Sunday 30 December 2012

Making boxes for my Jewellery

Ideas on how to make your own boxes

I needed boxes for my jewellery and found it difficult to find any that filled my requirements...and at the right price!
I decided to have a go at making my own....

I happened to have this card making equipment..until now unused!
 ...with this you can score accurate fold lines.

I used 160 gms card, which is OK for small boxes, I did make double folds all round to give more stability.

The last side to be folded in, I secured the flaps down with double sided tape.

Close up of the corner cuts.

I designed and printed some labels for the lids.

Lid completed ...don't forget to make them a few mm's larger than the base!


Lid and box complete


I lined the box with tissue.

Ready to send or give...
You can make any size with this idea, square or rectangular. Line it with fabric, tissue or patterned papers.Decorate the box lid ....so many possibilities!

Recycled card in several weights and a good selection of colours from  https://secure.eco-craft.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

I found a wonderful selection of tissue papers on this site http://www.thewrappingranch.co.uk/ 

and other goodies on both sites!!!

Let me know your comments! 

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!




Wednesday 12 December 2012

Wearing my Artists Hat

Back to the future

Before I started making jewellery, I painted......I shall go back to it again...in the future!

Each month I will post a few of my paintings.
I live near the River Barrow in Ireland and most of this series of  paintings are on the Barrow or the Nore.

TIME and TIDE

An old working barge


Lock Gates

Salmon Cots

River Rushes

High and Dry

Boats under bridge
These were all acrylic on canvas

Sunday 2 December 2012

Corsets, Crinolines and Codpieces.Part 3.Extremes of Fashion

Hennins and Footwear


The array of different hat shapes in this picture shows the extraordinary variety of head wear of the renaissance period.
  
File:Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry avril detail.jpg
from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

The renaissance was well known for its extremes of fashion, perhaps the oddest woman’s headdress was known as the hennin,worn mainly in Northern Europe.


 The hennin was a cone of stiffened material sometimes metal, covered with sumptuous cloth. It was worn balanced on the head with a light veil hanging from the  point often woven in gold, this veil also sometimes framed the face.

 
Isabella of Bavaria wore a hennin 30 cms in length,covered with gold brocade and studied with precious stones, the veil covered her shoulders and back. In France the doorways in the Castle of Blois had to be enlarged to allow the court ladies to pass through without stooping.


                                       Different shapes of hennin


Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a young woman of the Burgundian gentry wearing a "beehive" or perhaps truncated cone hennin, 1460s. Part of the veil comes forward to cover the eyebrows.

Truncated hennin, Burgundy, ca. 1480

Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy in a divided hennin. Copy of original of 1445–50.


Christine de Pisan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of France. She and her ladies wear jewelled heart-shaped stuffed or hollow "bourrelets" on top of hair dressed in horns. Christine wears a divided hennin covered in white cloth.

Maria Portinari of Bruges wearing a high but still truncated hennin with a veil hanging from the top and black lappets or (possibly) underhood, 1476–78.

.....and some mens hats







Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, wears an elaborately draped chaperon with a black-on-black figured silk short overgown with width at the shoulder, 1447–48
A chaperon worn in elaborate twists, 1433
...And some shoes or Poulaines
 Sometimes the point of the shoe ( the "poulaine") would need support from a whalebone or a string tied to the leg just below the knee to stop the point getting in the way when walking.The points were stuffed with mo ss or hemp.

Outdoors patterns or sandal-like clogs were usually worn underneath to keep the shoes from mud and wet.
Laws attempted to define by class how long shoes could be - the nobility were to be allowed two foot-lengths, merchants one, and peasants one half. Like other attempts to control fashion by legislation, these seem to have failed.
At the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, French Crusaders were forced to cut off the tips of their poulaines in order to be able to run away.


Mediaeval Poulaines recovered from the Thames
Poulaines worn in Burgundy ca. 1470

Worn with spurs from the Columbia Triptych
Part 4...Codpieces.....watch this space!

Part 2 of Corsets, Crinolines and Codpieces
Fashion is Born



 

Friday 23 November 2012

Make your own cards

Christmas Cards

I always make my own cards, this year I choose something simple.
Here are the details.

 I cut fir tree shapes to make a stencil, there are so many ideas to choose from.

I used white emulsion paint and a stencil brush

I used recycled paper shopping bags for the background

and made rows of white trees

Then when they were dry I added the green trees using Acrylic paint.

Ready now to be cut to size

I used white A4 card cut in half lengthwise for the back of the card and folded a piece of it back so that the card would stand up.

Then I stuck the stenciled paper to the card

  Don't forget that both emulsion and acrylic paint dries fast..good on the paper... but not on your brush!

Enjoy!




 

Thursday 22 November 2012

My Cats ...again!

Sleeping Arrangements

Out of the baking PAN into the FIRE  basket !!


 New sleeping quarters for Woozle and Mouflon


Wednesday 14 November 2012

Woozle getting ready for Christmas!

Oven ready Cat?

You can't really leave any recepticle around when you have cats!


But this is the first time Woozle has choosen to sleep in a baking tin!

Thursday 8 November 2012

Welcome Visitor!

So delighted to see my friend the hedgehog in my garden



The warmer weather perhaps encouraged this little person to come and look for food.

 
Its amazing how quickly they can move too !