Mexican Goodies at The Fitzroy Market

Tomorrow is market day for the sister outlaws! 
We will have a stall at the Fitzroy Market from 10 am - 2 pm

Along with our usual market goodies  like our winter woollies,

 

craft kits 

 

and hand made jewellery  

we will be selling a selection of colourful and unique hand made items from Mexico!

It's a great market with music, food, second hand clothes and best of all a lovely community feel. Come and say Hi if you are in the hood!

My Creative Space: Balsa wood beads

 

Yes I know I shouldn't be starting another  project but our new little drill was calling me! 

"Come here!" it called "Use me! Press my button! I'm fun and useful!"

And it wasn't lying. It even shines a light on what you are drilling! Whoa!

So. What to drill? These little craft blocks of (sustainable plantation grown) balsa wood were calling me too.

 "Drill me" they called! "Drench me in colour!" they added. "We need a makeover! Transform me into something pretty!"*

So I did.

 Using Landscape Dyes I soaked those little blocks in colour and simmered.

They sure were thirsty and soaked up the colour! I did try some ombre dip dying but the wood was too porous and the effect didn't work.

 

  Hmmm. It's hard to take a photo of simmering...

For the record, I rinsed them well, and they dried out quite quickly without losing shape or getting warped. Phew!

I also made sure they didn't leach any colour onto the skin when wet! Didn't they turn into bright and happy little things?

 Now it's a simple matter of stringing them onto chain (or whatever you wanted to use). I put a wooden bead between them.

 I like a long necklace (partly because I am, ahem, very flat chested - yes which makes my obsession with Dolly Parton even sadder) but I have also ordered some shorter chains which I think will look good.

 Head over to My Creative Space and see what everyone is up to!

*should I worry than inanimate objects are calling to me???

dot...dot...dot...part 2........

 

Part 2 of going dotty.... I had a lot of wooden discs that were plain raw wood so I thought about what I could use to transform them – and what do I have heaps of in wonderful colours? Yep! Recycled jumper felt!!!

Here are the results: felty dotty necklaces.......

And an experiment with coloured leather scraps.......

And all the coloured wooden ones......

...........Phew...think I’m finished now with going dotty.......................................................................

Last thing......birthday beads for my sister...

Fabric bead necklaces.

To make:

13 wooden beads (mine were 2 cm)

Light weight fabric

Spacer beads with large holes (If you haven't got these you can put knots between the beads)

Sewing machine/over locker.

Cut a length of fabric 12 cm wide and 120 cm long. It can be shorter than this - 1 metre is good too. For smaller wooden beads 1 cm wide, make the piece narrower, say 8 cm. You're just allowing for the bead to fit easily and a seam.

Fold right sides together and sew along the edge. I use an over locker for this.

Fold your casing out to the right side. This can be a bit fiddly.  I used a knitting needle to help.

Cut the ends on a diagonal - this helps if threading spacer beads on.

Slide on your spacer bead 20 cm from the end.  Then put the wooden bead inside the casing. Follow this with a sliding a spacer bead on to keep the wooden bead in place. Alternatively, tie a knot.

Repeat until you like the look of it. I used 13 beads on one, 11 on another and 18 on another so , basically, I make it up as I go along. You can trim the ends to make them even.

Fold in the unfinished ends to hem and hand stitch.

Down tools now. Off to the post office!

BIGGER beads

These large wooden beads were found in an opp shop years ago. Along with a pretty spiffy red shagpile rug.

They were giant Greek worry beads (for giant worries I guess). I used to wear them as a necklace but the kids broke them a while back. Didn't matter. My worries are not as large as to require such huge beads! Well, not too often...

Thanks to Micmac for modelling - even if she didn't want to show her face!

posted by Julianne

beady beads

More of these to come in many colours and sizes – I love playing with the colour combinations! The wooden beads are covered with embroidery yarn crocheted on a very fine little hook.                               

After some chaotic colour playing, I string the beads onto a L....O.....N....G silver snake chain. Hope to be organised for selling them soon....

Thanks to Hazel for modelling! How lovely is her new kinki gerlinki outfit???

posted by Julianne Sister outlaw