After a long day of terrorizing the toys in my toy basket, I like to freshen up with a good nap.
If this is what they call a dog’s life, I’ll take it.
My husband and I are going on a much anticipated trip to Japan in late March to celebrate his 40th birthday.
In between my daily Japanese language practice (dogs are now lovingly referred to as Kramer san and Stuie san), maybe I can squeeze in the time to knit this:
http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter03/PATTkyoto.html
I have loved this sweater since the first time I saw it a few months ago. This might be the perfect excuse to knit it!
Sigh. So much to knit, so little time…
As a jewelry designer, I often give jewelry as gifts, at least to my female friends. I’d love to make some jewelry for my husband, but unfortunately he’s not the swinging, gold-chain wearing type (or any other kind of chain for that matter), and will only wear his wedding band.
So what’s a Jewelry Girl to do when a holiday like Valentine’s Day comes up? I decided to make him a “Love Token” to carry in his wallet:
Now before you say, “Hey, that picture is out of focus,” please note that I made a couple of errors when stamping the metal, which are explained below. Instead of a mistakes, however, I prefer to think of them as “design decisions.”
Before beginning this project, give some thought to what you want to write on your token. You can just write “Love” if you want, but give it some thought to make the token unique.
My husband and I met through an online personal ad that I placed way back in 1996. I no longer have the text for the entire ad, but I started it with Shakespeare’s sonnet #130, which begins:
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…
And ends with this couplet:
| And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. |
In the spirit of the sonnet, I decided to stamp a sun-like shape at the top of the token, and I modified the closing text to read “My love is rare.”
Skill level
Beginner (requires basic metalsmithing)
Materials & Tools
1) Jeweler’s saw
2) Alphabet metal stamps (1/16)
3) Emery paper
4) Sharpie (preferably thin point)
5) Metal block
6) About 10 grams sterling silver or gold or at least an inch square sheet of 18g (1 mm) of either metal
7) Metal file
8) Emery stick
9) Hammer
10) Circle template or compass
11) Rolling mill (not pictured)
Here’s how it’s done:
1) This being a special occasion and all, I decided to use 18k gold in this project. Sterling silver will work just as well, and is a lot less expensive, and the process is the same regardless of whether you use gold or silver. If you use sheet metal for this project, skip to step #6.
2) Using your jeweler’s saw, cut at least a 3/4 inch piece of metal. You can eyeball this–it doesn’t have to be precise.
3) Mill your piece of metal flat to about 2 mm. Be careful not to smoosh your fingers. With a piece that small it’s easy to do. My jewelry teacher offered to start it for me, so I let him.
4) Anneal your metal to soften it for further milling. If you don’t, it can crack or peel at the edges.
5) Continue to mill the metal to 1 mm thickness. You can do it thinner if you want, but 1 mm will give the token a solid, coin-like weight, which is what I wanted.
6) Draw your shape (in this case, a circle) on your metal using the Sharpie.
7) Using your jeweler’s saw, carefully cut the shape out of the metal.
8) Using your metal file, emery stick, and emery paper, file and smooth the token so that all sharp edges are removed.
9) Anneal your token again so that the metal will be easier to stamp.
10) Using your Sharpie and a ruler (or your plastic template) draw rough guides where your letters will be stamped.
11) Carefully begin stamping your letters/design onto the token using your metal stamps, hammer, and metal block.
I cannot stress the word carefully enough when you are stamping the metal. It is very easy to accidentally stamp the wrong letter or to stamp it upside down if you aren’t careful.
Case in point:
Can you see that I accidentally used the “A” in love and the “V” in rare? Oh, and I just noticed that the “S” is upside down. Sigh. Those tiny letters are hard to read on the stamps!
A perfectionist would’ve re-did the token but I am not a perfectionist. Instead, I re-stamped the V and the A, hoping that the resulting design would give it a rustic, handmade look, which was my intention from the beginning, despite the mistakes.
12) Using a few different types of hammers, I pounded the token here and there to give it a more distressed, old coin-type look. I was also hoping to disguise my mistake, which I was only marginally successful in doing.
13) Polish your work if you want a shiny finish, use a satin finish buff for a brushed finished. I gave mine a shiny finish, then distressed it some more by putting it in a jar with some quarters and shaking them.
14) Style variations: You can do almost anything with your love token. Try, for example, cutting a shape in the middle of it, or solder a shape (like a heart) in a contrasting metal. For this project, I came very close to fabricating it in silver and then soldering a gold heart to the top instead of a sun.
15) Give the Love Token to your honey and then make him take you out to dinner. Happy Valentine’s Day!
All material copyright 2007 by Holly West. The design demonstrated in this tutorial is for personal use only. Please do not copy the design for re-sale.
A couple of weeks ago I posted some photos of a
WIP
I was tentatively calling
Puppy
Sweater. It’s a good thing I didn’t commit to that name because it
turned into an ABC sweater:
In this case, "C" is for Charlie, who turned one on January 23. While I
did pay attention to gauge, it did turn out rather large for a one year-old, but
I figure that means he can get a year of wear out of it, at least, even if it
comes down to his ankles now. I’ve still got some weaving-in-of-ends to
do, but by and large, it’s finished.
Unfortunately, my dog Stuart was really looking forward to the puppy sweater,
and was none too happy when he saw the alphabet sweater:
Since I’m not up to pattern making snuff, I can’t post a
pattern, but here’s how you can make a similar sweater:
1) Choose a basic child’s pull-over sweater pattern that you like.
The one I picked is from Hollywood Knits: Thirty Original Suss Designs
2) Design your letter on graph paper. You can make it as big or
as little as you want.
This site has some good examples, including the alphabet, of how this works,
and if you’re still desperate to knit a puppy sweater (I know I am), they have
some charts with dogs on it. The navigation on this site is not the
greatest, but it does have some good content, so look around.
3) This is
how
to read a chart, though presumably you already know how to do that if you
completed step 2.
4) Knit the sweater!
Just to get you started, here are a couple of links to some free patterns for
children’s pullovers which you could probably modify to make this sweater:
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/baby-child/tucson-sunset-child.html
In this example, you would probably knit it all in one color instead of the
stripes if you wanted to add a letter.
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/keri.html
http://margarethubertoriginals.com/newpage1.htm
I’ve said before that designing my own knit patterns is a big priority for
me, but I’m just not there yet. I know these aren’t great instructions,
but hey, if I could figure it out, so can you!
There’s something you need to know about me: I absolutely adore the Bee Gees, particularly, Barry Gibb. Really, I can’t emphasize enough how much I love the Bee Gees. If you were to get me started, I’d babble on about how they were the greatest pop group of all time and that their song writing is unparalleled… see, you got me started. At the moment, I am listening to one of the songs Barry recently released on iTunes called Carried Away which is part of a demo compilation he originally recorded for Barbra Streisand’s Guilty album. Carried Away didn’t make the cut, but it is a great song. Well done, Barry.
Anyway, all this talk about the Bee Gees has got me thinking about a pet portrait I completed in September of last year:
Buddy, acrylic on gallery canvas, 24 x 24, signed
Buddy is owned by my friend Heather, and she commissioned this portrait for her husband’s birthday.
For some added perspective, here is the photo on which the above photograph is based:
And finally, Buddy is famous. Check it out.
If you can’t see the connection between Buddy and the Bee Gees, let me explain. A couple of weeks ago I was reading one of Heather’s blogs and she’d posted about becoming suddenly (and some would say inexplicably) obsessed with the Bee Gees after watching Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon on The Barry Gibb Talk Show on SNL. Normally I’d object to anyone or anything making fun of Barry Gibb, but dude, it is hilarious. If you haven’t seen it, you can see it on YouTube or the NBC website. A small flurry of emails ensued, during which we (and another friend) discussed the sweet harmonies and generally addictive nature of songs like Nights on Broadway, which is the basis of the theme song for The Barry Gibb Talk Show.
So if it’s not clear yet, I was listening to the Bee Gees, which reminded me of Heather, which reminded me of Buddy, which reminded me of the portrait I’d painted of him. Frankly, I’d need much less of a connection to blabber on about the Bee Gees.
The other day, I posted a tutorial about how to make these earrings.
Here is a variation on the same theme:
Circle Pendant Necklace with Lemon Quartz
In this example, I used a round mandrel and twisted 22g wire at the "4" mark. I then completed all the steps in the tutorial with one exception: instead of lying the jump ring flat against the circle, I soldered it side ways so that the pendant would hang from a chain properly. This is a bit trickier than doing it flat, but I used two third hands to make it less awkward. As a finishing touch, I hammered each side of the wire before polishing the pendant. I think it would also be cool to just hammer one side, sort of like a half moon type look.
One of the things I like best about being a knitter is the ability to knit impromptu projects for upcoming events. For example, we went skiing in Mammoth over the weekend, and I quickly knitted up a new hat for the occasion.
For some reason, I am obsessed with ski hats. I bought two more this weekend, one of which has a brim which I found to be quite brilliant at keeping the wind away. Who knew?
But I digress. I present to you the Blue Pony Tail Hat, which I knitted for my fun ski weekend:
While in Oregon I had bought several skeins of Lion Brand Microspun, which is incredibly soft. For this hat I used a double strand and size 10 needles, casting on 67 stitches. The first four rows are in garter stitch, then in the fifth row I increased evenly to 71 stitches and switched to stockinette for about 5 inches before decreasing evenly to shape the top of the hat. Basically, I found a hat pattern I liked, then modified it to meet my needs.
When seaming, I added the best part of the hat:
For me, every ski hat has to have a pony tail hole, so I am forever cutting into my hats to accommodate my pony tail. My next hat will have three holes: 1 for a pony tail, and 2 on the sides for pig tails.
Speaking of my next hat, I am thinking hard about "The Perfect Ski Hat," which I hope to make in time for our next ski trip in early March.
And speaking of skiing, my husband Mick wrote a cool post in his blog:
This week I decided to try something new: jewelry tutorials. I had a particular design in my head, So I took my trusty camera to the studio so I could photograph each step of the process in making them.
When I got home and viewed the photos, I realized I’d need to bring a better camera if I was going to continue doing this. For now, however, I present to you:
Sterling Silver Circle Earrings with Golden Tourmaline
Skill level: Beginner (requires basic soldering knowledge)
Materials
2 gemstone briolette beads (I used tourmaline)
5 inches sterling silver round wire, gauge to be determined by size of hole in briolettes. For my project, I used 26g wire.
2 sterling silver jump rings
2 sterling silver leverbacks with split loop
Silver solder
Tools
Soldering equipment – third hand, flux, paint brush, soldering block, torch, pickle (not pictured)
An object to use as a mandrel (I used a metal punch)
Pliers to hold and shape as needed
Wire clippers
Making the Earrings
1) Wind your wire around the object you want to use as a mandrel several times
You’ll end up with a spring-like piece of wire like this:
2) Clip the wire to make individual circles, similar to the way you would cut jump rings.
3) Slip one of your briolettes onto a circle
4) Make sure the ends of the circle are touching, and lay it on the solder block. Using your brush, put some flux on the closed end. Put some flux on a small piece of silver solder, then lay it on top of the closed ends of your circle.
5) Carefully solder the ends of the circle closed using a small flame. Keep the heat as far away from your stone as possible.
6) Next, you’ll solder the jump ring on using the same solder you used to close the ends (again, use a small flame):
7) Put it in the pickle.
8) Using the emery stick or emery paper, smooth the area you soldered, being careful not to scratch your stone.
9) Polish your work.
10) Your finished component will look something like this:
11) To finish your earring, open the loop on the leverback carefully, the same way you would with a jump ring. Attach your component and close the loop.
12) Repeat process for second earring.
13) Put earrings on and enjoy!
If you make these earrings, send me a photo and I’ll post it in the gallery.
All material copyright 2007 by Holly West. The design demonstrated in this tutorial is for personal use only. Please do not copy the design for re-sale.
Last January, my husband and I bought a house in Rogue River, Oregon so I could spend more time with my grandparents, who live very close by. Much of the time we spend there has been taken up by home improvement projects. On this last trip, we made an upholstered headboard.
There are lots of tutorials online for making an upholstered headboard. Here are two I used:
http://interiordec.about.com/cs/diybedroom/ht/ht_uph_headboar.htm
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_furniture_beds/article/0,,HGTV_3439_1391743,00.html
While we didn’t follow the instructions in these tutorials exactly, I kind of used ideas from both in our headboard.
Here’s what we did:
1) Took the measurements for our headboard using the size of our bed (California king) and how high we wanted it to rise above the bed.
2) Went to Lowes, found the lumber section, and asked the nice man to cut us a piece of 1/2 inch plywood to our measurements. We also picked up a couple of 1x4s while we were there, which would be the legs of our headboard. We cut the 1x4s ourselves when we got home.
3) Went to the fabric store, picked out our fabric, and asked the nice lady to cut enough of it to cover our headboard, allowing for about a 4-5 inch “overhang.” We also bought batting here, which came in a package large enough to cover our headboard (and probably a couple more).
4) Mick figured out where the legs to our headboard would be attached. Here’s where we made our first mistake–originally we’d intended to attach the legs of the headboard to the metal bed frame. However, in measuring for the wood, we didn’t account for much beyond the edges of the mattress. When we got home, we realized that if we wanted to attach the legs to the bed, the 1x4s would have to be attached to the plywood at the very edges of it.
In retrospect, we should’ve done one of of two things: One–decide we weren’t going to attach the legs to the bed at all, or two–measure the plywood a bit bigger so that the legs wouldn’t have to be attached to the edges. In the end, we attached them right to the edges, still intending to attach it to the bed, but when we actually set it up we ended up just resting it against the wall and pushing the bed up to it.
5) Mick drilled holes and attached the legs to the plywood using woodscrews, thus finishing the wood frame that the batting and fabric would be attached to.
6) Here’s where the fun part began. I measured out the batting that would be stapled around the frame. I wasn’t too exact about it, but left about 4 inches all around to allow it to be stapled to the back.
7) Next, I got out my handy-dandy staple gun and stapled the batting as neatly and tightly as I could around the frame.
After doing this, we weren’t happy with the thickness of the padding, so we stapled another layer of batting around it. Note: Some tutorials for upholstered headboards say to attach rubber foam to the plywood using spray adhesive, then covering that with batting. In retrospect, I wish I would’ve done that, but only because I think it would’ve felt a bit more luxurious.
8) Finally, it was time to attach the fabric we’d chosen, which was a gorgeous taupe ultrasuede. As you can see, we kind of had to work around the legs. In the tutorials listed above, the legs are attached after the batting and fabric are done, which is a better method, but since we’d had the problems with the placement of the legs and knew the 1x4s would show if we didn’t cover them with fabric as well, we attached the legs first.
9) The finished headboard, which Mick caresses lovingly:
10) And here you have it, our lovely new bed:
Mistake #2: We need to put another 1×4 near the top of the headboard so it all sits flush against the wall. It’s not a big deal but it will make it feel more sold.
After being off the jewelry wagon for about six weeks while in Oregon, it was nice to get back to my studio today. Since I didn’t have any great design ideas, I decided to do something quick and simple and came up with these earrings:
After tracing ovals on 22 gauge sterling silver, I cut out them out with a jeweler’s saw, then filed, sanded, and hammered them. I then soldered a jump ring onto each. I attached them to sterling silver leverbacks, and voila! A cute pair of earrings that look really cool when worn. They’re also very light, which can sometimes be a problem with large, dangly earrrings.