Little Hens for Easter

This week I got a special request from one of my husband’s co-workers to make some cute crochet hens for her daughter for Easter.  She saw some hen egg cozies on Etsy and asked Jon if I’d be able to do something similar.  Knowing that crochet is my super power, he was confident that I’d be able to come up with something.

My first thought was to just make up a pattern from scratch and base my design on the hens in the photo.  But before I did, I decided to check to see if there were any patterns already available on-line.  To my delight, I found this pattern from Delights Gems published about a month ago.

I pretty much followed the pattern exactly, except for the beak, which I just kinda winged to make look more like the original inspiration.

I love that the hens are all different colors, I think they look cute all together.

Happy Easter!

Earth Day project: Milk Jug Bird feeder

Happy Earth Day!

Looking for a way to celebrate Earth Day? How about tackling this classic, quick, and easy project for turning a milk jug into a bird feeder?!

Materials needed:

• as many one-gallon or half-gallon plastic milk jugs as you want
• one chop stick or skewer per milk jug
• one coat hanger per two bird feeders or some string
• hot glue and glue gun (optional)
• knife
• wire cutters if using coat hangers
• scissors
• hole punch
• pliers

Step one: After washing the milk jug, make two holes in two sides of the jug. Do this by first making slits in the plastic with your knife to get started, then use your scissors to make nice circles. The plastic is really easy to cut. I used the circles that are already on the jugs as guides, which are fairly large. If you are concerned with attracting larger birds, make your holes smaller.

Step Two:  Using your hole punch, make a small hole under each of your larger ones for the perch.  Thread your chop stick or skewer through both holes.  Secure with hot glue if desired.

Step Three:  Take your coat hanger and cut as shown.  Make two slits on opposite sides of your jug near the cap.  Insert the ends of the newly cut coat hanger and bend the edges so that it is secured inside the jug.  Hot glue around the holes if desired to reinforce and to prevent water from leaking through the holes.

Step Four:  Speaking of water, you will want to make a few holes in the bottom of your jug for drainage.  Make these with your knife, or better yet, a small drill bit.

Now all you need is bird seed and a tree limb to hang up your feeder(s)! Don’t miss out on future tutorials, stories, and news about upcoming events by liking zween on Facebook!

New products for MayDay Show!

Flowers, birds, colorful, cute, and fun. These are the themes I’m concentrating on in my current body of work, probably because I am so ready for spring and summer.

Here is a sneak peak of what I’ve been up to since the April Showers Show and what I’ll be showing at the upcoming MayDay Show at Bela Dubby on Saturday, May 14, 2011 from 1-5pm. I hope that you like what you see and come out to support the 16 local artists at the show.

Fabric flower bouquet.  Flowers are expensive and last just a few days, or a week if you’re lucky.  These hand-crafted flowers will last all season and then some!

Fabric flower broaches and hair clips.  Cute and sweet on a little girl or fun and flirty on a big girl.

Fabric collage wall hangings. Here is just one of the new 5×7″ fabric collage wall hangings that I’ve made since April Showers.

Note cards based off of the fabric collages. The note cards pictured here were available at Spring Showers, but there will be new ones based off of the new collages as well. I will also be packaging the cards in sets as well as selling them individually.

Want to make sure you don’t miss out on any future events such as the MayDay Show?  Like zween on facebook to be notified of new posts about upcoming events, tutorials, crafty news and more!

6 x 6 x 2011 Entry

Yesterday I saw a facebook post from an old friend about this show that she is entering (6x6x2011 Global) and thought, hey, I should make up a special 6″x6″ format fabric collage to submit. And that is just what I did.

Above is the piece I made especially for the show. I’m still debating on what to call it. What do you think of the title, “Love Me” ?

Think you want to enter this show too? You totally should! You still have some time, the deadline to submit art is May 1, 2011.

Here are some details about the show:

6x6x2011: Global is the fourth exhibition of thousands of original artworks, made and donated by celebrities, international and local artists, designers, college students, youths, and YOU.

Each artwork will be 6×6 square inches and signed only on the back, to be exhibited anonymously. All artworks will be for sale to the public for $20 each to benefit Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo). Artist names will be revealed to the buyer only upon purchase and all works will remain on display for the duration of the exhibition.

Beginning July 1st, the names of artists whose work has completely sold out will be revealed online next to their artwork(s). The 6x6x2011 Online Gallery will be available (www.roco6x6.org) for previewing on May 28th and global online purchasing will begin June 6 at 10am.

6x6x2011 is an exhibition with a twist. It tests the viewers’ ability to identify famous artists’ work. The exhibition also challenges everyone to support the arts by buying what you like, regardless of the signature! Anyone may enter their artwork to be part of this amazing show!

Last year’s exhibition included over 5,000 artworks by 2,000 artists from 43 US states and 22 countries! Over 7,000 people attended 6x6x2010 and over 1,700 artworks have been purchased!

Going to the birds

I’ve been working on some more small-scale fabric collages (5 x 7) yesterday and today and came up several designs; three of which have been completed. I’m fairly happy with the Pretty in Pink Bird (above), but not too excited about my Rubber Ducky (below). I think my favorite is the Angry Mama Bird. Tell me what you think.  As I mentioned in my previous post I’m looking for a constructive critique of my new work.

Wanted: Constructive Critique

Today I am sharing some fabric collages that I’ve been working on lately in hopes to get some responses from my readers.  So if anyone is out there, please have a look and respond with your thoughts with a comment.

The following tells a meandering tale of how it is that I came to make fabric collages, so please bare with me.

It all started when I was accepted to participate in another indie craft fair organized by the Cleveland Craft Coalition.  Though the show is called Spring Showers and has a loose shower theme (think baby and bridal), they also excepted me as an “other” vendor, meaning that although I didn’t fit into those categories they’d let me participate anyway.

I haven’t really found my niche yet, so I’ve been trying to play around with a lot of different materials and mediums, mostly trying to incorporate materials that I already have on hand while trying to come up with a somewhat cohesive collection of products.

Thinking spring, I started crocheting a bunch of brightly colored flowers then added fun buttons and made them into hair clips.

While thinking about how I could display them at a craft fair I came across a small stash of old, wooden picture frames.  I grabbed one of the frames, attached some strips of bedsheet  fabric and vola!  A hair clip display!

I propped the display frame against the window on my work table so that I could look at it and decide what to do next.  The hair clips were fun to make, but at the last CCC craft bazaar a few other vendors where also selling hair clips (all of which were super cute!).  Though mine aren’t like the ones being sold at Bella Dubby last month, I thought it was probably best to focus my attention on making something other than hair accessories.  So, it was back to the drawing board…

Looking at the flower hair clip display gave me an idea though.  I really liked the way they looked with the frame and started to ponder how I could make some visual art incorporating the crochet flowers.

Of course this lead me to pull out all my fabric…

Playing around with materials, I came up with the following four pieces.  All of the following four pieces are intended to be put in frames, though only some of them are photographed that way. Also, keep in mind that I intend that the frames be painted white (something that I need to do on Tuesday when it will be a bit warmer I hope).  The first two pieces are 8″ x 10″ and the other three are 11″ x 14″.  These aren’t the best photos, but they give you an idea of what I’m talking about…

To create these fabric collages I was stitching the layers together both by hand and with my sewing machine. In some parts I was also using some really old (and extremely wrinkled) stitch witchery to adhere some of the layers together, mostly to help with the sewing.

Soon I ran out of the little stitch witchery that I had so I went to Pat Catans to see if I could buy some more. What I found was something that was similar in concept, but this stuff came on a role and had a piece of paper on one side that you peel off so as to adhere one fabric to the other. It was a lot more controlled and precise than what I had been using, but on the packaging (which I had failed to read throughly before buying) said not to use if sewing was needed. Hmmm…

Since I was half way through a design I was working on already, I decided to give it a try. Here’s the result:

Above; moose antlers, 11″ x 14″

Interesting, but not exactly what I had in mind.

The new fabric adhesive product gave me an idea for making smaller projects though.  Up until this point I was limited to how much detail I could get with the fabric pieces.  Make them too small and the pieces would lose their definition if they frayed at all.  This fabric adhesive, however, made my cutting precise and kept the cut fabric looking sharp.  That made me think that it would lend itself to more of a graphic look.  My original idea was to use mat board in conjunction with painting stretchers.  I have several reclaimed modular stretcher segments but the lengths are pretty long.  I wanted to work with a smaller, more intimate scale, at least for now.  I’m much happier with the way these last two came out yesterday.  They are both roughly 5″ x 7″ and mounted on some scrap double thick mat board and remind me of post cards (hmm…this sounds like another idea…).   I like the way that the base fabric wraps around the board, giving a nice, finished look.  I can attach a small piece of hardware to the back for easy hanging; making a frame unnecessary (ironic, since the frames are what lead me to make hangable art in the first place).

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think about this direction that I’m headed.  That’s one thing I miss the most about being in art school, the  constant access to peers and professors ready and willing to give their opinions about your work.