Twisted Yarn Buttons and Shawl Sticks

I love making my own molds from old vintage buttons and other findings to use with polymer clay.  The other day I was rummaging through my large tin of "collectables" and pulled out this old vintage button I had for years.  It reminded me of some knitting or twisted yarn.  We decided to make a mold from it and then see what it would look like recreated in the clay.

Adding mica powders or antiquing with paint gave it quite a different look than the original piece.

We then decided that it could make a really neat shawl stick so here are a few that we made up.

Slouchy Cable Hat Tutorial

Carla at Grace and Favour has now finished the tutorial for her gorgeous "Slouchy Cable Hat".   (see my previous blog post here.)  You will find all the instructions to knit one for yourself over at Imagine Gnats.

The button Carla used on the hat is one of our Color Wheel designs.

They are sold in several local yarn and quilt shops.  If you do not live in our area, we now have these available in our Etsy shop. 

More Faux Wood and Leather

After making the buttons in our new faux wood and leather, I decided to play with it a little more and see what else I could do with it.

Here are some scarf clips in two different shapes.  I just listed these in our Etsy shop.

The spring loaded scarf clip ring is available at Shades of Clay and I have a free tutorial on our blog (click here) on how to attach them as they can be a bit tricky.

Here is the same technique and pattern in a shawl pin.

The texture sheet we used to make these items is a favorite of mine.  It is a design by my friend, Wendy Orlowski, called Feather Boa and is available at Shades of Clay.

You will notice a difference in the two shawl pins shown.  The one on the left was made by impressing the clay from the texture sheet.  The one on the right was made from an inverse texture sheet I made from the original.  I discovered that the inversion texture created an "innie" that when antiqued with acrylic paints afterwards gives the more tooled leather or carved wood look.

Custom Work

We find inspiration for creating our works in many ways - our beautiful natural surroundings, taking a workshop or tutorial, through many hours of repetition and when we are forced outside of our comfort zone to do commissioned or custom work.

We find now that much of our work has to be done on a deadline.  We deal with over 15 stores that sell our work now and we try to see them at least twice a year.  This means we have to show them fresh ideas each time.  We really try to have as much as possible, unique designs for each of the stores we sell to that come from the store owners' input.

We also do many custom orders.  At first we were wondering if it was worth our time and effort  and at times we found maybe it wasn't but we always found one idea lead to another.  Sometimes an idea opened up that we had never thought of before resulting in a best seller.

Most of my inspiring work has come as a result of being forced to explore an area of my mind where I hadn't been too much before.  Because my mind isn't the same as my customers', I enjoy getting inside their ideas and creating something that I never would have thought of.  This always helps me expand my horizons.  For example, when I started 10 years ago, most of my bead-work was in the color green.  I didn't realize this until my husband pointed it out to me.  We then started adding some of his colors and then our colors.  I guess working together has opened me up to the idea of working with our customers as well.

Another good thing about doing custom work is that it is already presold and because we have collaborated with the buyer, we know it will be very much appreciated.  Making that special art piece for someone really increases one's artistic self-esteem.

One good example is when we were asked to make a special button that would go along with a new line of fabrics.  I was given little swatches for color samples and told to make a design featuring the landscape of the Kamloops area.

I had no idea as to what the fabrics really looked like as it was kept a secret until the "unveiling".  I wanted to create a scene where we could make quite a few buttons in a similar pattern but where each button would come out somewhat unique.  I experimented with a stacked mokume gane technique and created some samples of a summer type scene representing the Thompson Rivers Valley and the unique dry hills surrounding the area.

After proofing and okaying each stage, via e-mail, I was given the final approval, with much relief.  But then I was asked if I could make some more, but this time create a winter scene?  So back to the drawing board and with some tweaking and adjusting of colors a winter version was born.

Kamloops Button

This button has turned out to be our best single selling item ever.  It is something I could not have seen myself doing without being asked.  It was a struggle both time wise and creatively but I am ever so glad that I was pushed into it.

Kamloops Button - summer scene bag

Kamloops Button - winter scene bag

Merry Christmas!

These are some "starburst" ornaments we made for this year using Helen Breil's texture sheet.

And some "starburst" buttons made special for Heather's Fabric Shelf.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Surviving the Heat Wave and Another "Bangle" Tea Towel Holder

Yesterday was an extremely hot day and the only place to escape the heat was to celebrate Canada Day at the lake or river or to seek out an air conditioned building somewhere.  The temperature was recorded at 38.5 celcius or 101 F.  Where we live it was even a little warmer.  Unfortunately our air conditioning unit decided to take a break and quit working.  Fortunately we were able to get someone out later today and they were able to fix it.  Was almost impossible to even think about claying in that type of heat.

So here is another tea towel holder I made using one of my stripe blend "bangles" formed this time into a rectangle.

  I used some of my left over color blends from my bargello to create the stripe effect in the towel ring.

The lime button was from a cane that I had made some time ago that I still have plenty of.

I only used a small piece of fabric to make the hanger and was really quick to whip up.  It is basically a rectangle piece with a loop to hook onto the button.

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day and there will be plenty of celebrating across the country.  We will be making our way to the park at the beach in our little village to take in some of the live music and later on, enjoy the fireworks in the evening from our backyard.

It is tradition to wear our Canadian colors on this day which is red and white and that is what these pieces reminded me of.  Can you guess what they are for?

It is a tea towel holder for our kitchen to hang on the stove handle.

I've been wanting to make myself one of these for some time now and this is one of my first prototypes.  Some of the ideas I come up with are basically stemmed from something I would like for myself.  We also had some of the quilt stores ask for ideas on ways to use some of our buttons such as this tea cup one.

The ring that I made is basically a bangle bracelet that was textured with Helen Breil's "Conga Line" texture sheet which is one of my favorite patterns.

Kamloops Button Now in a Pendant

Our "Kamloops" button has been extremely popular and by far our best selling button.  We discovered that many people who were purchasing the original button were buying them as souvenirs and gifts for their friends.  Dave suggested I create a pendant using the same design and so now there are some available for sale at Heather's Fabric Shelf in North Shore Kamloops.

For those of you who are not familiar with the area, Kamloops is a beautiful city built around two rivers (North and South Thompson) that come together.  The main area is in a sort of "bowl" with the unique hills surrounding it.

I created the pendant in a similar manner as making the buttons.  I wanted to capture an image that represents Kamloops the best which includes the river and the semi-arid and dry looking hills.  These hills are  beautiful shades of green in the spring but as it gets hot in the summer, they slowly turn to a reddish brown and will stay that way for the rest of the year.

To create the scene, I used a stacked clay "mokume gane"  technique similar to what I learned from Julie Picarello.  (For those who have taken Julie's workshop or purchased her book, would have already recognized it, I'm sure.)

To create my scenes, I made my own shaped cutters for the hill and the river.  For my stacks of clay, I used 2 different color mixes, one for the summer and the other for winter.  I then impressed the clay stacks with  my handmade cutters to create the pattern.  I then sliced my clay stack to reveal different color and design variations so that each piece comes out totally unique and one of a kind.

Black and White With a Touch of Red

The gigantic concave leaf buttons we created have also been a big hit.  We had a request for them in black and white and I love how the red lady bug really pops.

The fun thing about making buttons for both yarn and quilt shops is that each type of store prefers different styles.  Some tend to go best with the yarns and other natural fibers where others work well with the larger quilt patterns.  Some of our buttons happen to cross over and are popular in both areas such as these. They are quite large so would make an awesome accent for either a quilted or felted bag.  They  would also be fun to add to a sweater or quilted jacket.  These are available at Heather's Fabric Shelf in Kamloops as well as  the Falkland General Store in Falkland and Linda's Quilt Shoppe in Kelowna.

More Kamloops Buttons

We are still busy these days making more buttons.  When Heather informed us that they had only one "Kamloops" button left in stock we got busy with making more.  These buttons (along with the special fabric they go with of course) have been a big seller which is quite exciting.  I am happy to announce that more buttons were delivered to Heather's Fabric Shelf yesterday and are ready to go.

Here are a couple photo samples of the new Batik fabric based on some photos taken of scenery in the local area.  You can see more colors on Heather's website.

My next plan is to pick up one of Heather's kits to make a bag for myself with my own "Kamloops" button on it, now that my new sewing area in our studio is almost set up and ready to go (will have photos of it for you very soon).

I know I haven't blogged very much these past few weeks but I have a lot of new stuff piling up and ready to share with you so you can expect more postings on a regular basis starting this week again.  I hope you will forgive me for slacking off in this area.  And of course, I always like to hear from you out there -- just to know that I'm not writing this to go out into thin air and lost in cyber space!

Kitchen Towel Kit at Katja's Quilt Shoppe

Our vintage style teacup buttons using Joan Tayler's texture sheet, were a perfect match for some gorgeous towel fabric that Katja had in her  shop in Kamloops.

She created a kit to make this kitchen tea towel to hang on your stove or cabinet handle complete with the button.  It is now available at Katja's Quilt Shoppe and will make a great hostess or Christmas gift for someone special.

Happy Canada Day!

Maple Leaf Buttons

Kathy Kinsella is a local artist who creates gorgeous fibre art quilts and handbags.  She sent us a photo showing how she used one of our maple leaf buttons.  I love the bag she created and the buttons goes perfectly on it.  If you click on the photo you will see it listed in her Etsy shop along with some other gorgeous pieces she has listed there.

We have our maple leaf buttons now listed in our Etsy shop and are available in 3 sizes and 3 color choices.

Tea Cup Buttons

A friend of mine, Joan Tayler, just created some texture plates that are available in her Etsy shop.  Since I love playing around with textures I wanted to give them a try.  I used the Teapot Tempest texture to create these antiqued tea cup buttons for a custom order request.

I really like creating with this type of texture sheet as you can use many parts of it and come up with a different look each time.  I think they will work great for mokume gane as well and will have to try that next.