Sunday, March 30, 2008

Moleskine finally got me




Today I joined the Moleskine cult and bought my first 3 pack of overpriced journals. Then straight away I decorated the cover. Tonight I joined 3 or 4 moleskine pools on Flickr. But with my big handwriting, I feel a little cramped writing in it. Maybe I'll get used to it.
The little suckers are so popular right now that the Barnes and Noble in Fullerton has to keep them behind the counter so sticky fingers don't run off with them. Yet another thing I never would have heard of before the Internet existed.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Spring Break Was Lots of Fun




I'm back from my trip. I got a lot done. I crocheted, knitted, sewed by hand and juggled nearly every day. I also saw four movies. Oh and I painted faces, which is what I went up there to do. And I took lots and lots of photos.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Needle Punch




Back in the 80's when my kids were toddlers, my mom and I got into needlepunch. Now after many years, I decided to try it again. I actually wanted to make a rug but as the supplies weren't readily available I grabbed this instead. I'd still like to do a rug some day but I think I'm going to have to mail order all the parts.

Update:
I finished my first needle punch today inspired by my trip to Quartzsite, AZ.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

crafting on the road


Today's job was to do face-painting for 3 hours. After that I was able to work on crafts. I finished a blue and orange knitted hat. Now I can put it in my suitcase and stop carrying it all over town with me. Then I threaded beads onto black yarn and started crocheting a snood. I don't know what I'd do w/o 'big eye' needles. Those things are priceless.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

hat and snood

Today I started knitting a new hat on the train. Then I saw the movie The Other Boleyn Sister and that reminded me I needed to make a snood, so I just bought some black yarn and beads to make one of those. I'll have to add photos when I get back home next week. Peachy keeno.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Travel projects


All kinds of creative ideas are running through my mind right now, but since I'm packing for a trip first thing in the morning, I haven't had time to do any crafts. I want to make some leather rabbit ears. Is that politically incorrect. I'm thinking more 'pagan ritualistic' than 'cute costume shop bunny ears'. And while I'm at it I need to make a deer headress.
I also need to figure out which projects to take on my five day trip. If I don't take something with me I spend all my travel money at craft stores buying new stuff I don't have room for when I get home. So I've learned the hard way to just take it with me to begin with. Must haves are at least 1 skein of yarn and knitting needles and a crochet hook. Maybe I'll take my cross stitch. It has to be something I can do on a train, and dropping a sewing needle in a public area is maybe not a good idea.
Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something. I tried beading on a train once and had the necklace 90% done when I lost the whole strand off the end under my train seat. So beading is out. At least until I reach my destination.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Miss Bunny


I've got rabbit ears on the brain today.

All blog contents copyright FZ Harper 2008

Monday, March 17, 2008

Red Ink Drawing of a Woman.



I think it's important to draw, even if the results are often marginal.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Leather Cell Phone Case with Carved Stamp


I'm almost done with this leather cell phone case stamped with my rabbit eared kokopelli stamp.

Friday, March 14, 2008

I'm working on it.





Today I thought I'd document some of my UFO's (Un Finished Objects) so that I don't forget to finish them. Things tend to get buried under other things. My 'back burner' is awfully big these days as more and more projects fall through the cracks.

So here is a knitted hat I designed that needs the ends sewn in, some cable ties I just bought for making a corset, a knitted shrug that needs another foot or so knitted, and some finger puppets I need to finish.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Pirate Chat Room on Etsy

I made a very hard decision yesterday. Etsy is taking up a huge amount of my time for very little financial return. So I'm slashing my Etsy hours to the bare minimum, and I'm going to revamp my juggling show and make performing my main focus again. I'm going to make a juggling show with a pirate theme.
I had to ask myself, what has been the most lucrative work for me over the past 30 years, and the answer to that sure wasn't arts and crafts. Most of my income has come from juggling or hypnosis or face painting, or belly dancing. So I'm going to be spending my time where the money is. Sure beats starving. I will still keep my Etsy shops, but I will no longer worry if things sell or not. And I also made a new Etsy chatroom to celebrate called Pirate's Cove. So when I need to socialize, that's where I will be. If you see the room open drop by and say hello.
In the meantime, I'll be clearing all my arts and crafts out of my tiny apt. to make room for juggling and belly dancing. I will keep 2 or 3 projects handy to feed my craft addiction, but I'm tired of everything else being underfoot and making a huge mess. It's hurting my relationship too. We can hardly find each other in all this clutter.
I will still be doing arts and crafts, but I will focus more on making myself costumes and props for my act. I have enough crafts to fill 10 etsy shops but what is the point of listing more and more if I'm selling one item every 3 months?

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Fashionista Finger Puppets


These are my fashionista finger puppets waiting to get their lips and nose glued on. But somehow since Friday, I've managed to lose the glue.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Finger Puppet Ms. Tilly


All glammed up to go to church and sing in the choir.

Finger Puppet Ms. Tilly

All glammed up to go to church and sing in the choir.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Gold Norkel and Gold Teddy



I got these two felt creations in my shop just now: Spankytease
The new dog upstairs barks everytime I go outside to take a photo.
I posted one new bear and one new Norkel alien doll. These are sewn completely by hand and no two are the same. And I have a bunch of new colors coming out soon.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Just finished



Blue and orange medium hat.

Crafters keep on blogging


It's official. According to a recent Etsy survey: Keep blogging: "Lots of buyers find out about Etsy through blogs. To be exact, 26% find out about Etsy on blogs and 17% find out about the handmade products they buy on blogs". So if you have one, keep using it, and if you don't have one, get one today.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

The problem with blogs



I have all my blogs divided into categories. So in the case of this finger puppet, do I put it in my puppet blog, my craft-a-day blog, my crochet blog or my art blog? Yes, I could put it in all of the above, but each listing takes time and I have a full day just like most of you. More importantly, I should probably put this in my Etsy shop today.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Nearly Free Bubble Kit a Tutorial







I wanted to do bubble photos for my self-portrait a day pool on Flickr, only problem though...no bubbles.


My first thought was to run to the nearest store and get a bottle of bubbles. But whoa! I had all the knowledge and tools to do it myself, and I bet you do too.

First I found an empty pill bottle. The type I picked doesn't leak when turned upside down either. I rinsed it out, dried off the outside and labeled it with masking tape and a permanent marker. Always relabel bottles for safety's sake.
Then I filled it 1/4 full with bargain store liquid dishwashing detergent. I filled the rest with tap water. Do not shake. Put the lid back on and carefully turn it upside down a few times or stir it gentle with your bubble wand. You don't want it to get all foamy.

Then I found some wire for the bubble wand. I've even used clothes hanger wire in the past, but this time I chose a thin copper wire. I made a medium loop on one end and a small loop on the other. Then I taped the middle to cover the sharp wire ends. Make sure your loop is small enough to fit into your bubble bottle. The bare wire worked okay when tested, but not great. Then I remembered commercial bubble wands have little spikes that stick into the loop to hold more solution. So I used crochet thread and wrapped the bubble loop and tied it off with knots. This made it work perfectly.

So here are some of the photos I took with the new bubble wand.

I made this kit in under an hour, but I can see the potential of a hand-beaded bubble wand decorated in peyote stitch or wire wrapped in sterling silver with gems and beads on it.
A little tip: Bubbles like humidity and will last a lot longer on a foggy day or near a lake or pool.
Another tip: No matter the shape of the wand the bubble will always be round because that is the physics of surface tension.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Trio of Ornamental Bells


I crocheted these three little bells today. I thought they'd look great on one of my freeform crochet hats, or as charms, or to snazz up a gift. Can you hear them ringing in your mind?