Heather Eddy Art

Don't fret - I haven't forgotten doing a free pattern for folded books this month. I just haven't been able to finish it yet to take a picture to give to you. Puh-ray for the Heather... to get her act together. In other news, I've been taking it easy in the evenings by working on crochet therapy. Here are a couple of lovelies that I've finished. The blue one is going off to a very sweet little girl who keeps taking her momma's rock for now...

  Oh the things we do for friends who are going through a tough spot. And, yes, I DID spell it right. hahahahaha! The paper is from an 1850's Harper's Bazaar bound magazine from which I laminated two sheets together with Wonder Under. I then embroidered and embroidered while I listened to scriptures and felt twinges of guilt.

This rock must have a solid metal core - it's HEAVY. It's only the size of my fist. Granted, I have large man hands, but still! Again, making these is sooooo relaxing. I gave a little one to a friend the other day (who doesn't read my blog) and she looked at it, looked at me and then asked - tentatively - "what do I do with it?" I told her to put it outside and let her chickens play with it. Oh happy chickens! Unfoul fowl!

  I've just about finished stocking up my Etsy shop with all of my sale items. All the leftover beads either went into the trash (oh. my.) or on my desk for me to make up into interesting earring combos for myself. I like mixing and matching the words and fonts (Librarian+Nerd).  Tonight we watched HP #4 (my least favorite movie cos they changed so many pointless things and left out Dobby and Bertha Jorkins) and I stitched a paper present for a friend. I took more than a week off from sending her a postcard a day so I'm back to work. It has been so much fun doing this that I need to find someone else to start doing this for. Perhaps I'll not do one a day, but I'll still have a month-long party of post.

 There is something about crocheting that makes me feel serene. Repetitive movement? Tight focus? Tactile yarn and needle? On Sunday last, I put in Harry Potter #1 and watched (listened) to it. Then #2. Then #3. I crocheted several stones and a sand dollar, practicing with most of my yarns and a carpet thread (for variety!).

I heard about the rioting and looting going on around the world. If *I* were to do those things, I'd at least have a bit of style. I might even have to throw it twice if it just bounced off a window.  And, this one? It's just pretty. I'd leave it in place of the TV.

Bones that I found in the desert. Little did this animal know it would bring me so much joy after it died.

I'm getting the hang of this crochet thing. I found this pretty sand dollar in my collection o' stuff and decided to work some magic on it. It's feeling like I'm beginning to wake up. This afternoon I actually deep cleaned my kitchen. I'm feeling more like my old self again. I was even able to get my act together enough to take pictures of all my finished folded books so I can start listing them in my etsy shop. And look who photobombed me... Hello Ron!

Although this might be considered one of those crafts that has no real purpose, I find that crocheting on stones is very soothing. In my next life, I am going to study geology because I like rocks so much. It's another reason I'm so glad I live in Bakersfield. We have fabulous rocks and rock formations so near to us. Anyway, if you search Google for crocheted stones, you'll see beautiful examples. These are the first I've tried. The little one is with a sample of fine paper twine I received in my order from Paperphine. Being as it was my first attempt, it has NO discernible crochet pattern - just a bunch of loops. I think I'll call it Fine Art. Fancy-schmancy-if-you-can't-understand-it-you-aren't-cool kinda art. Oh yeah. Art. Fine FINE Art. The next ones were made after several attempts to read a pattern - which I finally did! Yay me! I still have no idea what a picot stitch is (yet), but I believe in being resourceful and soldiering on and that...

If you are good with many false starts you may continue reading. Remember the photos I posted a while ago with the stitched paper? The darn thread is so slippery and fine that I'm ho-hum about the project. The paper twine that I bought from Paperphine is still taunting me with its "there-ness" and I'm trying to use it again. If the twine is too thick and unwieldy, I figured that I just need to use bigger paper with bigger holes. So here: I took a page out of a large encyclopedia dictionary. I layered two pages together with some kind of Wonder Under-type stuff. Then I poked large holes with a dart. (Of course I used a template I printed off the computer)   The paper twine is heavy enough to use without a needle. The problem I keep having is that it is so stiff it doesn't pull through the holes easily. Several holes have ripped while I've pulled the twine through. I don't know if this one will work either! It also doesn't lay nicely on the paper....

Remember this post about sewing on paper? I have been thinking about what I want to do and have realized that I love just a few things in art - words and letters most of all. Therefore, I decided to embroider a word on a piece of paper. A little while back, I indulged myself and bought some paper twine from Paperphine . It was kinda expensive, but I love paper, so decided to give it a try. The shipping alone was half the price of the product because it was coming from Austria. When it arrived in my mailbox, I was a bit disappointed - you know when you pay a lot for something and it's not ... very big. Yes, I know that diamonds and babies are small, yet wonderful things, but still ... Anyway, I wanted to stitch with paper twine on paper. It seemed the perfect match. Unrolling it off the spool (which is a vintage wooden bobbin - very cool - almost makes up for the high price), it reminded me of wire. It was thick and not very flexible. Hmmm... and that's when I realized that...