....and more Arm Warmers with Sewn-On Beaded Jewelry

I'm on a roll with these long knitted arm warmers! Its something I can do while watching TV in the evenings, waiting while the kiddies play at the jungle gym etc, etc. Saves me eating quite so many chocolate biscuits.

The colours don't necessarily 'go' together, but thats kind of the point. These both have cute little flower rings (my daughter's idea).

Dewdrop Felted Ring

I am on a roll today - managed to finish this ring too! Mainly because this was the first day my son (who is 2-and-a-bit) started preschool. He will go 2 mornings a week and so give me a good few hours of daylight time to get some 'making stuff' done. Especially stuff involving hammering and sawing.

My little girl is still at home (just turned 5 last week) but she was on the sofa feeling ill quietly. She's looking a bit spotty and has a temp, so it may well be chickenpox.

The ring base is Faux bone with sterling silver tube rivets. Then I made a wire frame & needle felted and wet felted the wool fibers (with a bit of sari, silk, bamboo & glitzy stuff) in and around it.

After that I coated it in UV resin and then inspired by the Super Secret Stevie B technique (aka the S3) - the highly secret way of achieveing a gloss finish by spraying your piece with a can of 'Gloss Finish'.

Then to finish, I added some sterling wire wrapped spinel gemstones (and oxidised the silver).

Finally, a BIG thanks to Grand Purl Baa for the Blogger formatting tips. Updating my formatting settings worked a treat!

And now off for a cuppa!

Exotic Fossil Oolite & Diamond Brooch / Pendant

Yay! I finally finished this jewellery piece that I have been working on for a while.

The gemstone is a gorgeous spotty piece of fossil oolite from Wyoming, USA.

Oolite describes a sedimentary rock formed with ooids (meaning "egglike") - spherical grains in concentric layers.

I bought this from one of my favourite cabochon websites www.DesignerCabochons.co.uk



The metal is titanium sheet which I heated up to get the different colours of heat patina. I don't think I will be using it again - I found it so hard to saw! Took me ages.

The fibers are an exotic mix of merino wool, sari, silk, bamboo, firestar & glitz - needle felted.

The oolite organic gemstone is secured to the purple plexiglass (which I sanded) via resin, stainless steel microscrews & sewn threads of tiny fine silver oxidised cubes (handcrafted by the Thai Karen Hill Tribes).

Other materials: natural raw diamonds (they are so rough & sparkly!), amethyst cubes & fine silver beads.


Its about 8cm (3 inches) wide. Can be worn as a brooch or pendant.

Purple Princess Handspun Art Yarn with Dolls

My little girl (who has just turned 5 - yikes) picked up this cool pack of purple dolls with wooden faces from the "$2 Shop" (although they actually cost about$4.50 I think) - so I thought I would spin them into a Purple Princess yarn.

My own little Princess (definately in attitude) helped me card up the bits on my drum carder - she likes to turn the handle, see the wool disappear from the tray & come out onto the drum. We put in merino, alpaca & polwarth wool (handdyed by myself this time) - and she would throw in lots of sparkly bits (firestar - in blues & greens). Oh & apparently it had to have sequins too.

Spinning it up was cool - I corespun it around a laceweight yarn & she would squeal when each doll got squeezed through the spinning wheel orifice (thank goodness I have a jumbo flyer) & then got submerged in wraps of wool!

Strangely satisfying!

BTW I still haven't managed to figure out how I can add my photos so they appear nicely throughout my blog, throughout the text? So I apologies for the poor formatting - could anyone please enlighten me on this Blogger skill? :)

Easter Egg Handspun Yarn with Flowers

I finished this bright little number today - looks like I'm in a happy mood, which I'm not as I'm feeling quite grumpy. Don't know why - I must have used up all my festive spirit & I think the heat is getting to me - its so hot here in Auckland right now!

This merino roving was dyed by the fiber artist TheArtAtEaglesFind on Etsy - I love her work, its gorgeous & I'm a big fan.

This yarn has beehives, supercoils & flowers spun in and is plyed with a laceweight black yarn.

I am actually in the middle of making a big colourful piece of jewellery with optic fibers, LEDs & touch sensors in it. Maybe if I get the circuit debugged soon (....its not quite working yet!) I can show it soon. Just to prove that I'm not just stuck in a spinning yarn frenzy....