Handmade Monday: drifting into Autumn

Metal clay - well, it was fun while it lasted, but I couldn't get the bronze clay to fire properly and some pieces broke, and yet another gas torch bit the dust!  Really, the little torches are probably better suited to scorching the top of a creme brulee rather than being kept on continuously for eight minutes.  So it's the end of clay.  Or is it?  I've only just discovered that you can get air dry clay in a lovely terracotta colour.  Hopefully there will be some pictures next week...

A bumper week in the shops this week, so I seem to have been doing more packaging up and sending out than making.  Not that I'm complaining!  And I've reached a milestone with 100 sales in my Folksy shop.  It's worth it when you get lovely feedback from customers who really appreciate your work, and makes all the effort worthwhile.  This week I've sold necklaces for two people as birthday presents which is really special too.

So, I'm still working on a Viking knit chain for a pendant and the tutorial to go with it, but in the meantime I have been weaving.  It's so straight forward and therapeutic once you have the main structure done.  Here are a couple of creations...

I love the shape on this one - it took ages to get it (nearly..) symmetrical - if only I'd paid more attention in geometry at school!

This is for days when you feel like a square peg in a round hole...

And this is more scroll work than weaving, based on a technique demonstrated by the fabulous wire work queen, Laura Binding, on Jewellerymaker TV.

Meanwhile (in the world beyond my wire-work obsessed mind!), we seem to be drifting toward Autumn.  Here are the blackberries already out behind the lake near us.  They are not very sweet yet though...

I love the sunshine, and wish we'd seen a bit more of it this Summer, but the colours of Autumn are really my favourites.  But before we head there, here are some dragonflies making the most of the current season.

Hope everyone enjoys the Bank Holiday, whatever the weather you're having, and gets time to relax, craft and make.

Here's a link to see what other lovely crafty folk have been making this week.

Alison x