Showing posts with label #marchmeetthemaker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #marchmeetthemaker. Show all posts

Monday, 1 April 2019

March Meet the Maker - Week 4



Day 23 
Top tip or advice - never rush (the drying 
of glue or vanish especially)  


Day 24
Customer feedback - what kind of cards 
would you like me to make?

Please leave you comments on this post 






Day 29 
Most difficult to make...was working with gold leaf to completed these eastern
inspired flowers. I was inspired by an old Malaysian postcard my gran had framed. I always loved the way the colours sit in front of the gold, but working with leaf is tricky!


Day 30
#marchmeetthemaker
Support - My husband is definitely my greatest support in my life, but my family and friends are some of the greatest advocate of my work. I’d like to thank you all for your lovely comments and continuing support over this month long project. A big welcome too to my newest followers, let the journey continue....

Day 31
#marchmeetthemaker
Product in the wild - magnolia’s are my favourite of all the spring blossoms.
This paper version was one of my #100daysofpapercollage pictures.

Monday, 25 March 2019

March Meet the Maker - Week 3


Day 14 
How I learnt - having started on the floor 
of my bedroom (see Day 2), I left paper 
behind to do a degree in Theatre Design at 
Nottingham Trent University (though 
there was plenty of pattern cutting involved in that). I returned to textiles as a hobby and 
enjoyed seeing then one unremarkable 
day in a creative textiles class our 
teacher asked us to do a collage and 
all the joy of childhood flooded back. 
From there I’ve kept pushing myself 
and the paper to see what I can do with it.
Making a fair few mistakes and happy 
accidents along the way. 



Day 16
Work place tidy/messy - as has been well documented I’m a messy worker (guilty). My studio is currently in the window of our guest bedroom which means I have to tidy madly when someone actually wants to stay over. I did have the run of the back bedroom for several years, but it was requisitioned a couple of years back for home office for my husband. 
In truth I didn’t properly move out and As a consequence my paraphernalia is
scattered between the two rooms. It is therefore a dream of mine to one day
have a Studio where all my stuff can 
be in one place. I’m not sure it would 
make me any tidier mind. 


Day 20
Design process - I sketch my design first onto pattern paper, which is like a thick tracing paper. Then print stick the pieces of paper in place. Once varnished and allowed to dry the pieces of the puzzle can be layered into place like a set design.

Day 21 #throwbackthursday 
Kettle Chips - back in 2013 I was runner up in last years Kettle Chips Craft Challenge judged by Kirsty Allsopp























Day 22
Proud of....
Almost 10 years ago I attended a creative textiles course at Truro Library and after it finished a small group of us asked if we could start a free crafting group. It didn’t have any rules, the idea was simple, bring what you were working on (or just yourself) have a cuppa and a chat with likeminded ladies. The group grew slowly at first and we thought it was 
only a few of us that wanted/needed it. However, by 2012 there were enough members to have our first craft fair and since then we’ve grown and grown. Material Girls raise money for local charities as well as offering their creativity to local causes and most importantly each other. Last year they yarn bombed Royal Cornwall Museum which was later separated to make scarfs for the homeless in Cornwall. This group has taught me many new skills, but also the humility and power of female (and occasionally male) friendship. I am so proud to be a co founder of such an unique group. There is no age limit to our group we’ve had babies in arms and ladies in their 90’s. All are welcome and did I mention we eat cake too!!


See Instagram for more....

Monday, 11 March 2019

March Meet the Maker - Week 2

Day 7 Less Glam Side?
Hoovering up endless bits of paper and I may have ruined one dining room table with glue!
#marchmeetthemaker

Day 8

Product range?
I'm working on it, the plan is to make a range of greeting cards this year




Day 9
The Story Behind the name for my blog - A Homespun Yarn


Spinning a yarn was originally a nautical term, meaning 'to tell a long and often fantastical story for amusement'. Telling the story was thus compared to spinning out a long hank of silken yarn for making rope.

I thought this then was an appropriate name for my blog about my adventures in crafts and other random makes, as well as any of my narrative tall-tales I choose to tell you along the way. I hope to create for you a little haven that I hope will evoke a fairy tale mood, where you can come and escape to a wonderland for a while. I like the philosophy that how you make people feel is just as important as what you make!





Day 10
You - This is me!

Day 11 
Reducing waste - I’m a recycling queen when it comes to making art. It’s all made from used magazines.


March Meet the Maker - Week 1

As many of you know I love a good 40days project. I'm rather last lap starting this one, so here are the first 6 days questions I've now answered:

Day 1

Favourite to make? 

Collage Flowers 


















Day 2

How did you get started?

As a child I was at my most content sitting on the floor of my bedroom surrounded by tiny fragments of what had once been my Mother clothes catalogue. Sometimes I would cut round the figures and use them in some imaginative play, often creating sweeping Sagas that ran for weeks. 



But more often than not you would have found me in a scene rather reminiscent of ‘Edward Scissorhands’, just sat cutting amongst the snowy white dust that lay in piles all around me.


I then went to Art school to make ‘proper art’ only to return to those tiny pieces of paper when the fragments of life didn’t make much sense anymore and somehow sticking the pieces of torn paper back together made perfect sense. 

 







Day 3
My kinda Flatlay


Day 4
Tools and materials  
This is easy scissors and paper (with thread and glue) 



Day 5

Close up - this paper rose was part of my vintage rose. 


Day 6
Full or part time? 
Part time - the rest of the time you can find me being serious at Truro Community Library