Hello all,
October came and went like a flash. The vast majority of the month was spent buried deep in the creative process (a favorite place of mine), getting jewelry items ready for sale at our Waldorf charter school’s annual fundraiser where I was a vendor. The studio turned into a frenzy of mixed-media! Leather, copper, needlepoint, crochet, wood and paint all collided in a lovely cacophony of ideas.
Want to come along with me and revisit it?
Lots of late nights spent working away. I kind of felt like an elf in Santa’s workshop.
Working with leather became a new delight for me. I love leather cuffs that combine a masculine line with feminine details.
Instead of using traditional cross stitch fabric, I used sheets of window screen and spray painted it gold. It created a very flexible material to stitch on and work onto the leather.
Creating the needlepoint designs was one of my favorite parts of the process. I tried to achieve a mini Bargello-type design with this cuff.
Once I attached the mini-tapestry to the leather, I cut the shape out and attached coordinating fabric to the back of the cuff.
A finished leather cuff…it looks really small in this photo! It fits a normal person-sized wrist, I promise!
The inside/backside of the cuff: trimmed off with a little crochet closure with a leather button.
Other designs, included these:
Adding wooden pieces to the mix, was something I’ve always wanted to try. Thankfully, my husband has a nice drill press that I was able to use to achieve my ideas. It was so fun to see the wood transform into a jewel-like object with the addition of paint and needlepoint floss and it brought up lots of new ideas on how to merge wood and fiber together. Making the pendants for the necklaces made my inner Girl Scout (I never was one) come out! 
I was also experimenting with pounded copper and ended up using copper sheets as an element in many of the pendants, particularly those with needlepoint on them. I found that it added a glowing sort-of warmth to the cross stitch. Chevron motifs, Native American and Florentine tapestries were on my mind quite often and made their appearance in the designs. 
After many hours of production, I was able to exhibit the final creations to some of the nicest people I know. I will say it again and again…the community that I belong to is top notch and I’m so grateful to be able to share what I love to do and feel supported and encouraged. It’s an amazing feeling.
I shared a booth this year with my dear friend Gina, who makes the fabulous and FUN Bella Bottoms jeans. At the end of the day, my face hurt from how much we laughed together!!
*I will be adding many of these items to the etsy shop in a few days.
Filed under: art, crafting, crochet, jewelry, patterns, sewing, studio, yarn Tagged: copper, crafting, creativity, crochet, cross stitch, fiber arts, jewelry, leather cuffs, mixed media, needlepoint, projects, sewing, studio, style, tapestries, Waldorf, wooden jewelry, yarn
