Oddments

Oddment 1.

More experiments with inks - plus a bit of fabric painting and some rubbings.  The inks had additions of freezer paper, washing up liquid, string (very little effect) and cling film. The rubbings were taken from the stump of the late tree. I hoped to get rings but what I got were saw marks...

The fabric painting is the beginning of the February challenge for Visual Marks - I showed you the oversized shoe lace earlier. I'm not sure what it is made of but I'm sure it is synthetic so I used silk paint rather than dye - and added some synthetic fabric and some cotton thread to the mix, while I was at it. Which  brings me to...

Oddment 2.

The fabric turned out a little pale, and a dragon mysteriously appeared. Well, it is St David's Day, and I am listening to Bryn Terfel. And my cherry tree is  flowering, so I felt it was time for a little blossom.

Oddment 3.

Socks have been completed and another pair started. The green ones are great, apart from the odd coloured spots, the mauve ones are turning out rather large - and I have remembered why I don't like acrylic yarn. I think they will become insomnia socks, kept in the pocket of my dressing gown for those small hours of the morning, cold feet moments.

Oddment 4.

The books of the week have been made. 

This one is recycled packaging, and the single leaf Coptic stitch binding from Keith Smith's 'Sewing Single Sheets'.

This one is a piano hinge binding, after (a long way after, due to not reading instructions properly) the instructions in Alisa Golden's 'Unique Handmade Books', (and no, I didn't pay that much for it!).

We have been eating a lot of Waitrose sushi recently, and because I am too cack handed to eat it with the provided  chopsticks, I had to think of a way of recycling them. They are just the right size to make an A5 book, which is very convenient. I have tried this binding before and I still find it clumsy, but I can see more in my future, unless I can think of another way to recycle the chopsticks.

I made two because, when I said the little guys were coming this weekend, I mis-spoke, it's next weekend, so I doubt there will be much bookmaking. Unless I show Babybel how to make a little folded book and let her decorate it. It is about time I did some more crafty stuff with them, we've just about got the glitter out of the carpet from Christmas!