Day 82: shout out to my Mum

I've been a bit busy today, and although I've done my flower I've not done anything else even mildly interesting. So this is a shout out for my Mum, who hasn't been well of late.

My mother has forgotten more about sewing, patterns, knitting and embroidery than most of us will ever know. I remember her sewing to make money for the family when I was a wee nipper. I was never interested until I was about 15 and asked her to make me a top and she said 'make it yourself'. So I did. it was a shirt with double contrast top-stitching. What was I thinking?? Since then there have been more disasters than successes, I'm sorry to say.

Mum used to sell stuff in a market that was where the downtown carpark now is. After that she opened a shop. This was just on the cusp of New Zealand's Great Economic Downturn (in my view there has only been one and we're still in it) and while the shop did OK for a while it gradually got more difficult and eventually it closed. These days there are almost no small independent clothes/shoes/knick-knack shops in the suburbs: big box stores with super cheap imports have squeezed most of them out. Us Kiwis do like our cheap shit.

Soon thereafter she started quilting, and that led to embroidery work and dying, and now she is moving on to beading. We both love beads and colours and patterns so I am encougaing her to make a beaded waistcoat. Maybe like this:

In the meantime, stuck away in a cupboard somewhere are Mum's grandmother's lace tatting set and whalebone needles that are, I am told, so worn the bone has worn through to the metal core.

Get well soon, Mum. We need to go for lunch with Miss Dana.

http://byrnefifi.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/knitting-needles.html

Day 81: quick post

Bit busy tonight but here we go.

 

Day 80: 80% there!

Today I did the collar. It's a 2-piece collar and unless you sew a lot more collars and have had a lot more practice then me, they're always time-consuming. Especially when you have one of those days when everything needs to be picked apart at least once. The time factor is added to when the unpicking is through 5 layers of heavy wool fabric. Anyway, it's done and now we can get on with the next bit. Here it is in its glory. I was dubious but my Japanese  friend - whose Dad is a genuine proper tailor schooled in the old way only the Japanese know how - says it looks good so that's good enough for me.

Here's those tricky (time consuming) clips that make the collar sit properly. This process is assisted greatly by a pair of good scissors. Do NOT attempt this with a pair of paper scissors you got from the $2 Shop. (If you're in the market for a pair of good scissors Stitch 'n' Craft in Papatoetoe have what appear to be some re-branded Finney's at the moment. They're not cheap but you get what you pay for. And no, I'm not getting paid to say this.)

Today we found Carol's project (so many awesome projects, so little time!!). Carol''s project is to "draw one page of a storybook each day, using two sizes of black Sharpie pen." No planning, just draw. The result is a charming story about the unlikely adventures of Larry and Rufus which are not yet over. Here's a sliver of the story we like. In our neighbourhood if we walk the dogs we get bailed up by kids asking 'do they fight?'; 'are they a boy and a girl?'; 'will they have puppies?' and so forth. It's entertaining as long as you're not in a hurry.

Day 79: more repair work

Because it's more interesting than another flower.

These are just cheap dyed freshwater pearls I got for another project that flopped. I don't so much design as chuck bits together to see how it works out. Often badly, as it transpires. So while I was in the groove I thought I'd rethread the pearls onto a necklace on their own. The seed beads between the few pearls at the back are just to give a shade more length. When I went looking for a clasp I couldn't find one. So I got the heavy copper wire I salvaged from..where??...and have attempted to make my own. It's hard to find good findings, and many of them are made from metal clay so they're quite brittle.  My next 100 day project is to make ear wires, clasps and jump rings and learn how to solder the gaps up so they look tidy. In the meantime this looks OK. Not spectacular, but OK.

And here's two pairs of earrings repaired. The black ones, one of the black beads fell off and I thought it had been lost forever. Not so. The dog found it. Suffice to say I found it thereafter by accident and it has since been thoroughly cleaned. The other pair has just been made up. The beads are Czech and I've teamed them with a red/brown Gutermann bead. They've come up OK - again, not great but they'll pass in dreary old Auckland.

Day 78: repair jobs

Having done the daily flower (sort of like the daily growl but livelier) I had a bit of spare time so I thought I'd do some necklace repairs for something different.

The first is a clam-shell necklace. The clams are quite fragile, and this one's predecessor had a flaw that meant it broke not long after it was made. Fortunately I found another shell which is a bit thicker and hopefully more robust. The repair entailed winding a couple of bits of heavy-ish copper wire into loops and putting it all together. I suppose I could have used jump rings but I am always surprised by how useless they are. Do you see Harry Winston using copper-plated jump rings to put his expensive baubles together? I think not.

The next was a minor repair on a necklace I made in a bead shop in some small Canadian town in BC. The shop in question had some cool stuff (and I wish I'd bought more of it). When I asked how come, the woman who owned the shop said "oh my husband is from Africa." Because Africa's a country, right? Anyway, this is some trade beads along with some fake copper beads (probably metal clay) and some handmade pottery beads.

Day 77: our dog

I'm bored with flowers and haven't made any progress on the cape so here's a photo of my dog instead.

 

Day 76: another batch

Cut out, rinsed, and drying by the fire.

Tonight we came across Hally's 100 Things. They're cute little critters (they're not really very creepy) and one of them looks like Hunter S Thompson (which works for us). The picture shown is the Grim Reaper asking for a hug. Too cute!

Day 75: plum blossoms

Today the first plum blossoms of spring peeked out into the southerly that's been blasting us for the last couple of days. Welcome, and here's hoping you don't get blown away!

(PS I didn't take this photo - sad to say it's way too good for me.)

Day 74: and more and more

All I've done today is play around with the hue and contrast of the photo in photoshop. A 5 year old could do it. Actually a 5 year old could probably do it better.

Today I will show a drawing from Lucy's project. This is Lucy's second go at the 100 days project, and she describes herself as a part-time closet animal artist. We like anything with animals but we especially like this little guy who's apparently called Lionel. Lionel looks like he is questioning the artist's intentions but is hopeful for good news.

 

Day 73: the week's work

This extraordinarily bad photo (even by my standards) shows two pairs of black trousers and a bunch of flowers.  Not only can a girl not have too many accessories, she almost certainly can't have too many pairs of black trousers.

That's all for now.