Branching out

I'm always keen to try my hand at new things. I am most confident when it comes to working with textiles, but somtimes I get an overwhelming urge to have a go at something different. The thing I find surprising is that I often find I don't enjoy something I thought I'd love, or I develop a new passion in an area that previously held little appeal. Has that ever happened to you?

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few projects I made in the last couple of years that I've not put on this blog before. I have a passion for recycling, and there's nothing I like more than to make something great out of things that is usually viewed as rubbish. I'm very lucky to live by the sea, and often enjoy beachcombing on a good day. As a result I have lots of boxes full of little pieces of sea-washed glass and pottery. Sea glass is beautiful - the combination of sand and rolling waves softens the edges of the broken glass and mottles the surface. Most of the pieces I find are white or various shades of green, but occasionally I find the odd little bit of blue and brown (and once a beautiful pale pink piece!). I have made a few coasters using the sea glass which I use in my studio when I'm in need of a cuppa:

Also pictured is a trivet I made from recycled t-shirt material (see my tutorial on how to make a rug - it's just a smaller version of that!). The coasters are easy to do - I bought some cheap coasters, painted them white with some acrylic paint, added the glass with a little wood glue, then grouted the whole thing once the glue was dry. A couple of coats of varnish over the top ensured it was waterproof. Just make sure the pieces of glass you use are as flat as possible - sea glass usually comes from broken bottles so are often curved in shape - the smaller the pieces you use, the flatter they tend to be.

However I wanted to make something to showcase the bigger (and less flat!) pieces of glass I had collected, so I made this mirror for our bathroom:

I just love this mirror - the big piece of glass in the bottom centre fish, the different colours, the swirls - it was worthwhile. But I surprised myself by not enjoying the process of making the mosaic as much as I thought I would - I got stressed about how and where to put all the individual pieces, and worried about whether I had made the right decisions! However it hasn't put me off making them as I just love the end result. I went on to cover a large planter in bits of pottery I found on the beach too (here it is in a local gallery):

When making this one I relaxed a lot more and just shoved things on fairly randomly. You can tell! But I like the end result and so far it has survived the winter in my garden quite nicely. I attached the pieces with cement this time and used a grout suitable for outdoors.

I hope you like my forays into things other than textiles and that it encourages you to have a go at something you may not normally consider trying.

Pipe cleaners and pompoms - the universal cure-all

Calum has been off nursery this week. It started with him losing his voice which totally freaked him out (and of course I didn't help when I said "oh, you've lost your voice!" because then he started frantically looking for it!) He then developed an ear infection and conjuncitivis, poor wee man!

Anyway, at an attempt to cheer him up as he was missing nursery, I got out some pompoms and pipe cleaners and bits and pieces from my box of tricks. Calum had a wonderful time making snakes and "prickle fish" as he called them. "This is so fun, mummy," he whispered, "I am so happy!" Awww!!!

And in other family news - I am an auntie again! This time to a gorgeous baby girl. I have knitted a wee car-seat blanket - just the right to tuck around her when she is out in the car. I decided to do very brightly knitted squares (photo above Calum - for some reason blogger decided to mess up my photo order!). However that left a LOT of ends to be sewn in - argh!

So I took the cheat's way out and backed it in fleece instead of sewing them in!


Should be lovely and cosy on cold days anyway :)

Don't forget folks - there is still another week to enter my giveaway - link it on your own blog if you have one to gain an extra entry!