I love Rob Ryan

I love Rob Ryan's work and have been an admirer for quite a while. Here is a short interview from Etsy where he talks about his work and a new book which is available to buy from today. It's a children's book called A Sky Full of Kindness, it's about two birds who become parents for the first time.


Handmade Portraits: Rob Ryan from Etsy on Vimeo.

There is true passion in all of his work and its at a level I think everyone can connect with.

Old flames are dead matches

After I finished my cross stitched deer/stag I wanted to try stitching some text. This is s quote from a British poet / painter David Robilliard. When I was at University one for my coursemates has a postcard of his work with this written on it. I always found it quite funny but have never been able to find my own copy of that postcard. So I thought I would create an homage of that piece.


David Robilliard's work was very simple, he had no formal training but was discovered and promoted by the artists Gilbert and George. 

I've added this to my kitchen wall as I have a bit of a Red, white and Black theme going on in there. 

That framed image is a print I made from a print workshop I took part in quite a while ago. The writing is an old family recipe for yorkshire relish which is a bit like Worcestershire sauce. The recipe has been in my family for at least a couple of generations. I found the hand written recipe at the time of the workshop where we were learning how to do gum arabic printing using photocopies. Something I've never done since as it can be a little messy and you need a fair bit of space.

My DIY test tube vase

I stained my test tube vase base at the weekend. This piece of wood required a lot of sanding but I love the finished look with the visible wood grain. I used Liberon Tint and Wax in Dark oak. It goes on so easily with a sponge brush and doesn't have a horrible smell either. I've used it before when restoring my singer sewing table. Now all I need is someone to buy me some flowers to fill the vases with!

After the success of my crochet baby blankets my understanding of how crochet works has led me to experiment. As I have already mastered circles I wanted to see what other shapes I could do. Can you guess what I'm going to make out of these triangular shapes? As I still don't understand crochet patterns this was something I made up through playing around.

How to oxidise a silver chain

Last week I went for a little trip to Tewkesbury to explore and I came back with a little treat for myself. I went to Tewkesbury for lunch to celebrate my sister birthday back in May and I noticed they had a lot of vintage/ antique stores but most of them were closed as it was a Sunday. I'm sure I saw this pendant when I was there in May so when I saw it still there in the same shop I had to buy it. 
As you can see it seems to have oxidised quite a lot over time which I quite like but I didn't have a old chain to go with it so I thought I would age one myself by oxidising it. 

As you can see the shiny new chain doesn't really work with the vintage pendant. 

You will need: A sterling silver chain
                          Plastic Tweezers
                          Ammonium Hydrosulphide
                          Boiling water
                          Kitchen roll
                          Old mug or jar


I bought the Ammonium Hydrosulphide from HS Walsh. Boil the kettle and add about 1 part Ammonium Hydrosulphide to 9 parts water. You only need enough liquid to cover the item your oxidising. Wait about 10 minuets and you should be done. Take out the chain using thr tweezers and rinse under cold running water.

My chain came out a little too black for the look I was going for so I used a silver polishing cloth to take it back to the desired antique-y look I wanted.

 I've already had lots of comments on my new / old necklace. I glad I gave it a new home.

Dinner for two

Finished my crochet circle. I thought I would make it a friend just to make sure I could remember how I did it and success, dinner for two! Can you spot my dinner guest in the background,  where's Wall.E! (I apologise!)

Some new old music

I seem to be on a constant journey of discovery when it comes to music. I don't care where and when it was written as long as I like it. However I'm always surprised when I love music that was written before I was even born.
Nick Drake made some beautiful music, Riverman and Pink moon especially.

Test Tube Vase

This is currently work in progress but thought I would share what I've been up to today. I bought a couple of test tubes at a car boot sale last week and I wanted to make a base so I could use them as stem vases. 
I was invited round to my sisters for dinner today and my brother in-law has a pillar drill he said I could have a play with. So, will a little assistance from him setting it up I was able to drill two holes into a piece of scrap wood. I decided to have the test tubes at varying heights so drilled the holes at varying depths. I then spent the next hour sanding the wood so I have a nice smooth surface which I'm later going to stain.