start out with my little bird motif, since It's pretty simple. I made a large and small version, and used them to make some promotional bookmarks (my website is stamped on the back) They're pretty homey, but I think it kind of works in a way. Hopefully with more practice my stamp carving skills will improve!

Custom gift boxes DIY style

Here's an idea for jewelry makers who want to make their packaging a little special. You can get a custom stamp with your shop name (and practically anything else you want) from one of the fine stamp sellers on etsy. I got this stamp from Terbearco (who I would highly recommend, by the way). The trick is to put a little block of Styrofoam or some similar material to support the top of the box while stamping, otherwise the center of the box will push in and the stamp will only show on the edges.

Handmade Wedding Project no.2- Guest Book

Bookmaking is something I have never really done before, but I thought I could figure out how to make a simple guestbook without too much trouble. Well, it took me two tries, but I think it turned out pretty well, for an amateur job.

To make this book I cut two pieces of thin cardboard for the covers (it was from the back of a drawing pad) Then I cut a thin strip of the end of the front cover to make a sort of hinged cover. I covered the cardboard with leftover fabric from the sash of my dress, leaving a little space in between the two pieces of the front cover so it has room to bend. Then I covered the inside of the covers with colored paper to cover the raw edges of the fabric where it was glued down. I punched holes in the covers and all the pages, then sewed them together with a kind of simplified stab binding. Finally, I covered the sewing with a piece of ribbon and stamped a little heart on the corner with white ink.

I also made some teal tissue paper covered votives to go with my white ones.

Things I learned today

Today I went to a nearby elementary school to do an art project for their earth day family event. They wanted something using recycled materials, so I had an idea to make stepping stones using soda and water bottle caps as for mosaic decoration. I got my mom to help me out, which was a good thing, because I don't think I could have handled it myself.
So, here's what we did: We used pizza boxes with the tops cut off for the molds, lined with plastic grocery bags. My mom and I mixed up the concrete and poured it into the molds, and then when it was ready to go we had the kids add the decorations. Unfortunately, we had far fewer bottle caps than I had expected, so we ran out right away, and had to scrounge around for odds and ends to add to the stepping stones. It was a lot of leaves, sticks, and pine cones, which I'm hoping will leave impressions in the concrete when it dries, a lot of rocks, and some strange bits and pieces that the kids found lying around- some golf balls, pencils, even a tiny baby doll leg. So the last few stones were a little, shall we say, surreal?
Anyway- this is what I learned today:
-Pizza boxes make great stepping stone molds
-50 lbs of concrete makes about 3 12" square stepping stones.
-If you want a lot of bottle caps for a project, make sure you have a lot yourself. If other people bring more, that's a nice bonus.
-Kids are really good at finding strange things in the woods.
-As long as the kids have fun, the project was a success.

Papermaking!

The other day we made paper in one of my art ed classes, and while the paper i made is not particularly attractive, it was a lot of fun to do!
The teacher had set up big tubs, and we tore up little bits of paper and put them in a blender with water to make pulp, then poured it into the big tubs. Then we took window screens stretched over frames and pulled them through the pulp to pick up a layer of paper. At this point all you really have is a bunch of wet pulp sitting on a screen, but once you remove the excess water with a shop vac or sponge, it starts to look like a sheet of paper. While the paper is still wet you can shape it in a form to make a little bowl, which I think is really cool even though my bowl is particularly ugly. Either way, once the paper dries you have a totally usable, albeit somewhat lumpy piece of paper.
Anyway, I think it would be a really fun to do this with an elementary class. I think I would use recycled bits of paper to make the pulp instead of buying the special linter paper to start with. I think the activity makes a lot more sense if you use it as a way to take unusable scraps and make them into something usable.
I have to decide what to do with my little pieces of paper- maybe I'll try watercolor on them.

Handmade Wedding Project no.1

As some of you may know, my Fiance and I are getting married this July. Since we don't have a whole lot of money to spend on the wedding, and I obviously like to make things myself anyway, I've got all sorts of wedding craft projects planned out. This is the first one. I made these votive cups last night while watching Superman 4 with my fiance.
I just got some tissue paper that went with my decoration scheme, some plain glass votive cups, mod podge, and acrylic gloss medium.
First I cut strips of tissue paper that were more than big enough to cover the cup. Then I used a sponge brush to paint a thin layer of mod podge over the whole cup. Next I wrapped the tissue paper around, smoothing it down with my fingers. After the tissue paper was wrapped all around, I carefully trimmed off the excess around the top, bottom and the seam, and then smoothed down the cut edges with a little more mod podge. After they were all dry I gave them a final coat of acrylic gloss medium, which seals the paper and makes it shiny and more translucent.
Aren't they cute?

Collage is Hard!

In an effort to provide a variety of ACEO samples for the activity I'm planning, I decided to try a collage sample. I used some patterned paper (from the inside of a security envelope) and an old book about trees, and some watercolor to add a little color. It took me three tries to make one that I could even use as a sample. I have a new respect for collage artists.

My Fiance is a Good Sport

I like to make my fiance my guinea pig whenever I need to test out an activity or lesson for school. Last night I convinced him to make me an art card for the art card activity I'm planning for my college's "High School Art Day"

So he drew me a dude named Mike in a plaid shirt.

Peanut Butter Cups!

It now officially the start of the Christmas treat-making season. Last night my parents came over and helped us decorate cut out cookies, and today I made my much-requested peanut butter cups. I made them with organic fair trade chocolate, so they should be extra delicious and environmentally and socially conscious :) Now I just have to make a few more batches of cookies and a ton of caramel corn, and I should be all set.

Monday is Project Day Continued...

After I posted my earring display last night I went on to make a coordinating necklace display. I made this one by sewing a row of buttons on a piece of fabric, and then stretching the fabric over a layer of batting around the glass of the photo frame. This was a little more complex than the earring display, but I'm quite pleased with the outcome. I apologize for my less than stellar photo, but I think it gets the idea across. In the future I'm planning on making a similar display with one button at the top on either side, to display a single "showcase" necklace. If anyone has an idea for how to make a ring display from a picture frame, I would love to hear it!

Monday is Project Day

Earring Display
Originally uploaded by copperheart

I've been looking at jewelry displays lately because I want to spiff up my display for my town's monthly gallery walk. I just couldn't afford the cool displays I found in catalogs, so I decided to make my own. I made the earring display here with a store bought picture frame and some window screen. I just picked out a frame that was wide enough to stand on its own without the easel- took out the back and glued in some black aluminum window screen with hot glue. It cost me about ten bucks and took about 15 minutes to make, and I think it looks pretty good. The only problem is I had to buy a big roll of the screen. I'll have enough to make earring displays for the rest of my life! When I need more displays in the future, I'll just buy another black frame and use some more of the same screen and I'll have a coordinating set. If the rest of the night goes well I should have a necklace display to show off too!