The Baize Shetland wool was the first Livestock Conservancy Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em fiber I purchased. I bought a 13 oz batt, and have been spinning it at demonstrations and fair booths. I’ve been quite remiss in actually making a fiber page! That is now rectified, and this wonderful fiber has a page in my sampler book.
Shetland wool is a joy to spin, and is definitely on my “will purchase again” list.
I love my little mossarium, and keep looking for tiny things to add: little plants from the yard, lichen, birds. Birds! I cut out flying bird silhouettes on my Cricut from black cardstock, and hung them from monofilament attached to a wire mobile.
I used 22 gauge black coated copper wire to hang a fishing swivel on the inside of the terrarium.
I made a circle of wire with a cross bar and loop, and hung it from a banana stand so I could balance it as I added the birds, which had monofilament strung through the body area. I only needed seven of the smallest birds I cut, the rest will be saved for other projects. I used super glue to tack the line onto the wire because I didn’t want the line to slide along the wire, and I didn’t want to add weight by making wire loops.
Here is a 5 second video of the birds “flying”. I put the terrarium on a small lazy susan, so when I turn it, the birds turn at a different rate, and will continue to spin briefly when the turntable stops. The swivel doesn’t spin as freely as I would like, but this is a happy start.
Happy Mother’s Day to all those that mother! I did some experimentation with Copic markers and stencils for Mother’s Day cards this year. Fun things, Copic markers. Expensive, but for good reason.
I was commissioned to do a desktop inspirational piece on leadership recently. The parameters required fancy paper and something subtly rebellious. I found deckle edge recycled cotton paper, and did a design in Adobe Illustrator that says “Leadership is helping others grow” with custom mirrored leafy vines. The dot and dash borders are actually morse code and the bottom line says “let me work”. The top line uses more colorful language.
The paper went through my inkjet printer beautifully. I painted the leaves with various colors of iridescent inks, so each piece was unique.
I then suspended the finished paper in a purchased desktop frame that uses two sheets of glass slid into a slot in the side of the frame. I really like the look of suspended art, especially with the lovely raw edge of the paper.
This design is also now available on my brand new TeePublic site!
Site note: My slide over to the blog title: Critters and Craft seems to have worked. The old link ofchickensandcraft.home.blog links to the new crittersandcraft.blog domain. Gotta love dynamic labels.
It is time for the annual making of the bookmarks for my youngest’s teachers. We do this every year and they are always well received. This year was a snow theme and she wanted a snowflake as the “tassel”. To attach the two laminated pieces of paper I punched a small hole and did a few half square knots to make a small section of twisted macrame.
I like the way the half square knots twist. To finish it off, I put a dab of white glue, then trimmed the ends close to the work.
Critters and Craft 