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Just a quick post to say that I just checked my comments section, and it seems that I no longer receive all my comments by email!  I had no idea some of you had commented.  So sorry if you thought I was ignoring you.  I'll try to sort it out...

Papercutting - craft class

I have wanted to try papercutting for a long time.  I bought an Exacto knife at Harrogate a couple of years ago.  I bought a book, or maybe two.  I have paper.  But I never cut it.  Why?  No idea!  I knew a class would give me the push though, so when I saw one advertised at Two Little Magpies, and on a weekend, I jumped at the chance.  If you live near Nottingham, I definitely recommend these classes.  They are such good value.  It wasn't expensive, and not only did we get the expert tuition, coffee and biscuits, we also got to take away our knives, a spare blade, a pile of templates printed on lovely paper AND the cutting mat! 

We started with a little practice.  We worked from the back, and then turned over to see the results.  I started with the easy shapes at the top and then moved on to some curved shapes and some letters.  Can you guess Z's name?  (as if it wasn't obvious anyway!!).

Please turn your screen upside down for this shot!  This is the first go at a "proper" template.  It was quite chunky and was numbered from 1, starting with the easier shapes and getting harder.  After that we had free reign to try any of the templates we'd been given.  There was a huge variety and some seemed very hard for a beginner, but we were assured we could do it.  And we could!

Here's what I started with - remember you cut from the back.  Apparently it varies from designer to designer, but on this one you cut out the lighter colour, leaving the dark colour as the finished product.

Like this!  Yay!  It was only a 2 hour class, but I had plenty of time to cut another.

This was a bit tricky because of the curves, but mainly because I was getting a little tired.  The class actually ran over as the tutor is far too lovely to kick people out.  I was the first one to leave as I had plans but others stayed there cutting.  I have more templates to tackle and I will!  I thoroughly enjoyed this craft and it's something I definitely want to do more of.

Why I'm not doing much making...

I know my blog posting has become a lot less frequent recently.  That's because I haven't been making much - other than at my weekly silversmithing class and any other craft classes I go to.  I thought I'd show you the reason why.  My craft studio was always on the top floor of my house.  My lodger now resides in that room and I'm in the process of decorating a room on the 1st floor (middle floor) for my studio.  It's taking forever as I work full time and enjoy my free time too much to spend it all decorating!

This is how my craft stash currently looks:

I am actually itching now to get the room done and unpack my stash so I can get making!  I still have quite a way to go though!  I must be the world's slowest decorator....

A present for a friend

I am now at that age where my friends are turning 40.  Yes, I'm 40, good guess!  It was my oldest friend's 40th last weekend, 2 weeks before the event I suddenly realised I needed to buy her a present.  She's not an easy person to buy for... I decided something handmade would be more suitable.

I'd been thinking about an idea of making a pendent using 3 different size circles.  I cut them out of 1mm thick sterling silver sheet using a circle punch.  The mid-sized circle was left blank.  The larger and smaller circles were texturised before punching them out.

The smallest circle is patterned using a centre punch and hammer to make tiny indentations.  The largest circle was rolled through the rolling mill with a skeleton leaf.  I adore this pattern and have it in mind for some future makes.  As the pieces had burrs after punching, I had to file and sand to clean them up.  The smallest circle got a stick soldered to the reverse and the larger two had holes punched through.

This "stick" (a piece of 0.8mm round wire) was inserted through the other 2 circles, then I just used the round nosed pliers to make a bail before filing and sanding the edge.

It was really hard to take photos as I had put it in the barrel polisher, meaning it's very shiny!  I've just put it on a bought trace chain, also in sterling silver.  

This was a pretty quick make.  When I told my tutor my plans, she said I could get it done in half a session.  It actually took me a session and a half, but I work really slowly and do rather a lot of talking and eating!

Oh, and yes, the friend liked it!

Stencilling a floor

A couple of years ago, I came across a blog post by Mrs H about her new studio floor that she and her husband had created.  Then, last year, after the bag retreat, I had the pleasure of visiting Mrs H's home and seeing it in person.  It stuck in my mind.  I knew that one day, I too would create a floor like that.

So I am!

I read through the blog post, and Mrs H sent me some extra details to help me.  I then bought some MDF, cut it to size, screwed it down, filled the seam lines and screw heads, sanded and painted 3 coats of dark grey paint.  Then for the fun part.  I procrastinated this for ages as I was sure I'd mess it up.  Above is the stencil which I bought from Dizzy Duck Designs.

I painted over it using the same emulsion in pale grey I'd used for the walls in that room (it will be my new studio when I FINALLY finish it).  Then I was scared... the moment of truth...

Yay!!! Go me!!  Thanks Mrs H, thanks Dizzy Duck Designs, thanks Dulux!  I was sooooo chuffed.

I carried on, overlapping the stencil each time to line it up correctly.

Except where I didn't!  That line without dots was my mistake when doing the second row.  I will go back and fill it with dots later.  This is how far I got before I had to give up for the day.  I'd already painted an airing cupboard and a ceiling and I was tired!  It's quite slow going as it requires precision, also the stencil needs washing and thoroughly drying every 5 or 6 applications.  Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished room soon...  Just got to finish stencilling, then varnish, then do the beading, then sort out the faulty window, get a radiator fitted, put up curtains, sort out the light fixtures, move my furniture in and set up my craft stuff...  so... end of summer maybe??