Getting Ready

I had a great weekend down at The Craft Barn in Lingfield, Surrey demonstrating FP to a very friendly and receptive crowd at CB’s Craft Extravaganza. Hopefully I will be able to show you some photos later on when I can nab them from those who had time to go and take the pictures. All I will say at this point is that it is an extremely well run affair, there were 17 demonstrators, all of them very good indeed in their own fields and if you get the chance to go, it really is well worth the effort. The Craft Barn itself is packed with fabulous stuff, it is bulging at the seams with goodies, and the staff are really friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. Sandy and Ian who’s business it is are delightful. It is a real treasure trove, AND they run all sorts of classes too.

 I met some wonderful people, and thank you to Lucy and Sandra and everyone else who popped by to say hello. I also met Jo Firth Young who is a very talented lady working with QuicKutz Letterpress and Banana Frog as well as doing her own thing with her quirky little fabric critters.

She and I stayed at the same hotel, car shared and enjoyed a good old chinwag over a drink and a bite to eat on Saturday. Jo, if you read this, I hope you got home ok and are recovering from lack of sleep and two full days of talking non stop!

Yesterday was my catch up with orders and office work Visit-Sainsbury’s-To-Fill-The-Fridge day. Now I need to get cracking and make my Friendly Plastic samples for Saturday when I am back on The Box on Create And Craft at 10am. There will be some new kits to showcase, and the samples in the photograph below are for one of those kits. Sorry about the quality of the photos, I just tipped out the lot onto a piece of paper and quickly took some snaps for you to see.

 

 All these things have been made from just one kit. All the pendants are double sided and everything has had a coat of clear acrylic varnish / sealant to protect it.

 

Each piece is based on my Patchwork technique, but as you can see there are lots of variations.  I provide lots of ideas on the project sheet, besides all the step by step information you need to start making your own Patchwork.

I have used transfer foils to finish the edges of each piece, and in some cases the back of the pieces – it gives a more professional look.

 

Once you have learnt the basics, it really is a great way to create your own multicoloured strips to work with.

 

Making the most of some of the smaller pieces

There was absolutely no waste whatsoever as after I had used up the more decorative scraps to inlay (below), I rolled the last tiny scraps into beads.

 

The kits come with the jump rings, cord and other findings so you can make your own variations on my pieces. There are also different colourways to choose from, this one is called Summer Skies, and there is also Firelight and Opera, so make sure you tune in to the show on Saturday or record it. There will be replays of it, but I don’t know when (you can find this out by looking at the schedule after the show).

All I need to do now is make the samples for the other kits, and somehow persuade my knees not to knock this time!

Category : Bead Making, Create and Craft, Events, Foils, Friendly Plastic, Gloss Coatings, jewellery, liz welch
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