Once upon a time ...

... there was a necklace. It was finished, but then the artist saw that the pendant wasn't sitting perfectly, and the necklace got put away for the time being. From time to time it was taken out, but always put back until a better moment would come. The moment didn't come and the necklace lay in a drawer for a long time.

The waiting is over now which kind of makes my other WIPs hope that they have a chance to resurface again, too ;-)

This necklace with the sapphire pendant is crocheted and spool knitted from fine silver wire.
It is available in my Zibbet shop now.

Ride, boldly ride ...

... to the end of the rainbow, ride, boldly ride, till you find El Dorado.

From the first time I saw this cabochon online, I had the song in my head. I love that movie although I'm not really that big a Western movie fan. I always have to sing along, too.
Had this been a bigger cab, who knows, there might be a horse there now or tumbleweeds or John Wayne. As I didn't want to cover most of the cab, though, I had to do with the sun and a cactus that I worked on with my pliers to make it look prickly.

You can find the pendant in my DaWanda shop.
Now excuse me while I'll sing the El Dorado song to Ponder once again. His eyes go all big and I don't even want to know what he's thinking .........

Interview with the artist - Maria from Caribbean Dreams

Today I want you to welcome fellow Zibbeter Maria from Caribbean Dreams.

Most of Maria's pieces are one of a kind and there is such a variety that it was hard to pick something to start this interview!

Caged fluorite pendant

Tell us a little about who you are and where you come from.

I was born on the beautiful island of Cuba a few years before the revolution. We had to leave and ended up in Philadelphia, PA, well north of where most Cubans ended up at that time [Miami]. My hometown is Havana, but mom is from San Cristobal in Pinar del Rio, an absolutely gorgeous province just west of Havana. While I've never been back, after 50+ years I've very much looking forward to when Cuba opens back up and I can see my patria.

You crochet and make jewelry. Which one came first and what got you started?

Crochet came first in my life as I learned how as a girl, but then I wandered away from it doing plastic canvas, counted cross stitch, and then jewelry. Now that I'm older, my hands sometimes start to ache from working with wire, jump rings, and metal clay, so I slowly got back into crochet. Now, what I work on any given day is dictated by what orders I've received and their delivery requirements.
 

Wear Anywhere shrug

I think this is one of the most asked questions – where does your inspiration come from?

This one is easy for me. All I have to do is look around to be inspired. I'm also a voracious reader and I've found inspiration in books more than once. Shapes, colors, it's all out there...all you have to do is see.

Tell us a fun thing about yourself.

I can find "fun" in just about anything I do. Sitting here trying to think about what I do for fun and I'm drawing a total blank...did I mention I'm a voracious reader? Love the escape that reading provides.  Oh! Got it!! I love to travel [haven't done any in a while] with Mexico very high on my hit parade.
 

Bright gold Hana Gusari weave

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what?

Every now and then I'll pull out some cross stitch. I like large, intricate designs, so when I start one I know it will be a work in progress for months. Teresa Wentzler is a favorite designer of mine.

Is there something you would really like to try doing, anything from a new craft to bungee jumping?

Ahhh, there's so much!! From a craft standpoint, I want to try polymer and glass clay work, as well as glass slumping. From a bucket list standpoint, I'd love to bring up the courage to sky dive [just once would be enough].

Which one of your pieces is your absolute favorite? Which one was the hardest to make and why?

My absolute favorite piece is a wrapped slab of Chinese turquoise. I do have it offered for sale in my shop, but it would kill me if it actually sold.

Chinese Turquoise set

 
As of this writing, the hardest piece to get perfect has been a glass, resin and charm piece I call Island Dreaming. Getting the crushed glass just right [and not having it drift from adding resin] was a bear.
 

Island Dreaming pendant

Is there someone whom you admire and who inspires you, both in your work and life?

The Dalai Lama. I'd love to meet that man and have the opportunity to chat with him for a couple of hours.

If you had free choice of one supply you need for your work, no matter how expensive, what would it be?

Really, really, high quality [not wool!!] yarn in weights from lace to extra bulky. Bet you thought I'd say Precious Metal Clay [fine silver], but not now...

Do you sell online, if yes, where can we find you?

I only sell on Zibbet at Caribbean Dreams, also under my own URL Caribbean Dreams Jewelry. I do have a page Caribbean Dreams Jewelry on Facebook where I post works in progress and items I've finished as special orders.

Left curving shell pendant in fine silver

Famous last words ;-) Is there anything else you want to tell us?

I love the challenge of getting a nebulous idea from a customer and turning that idea into a gorgeous reality just for them.
The harder, the better.


Thank you so much for being here, Maria, and for sharing a little of your passion with us! I hope everyone will have as much fun browsing your shop as I had. 

First flying lesson

"Fly, Matthew, fly! You can do it!"

Basket world sneak peek

If you have been following me for a while, you also know my yarn basket pendants. It's one of my earliest designs.
Usually I crochet them from fine silver wire and fill them with balls of colored copper wire "yarn".
Then I had the idea to offer them in a copper wire variation as well.
All of these little baskets from colored copper wire are ready to be filled up with yarn and knitting needles or a crochet hook. I will finish one of them as a sample, but leave the others empty for the customers to choose their own colors and yarnie tool.

Interview with the artist - Jen from Jen's Tangled Threads

I think the title says it all, we have a yarnie here today, to be exact, Jen whose shop motto says "The common thread to uncommon beauty". Let's see what she means by that, shall we?

Shades of Blue - baby afghan

Tell us a little about who you are and where you come from.

I am a single mother of a beautiful and talented young man. He is a dancer at our local dance studio. We live in Hastings, MN (a small suburb of St. Paul) with our 2 cats, Starsky and Huggy Bear.

What's your craft and how did you get to do it in the first place?

I am a crocheter and knitter. I also play with rhinestones and I can cross stitch. I started cross stitching as a way to keep my hands busy while watching TV. I can't sit still and just watch TV. I moved to crocheting because I didn't know enough about colors or designs to make my own cross stitch patterns. I started knitting last Christmas - I wanted to make a Dr. Who scarf for a friend's daughter.

Keynote scarf

I think this is one of the most asked questions - where does your inspiration come from?

Need. I started making and designing crochet slippers (Flip-Furs) because of the girls my son dances with. They would walk around these dance venues with very little on their feet, and sometimes go into the bathrooms in tights or half-ballet shoes. A lot of my pieces started because they were gifts for other people. Lately I've found yarn I really like and I look for a pattern so that I can use that yarn.

Tell us a fun thing about yourself.

I read a lot. And I watch way too much TV, so I have a lot of time to make stuff. I crochet during football, while I'm at the dance studio. I've even crocheted while at a movie theater - during the movie. I'm a bit of a workaholic. Oh, the index fingers on each hand curve towards my middle finger and my second toe on each foot curves towards the big toe.

Rag rug

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what?

I've dabbled in a number of things - except sewing and painting. Can't sew to save my life. I have no talent for painting. I have covered paper mache boxes with fabric to make a hat box for my son. I also rhinestone studio jackets for the girls my son dances with.

Which one of your pieces is your absolute favorite? Which one was the hardest to make and why?

I love making the name doilies. I like making something that can be passed down through the family. The hardest thing I ever had to make was a lace duster. I made it on a whim and the hardest part was sewing on the sleeves. Like I said - I don't sew very well.

Crocheted name doily

Is there someone whom you admire and who inspires you?

I admire my mom. She is where I get my crafting from, but strangely enough, we do opposite crafts. She's a wonderful sewer - she sews competition costumes at my son's studio. She doesn't do anything with yarn and doesn't rhinestone. But she was a single mom, too. She had 3 kids to take care of and somehow we always had gifts under the tree at Christmas and food on the table. My son inspires me every day. He will help me pick out yarn colors. A lot of my sales come from other dance moms.

If you had free choice of just one supply you can use for your craft, what would you be dreaming of, no matter how expensive?

Yarn, yarn and more yarn. My favorite yarn? At the moment, Vanna's Choice by Lionbrand.

Ruffle scarf

Do you sell online, if yes, where can we find you?

I sell on Zibbet. You can find me at Jen's Tangled Threads. I'm also on Facebook.

Is there anything you feel you need or want to tell the world outside now?

I love custom orders. If you find a picture of something, I can find a pattern for it. And I'm always up for a challenge.


Thank you for this interview, Jen! Now go have a look for those tangled threads, people! :-D

Old to new

How do I wish I could do the "Old to new" thing with myself. A new ankle, a new shoulder ... I'm even going so far to nag my "alien" friend about new parts, but she keeps telling me there's a long line for that on her planet ;-)

So I have to stick to fields where I don't need alien help. It was not the first time I told myself to take new pictures for some pieces, but this time I'm doing better although I am far from done. What I also do is take one or the other piece that I'm not so sure about anymore and change it to make it better.
Today I worked on two pieces that have been waiting for their turn quite a long time, and as always when doing something like that, I am feeling so relieved afterwards. You keep looking at something, and it suddenly doesn't talk to you anymore or all it says is "Help me" ... ;-)

Both of these pendants had been made after a little summer trip to the Blautopf where I got the rocks. I had shown you pictures of the Blautopf before, but it's so beautiful, one more picture won't do any harm.

For this orthoceras - an extinct nautiloid cephalopod - I had crocheted a simple bezel from fine silver. That was not the problem, but I really wasn't happy with the bail. It looked as if I had stuck it on instead of integrating it into the design.
Today I added two rows of crochet to make sure the orthoceras really wouldn't escape, then I cut the bail off and put a new one on it which is partly hidden in the back, so it won't take attention off the stone.
Sometimes it's a bit difficult with slightly irregular shaped rocks. You never want to cover too much, and you think the setting is absolutely safe and maybe it is, but then you feel as if that one side pushes a bit too much. Better safe than sorry, right?

Orthoceras in fine silver wire

So that's what I did for the tourmalinated quartz, too. I added two rows of crochet in the back and cut the bail off which in this case looked a bit too messy for my taste.
I had more in mind for this rock, though. I figured a tree would look nice on the matte grey and black background. What do you think, did it work?

Pearl tree pendant

Both pendants are in my Zibbet shop, if you want to see more pictures, just click the links!

Interview with the artist - Ashton from Craft Crater

It's time for another interview with a friend from deviantART. Please welcome Ashton and let's dive right in as always.

Tell us a little about who you are and where you are from.

My name is Ashton, and I'm from Canada, specifically a little town called Mattawa, Ontario. I'm 21 years old and a recent grad from the University of Guelph, in the field of Microbiology. While my science background isn't too obvious in my crafts (I haven't got any bacteria or virus plushies - yet), the principles definitely influence how I work. My lifelong loves are reading (particularly fantasy) and animals (particularly my pets) though my interests have expanded over the years to include gaming, certain TV shows and of course crafting.

Soot sprite treats necklace

What's your craft and how did you get to do it in the first place?

My main craft is crochet though I dabble in knitting, engraving and origami as well. I first started looking into crochet around the end of my second or third year of University, when I wasn't finding the time or inclination to read for pleasure, and had started watching more movies and series to relax and satisfy my cravings for stories. But I was so used to multi-tasking (and had rewatched the same things so often) that I wasn't finding it fulfilling enough, so I started browsing the internet for things to keep my hands busy. I had brief flirtations with embroidery and origami, but neither lasted very long. Then I stumbled across a picture of an amigurumi Chinese New Year Dragon and fell absolutely in love, wanting my very own. So I decided to learn how to crochet, and I haven't looked back since.

I think this is one of the most asked questions - where does your inspiration come from?

At this point a lot of my inspiration comes from my books, shows and games - I create a lot of fanart though I am slowly transitioning into wanting to create original works as well. Another important source of inspiration for me is to think of how I can make my creation useful, as well as aesthetically pleasing. Moving around much of my life, combined with living in small dorms and apartments during school, has given me a dislike for too many purely ornamental things - they take up space, collect dust, and are a pain to move, often being fragile and easily broken to boot. Obviously the largest break in this ideal are my amigurumi, likely why I've moved away from making them as much lately, though I'll never stop of course.

Crocodile cowl

Tell us a fun thing about yourself.

I tend to pick up accents when I read or watch certain things - I always come out of a Forgotten Realms novel or Lord of the Rings marathon sounding like a dwarf.

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what?

I dabble in knitting and glass engraving, with some occasional origami on the side.

Engraved glass

Which one of your pieces is your absolute favorite? Which one was the hardest to make and why?

Choose between my babies?! What madness is this?! Just kidding, of course I have my favorites, like any creator. So far I think my amigurumi Charizard is my favorite piece because he was the largest thing I had done to date, had a lot of parts to sew, and it was my first time with working with wire of any kind, yet with all that he came out looking like he flew right out of the anime and onto my shelf. I even won a competition with him, and I don't win competitions!

Amigurumi Charizard

Is there someone whom you admire and who inspires you?

There's a long list, and it grows every day - Catrin Maier is there for one. (Cat: Oh my, I swear I did not pay Ash to say that!!! ;-))

If you had free choice of just one supply you can use for your craft, what would you be dreaming of, no matter how expensive?

Furls luxury crochet hooks, mmm .... pardon me while I get a tissue to wipe the drool off my keyboard.

Do you sell online, if yes, where we can find you?

Yes, I have an online shop at Storenvy, Craft Crater. I also take commissions on my deviantART page, for other people who are members there.

Broomstick lace scarf

Is there anything you feel you need or want to tell the world outside now?

Respect each other, love all life, and don't run with your spears.

Thank you for sharing with us! Now, guys, go and explore Ashton's pages to see more!

By the way, did you know ...

... what a protome is? A protome is "a decorative element, on ancient artefacts, based on the head of an animal or bust of a person".
Uh-huh. I can almost hear you asking why the heck I am telling you that. To show off with my amazing knowledge? Not at all. For me it was also the first time that I read this word.

Let me begin with my grandmother. I don't want to tell you stories about her (although I do have a bunch of good ones), but for my birthday my mother gave me a piece of jewelry that had belonged to her which makes it very special to me.

When my grandmother died many years ago, I also got a piece of jewelry that used to be her sister's and before that her sister's husband's first wife.
I had loved this bracelet as long as I can think back. I remember that when I was still a child, I believed they were dragon's heads, but it didn't hurt to find out they were indeed lions. That's where the protomes come in. Regarding its history the bracelet dates back to the 30s approximately. That's not ancient, but it's definitely vintage, and the lion heads are very obviously protomes. I found that out when I googled in the attempt to maybe find out even more (which I didn't, by the way).
Now you and I learned something new. The next time you go to a museum, impress the persons who are with you by saying "Oh, look at that door/cauldron/necklace/vessel/ring with the protomes on it." And if they call you a show-off, just smile smugly ;-)
Unfortunately the spring inside the bracelet is broken (who knows, maybe it was even me who broke it as a kid?), and I'm told it can't be repaired (I suspect the piece isn't expensive enough to do so). It doesn't matter, I just love looking at it.
And here's a picture of it now.

If you think I'm trying to distract from not working on new pieces myself, you are not right. I finished a small loomed wall hanging for a birthday, after a long time I made a new yarn basket pendant, this time with a tiny crochet hook, and I still can't decide if I should list my very first split loom pendant or if I should keep it for myself (today I am leaning towards keeping it, but who knows what I'll say tomorrow) and get to working on the next one right away.
Obviously I can't show you the wall hanging, but I have pictures of the pendant and the necklace.

There is also a little project that was inspired by a friend of mine. I won't show you the prototype now because I want to keep working on the design some more first.

Bead and wire crochet flower - a little tutorial

Be gentle with me. I haven't done any kind of tutorial before, and I thought I'd try it with something small first. What I learned from this is that I need more hands (or a helper who can deal with my moods ;-)), better weather - I made this in my light tent and had a bit of a space problem - less distraction and maybe more patience. I hate to put something down to take a picture, that's something I seriously need to work on.

What you need to make this cute little flower:
Round nose pliers
Cutter
Copper wire 28 gauge of any color you like
7 beads - it doesn't really matter what kind or size you use, they can even all be the same. I like to use one large bead and 6 smaller ones, in this case it's riverstone and jasper. Not even the shape of the center bead matters much once you have some practice, it can be oval for example. If your center bead is very large, you might need more of the beads for the petals to avoid big gaps
A crochet hook - again you can use different sizes as long as the hook is not too big. My favorite one is a 1.65 mm at the moment, but I have used anything from 1.3 to 2.1 mm.

Which stitches you should know:
Slip knot, chain and single (double if you are in the UK) crochet stitch

1. First of all you need to put the beads on the wire, first the small ones, then the large one because this is the one you'll start working with.

2. Make a slip knot and tighten this knot around your crochet hook by tugging on both ends of the wire. Don't make it too tight as you'll pull one of the loops open again.
Leave a tail of wire long enough to go back and forth through your center bead a few times later on.

3. You can see that one loop is tightened, that's the little knot on the bottom. The second loop is big enough to go the whole length of the bead, it will be the foundation on which we put the "petals". Add a chain stitch as small as possible. If you don't add this, you won't be able to crochet the petal beads onto the loop, but you also don't want it to stand out too much.

4. The next step is to add the smaller beads with single crochet stitches. Slide your bead next to your last stitch, pull some wire through the loop wire. Then grab the working wire with your hook and pull it through both loops. Try to keep your wire tight on the same spot of your crochet hook to achieve regular stitches.

5. Once you got three stitches with beads on one side of the loop, turn it around and add three more on the other side. Cut your working wire, pull it all the way through the last stitch and tighten it.

6. As you can see, this flower is not looking very symmetrical yet, the bead holes look in different directions, and the petals look kind of loose. You can bend it in shape, you can add single crochet stitches to make them sit on a base or you can deal with that later ... as we will.

7. Cut your wire and leave a tail long enough to go one or two rounds through all of the petal beads.

8. Pull one of the tails through your center bead.

9. Anchor the wire in one of the stitches on the other side and go back through the center bead. You can repeat this as often as the size of the bead hole and the length of the wire allow.

10. After going through the center for the last time, anchor your wire, wrap it around the stitch once or twice, cut it and hide the end in your stitchwork.

11. If you now want to fix the symmetry issue, all you have to do is use your second wire. Just go through all the outer beads and gently pull the wire tight. Again, you can do that once or twice.

12. You see that the center bead sits slightly on top of the others now.

13. Wrap your wire around once or twice and cut.

14. Voilà!
You can do different things with these flowers. Turn them into little pins by adding a needle, put a bail on to make a pendant or add some chain and a lobster clasp to create a sweet little zipper pull. Use earwires to make them into earrings.
Use up leftover beads, go wild with colors and shapes, and most of all - have fun!

Again, if I left something important out, let me know and ask. I'll learn to make it better over time, I hope ;-)

Experimenting

Real life has me being a bit tense these days ... some days more than others.
And sometimes the only way to make the world around me go away for a while is to experiment. To play with materials without the goal of making some beautiful, useful or planned. If I'm lucky, it will turn into something that I learn from or it will develop into something I like after all, something beautiful, or it becomes something the world doesn't need, but something my inner playchild needed.

This ... erm ... thing is just one of these pieces. I could use it as a paperweight maybe or I could keep shaking it to make the glass gems inside rattle.
Curious already?
Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

I have a bunch of hot pink wires in slightly different hues. Now hot pink is not a color I use very much, so it's usually a good choice for an experiment.
And for some strange reason I have two enormous spools of black wire. Don't ask me, I have no idea if I intended to crochet a black gothic cloak or a humongous black cat (now that's funny because that is one animal that absolutely refuses to be made by me, believe me, I tried) or if I had just forgotten that I had already ordered one before. So black isn't a bad choice, either.

The black thing on the left is what I had made a while ago, for no particular reason, not a reason I can remember at least. It's like a little wire knit bowl, and I had no intention whatsoever to use it for this piece.
I took two pink wire spools, if you look closely you see they are two different colors, and knitted a ... thingy until I suddenly noticed that the pink one was about the same size as the black one now. I kept knitting and added a rim to the pink "bowl", so I could fit the black one in there.

No, this is not a UFO. Although a pink UFO would be fun.

And of course the natural choice was to put something in there then. Ponder the Great Nagger was too big, so I used the glass gems instead. Although the black part can be pulled out and put back, it won't come out by itself.

If you think that was it, you are wrong. What I like about the wire knit structure is that you can bend it, fold it, unfold it, and if you are being careful about it, it won't kink and break right away. Stretching is not always that good an idea, but I didn't need to stretch anything here. I pushed the bottom of the pink part in, I pulled it back out, I flattened the rim, I pushed the black part in, I put "pleats" in .. in other words, I had fun.

What am I going to do with now?

I really don't know, but I already used the idea in this flower pendant and am contemplating variations. I  know it's a little more difficult to see here because the crystal in the center and the petals hide details.
I promise that if I make another one, I'll take pictures of each detail during the process, so you'll be able to live in my head, just for one blog post. Longer than that could be dangerous! ;-)

Interview with the artist - Raquel from NOTON by Raquel

Let's hear a warm welcome for my friend Raquel today. I have been nagging her forever to come and share her work here on my blog, and finally she has broken down! ;-)
Raquel and I first met on Handmade in Europe, our European guild, and she has more than one talent I wanted to show you ...

Necklace with crochet and painted wood beads

Tell us a little about who you are and where you come from.

Hello, I'm Raquel and I'm from Portugal. I live near the sea and I can't think of living in a place far from it. I love creating since I was born, I believe, and I get inspiration from anything I see or think of!

What's your craft/art and how did you get to do it in the first place?

I have several. I learned to knit with my mother, to sew with my grandmother, and to crochet with my great-grandmother. All these when I was around 6 years old. Later I also fell in love with jewelry which I learned by myself.

Shooting Star hot water bootle knit cover

I think this is one of the most asked questions - where does your inspiration come from?

Well, as I said before, my inspiration comes from anything I see or think of, sometimes it just pops in my head without having seen anything. I just need to be in the right "mood" to absorb the good vibrations of the world and extract the juice that it has to give!

Tell us a fun thing about yourself.

I think I'm a funny person, not the kind of telling jokes (actually when I hear a joke, I tend to forget and can't tell anyone the joke!), but the kind of a happy and optimistic person. So the only fun think I can think of at the moment is that as the dreamer I am, I am also a little bewildered, like when I park the car in a large parking lot, when I get back, I have to go looking for the car because I never know where I left it!

Knitted children's bag with crochet and embroidery tree

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what?

I also paint, but I don't have my paintings online because they can be a little big to ship! Who knows, maybe one day I will!
I love to explore and learn new things, new crafts. So, with time, I can show up with a new kind of creations in my shops.

Do you sell online, if yes, where can we find you?

Yes, I sell online. You can find NOTON by Raquel on DaWanda, on Etsy, and now also on Handmade Artists.

Black and white beadwoven zebra cuff

Is there anything you feel you need or want to tell the world outside now?

Yes, just remember that nothing is impossible, if you really want something, you won't give up!
Also you can find me on my blog and on Facebook.