Try Handmade

Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Handmade Summer Into Fall

by

[hKristin]

Last week we talked about back to school which must mean that we’re edging toward fall. I like to buy as many multi-purpose and multi-season items as I can, so I have spent this week thinking about how to extend our summer purchases into the autumn days ahead. This week I focused on a particular color scheme – orange, rust, amber and red – that will still look fresh in the coming months when the leaves start to change.

My first find this week is a gorgeous photo from The Garden Shed. Gerbera Daisies always lend a cheerful touch to your wall and the vibrant color will help perk up any dark corner.

Orange-1

[Read more…]

It's a lasting chill to keep you cold as winter

by

Sign me up for one of each of these beauties. I love the texture and color variations.

Smashing bio: i love: color, metal, light, timmy, feathers, poems, secret hide-outs, photography, modern architecture, not-modern architecture, babies, fashion magazines, bare feet, high heeled shoes, camping, talking, not talking, making cakes, eating cakes, aqua, fushcia, gray, snow and enough other things to fill this page and a couple more.

i hate: not much. maybe mushrooms? (nothing personal, mushrooms)

title: Eurythmics, Cool Blue.

Barefoot Weaver

by

il_fullxfull71125290

Barefoot Weaver: I have been in love with color since my first box of crayons and I fell in love with weaving in the 70s when I watched a girl weaving (barefoot, of course!) in the back of a store in Brattleboro, VT. Here was not just color but dance as well! By the early 90s I had my first loom and there was no looking back. Looms have a way of multiplying and taking over the house (as my family can attest) and now I have four (we won’t count the one in the barn). I am always amazed seeing them warped and vibrant with potential.

Colors live in my living room and cones of thread fill my bookcases. I dye my threads on a big plywood table upstairs in one of my workrooms (did I mention that I have taken over the entire house?) and my clothes line is often draped with skeins of freshly dyed thread. I do my designing on my warping mill and my work now is mostly warp driven which just means that I want the warp to show more than the weft (or weaving).

I started adding more texture to my weaving some years ago as well inspired in part by knitting yarns that have flags and tufts and wraps and shiny bits and skinny and fat parts.

So, I overproduce. And I have three grown sons who really don’t wear my creations aside from a very plain chenille scarf or two. I live on an old farm with my two horses, three cats, one small dog, and a very supportive husband. We heat with wood, snuggle down in the winter up here in the North Country, and I am content.

Interview with Sheryl from Jochris12

by

[hLeah]

Sheryl from the Jochris12 jewelry store on Etsy creates amazing glass pendants, earrings and more. As a kid she was quiet but very creative and it shows in her work. On any average day you’ll find her walking around in jeans and a sweatshirt, and of course, Jochris12 Jewelry.

How long have you been working with glass? How did you get started?
I guess I have always had a love affair with glass. I have collected glass since I was a small girl. I started fusing glass in 2000 and started making fused glass jewelry in 2002. I had watched a program on tv on fusing glass and instantly knew it would be a passion for me. I am completely self taught. I have read lots and lots of books and learned lots from my mistakes.

I love the Color Explosion pieces. How do you come up with the color combinations? How are they made?
The Color Explosion pieces are made in many different steps. All the little pieces in each piece are fused separately and after they are fused I put together the pendants. I just put them together in such a way that appeals to my eye and hopefully the customers eye too. After they are put together they will be fused again. Then cold worked to shape and then back in the kiln for a fire polish.

Where do you come up with your ideas for new pieces?
Ideas come to me no matter what I am doing. Sometimes shopping I will see color combinations and then sometimes I wake in the night and I have to write down a idea. My creative mind never sleeps.

How long does it take to make a piece? Can you explain the process in simple-ish terms?
The fusing process depends on what fusing technique you are doing. You might just be doing a tack fuse that will just take one fusing and grinding to shape and then another fire polishing. Some of the more advanced pieces will take a minimum of 4 firings and sometimes more. I can sometimes work on a piece for weeks and then sometimes everything will come together and not take very long. I just love every minute of this process. This is when I am at my happiest.

Is the process different for the pendants with butterflies, birds and flowers on them?
The fusing process for the pendants that you see the images on starts out the same as any other pendant. After that has been completed the image will be fused into the glass. The images are then a part of the glass.

Do you do any other types of crafts/art?
I have always had a project of some kind going. I love to crochet and knit; those are my favorites next to glass. I have probably tried everything from cake decorating to scrapbooking, but I am totally in love with glass.

Tell me more about you?
I don’t know if I have a favorite color, but I am sure you can tell I love color of all kind. I guess if I had to pick one it would be in the green family. I love my morning coffee. My favorite cereal is cheerios.