I wish I could do that - sewing

The art of sewing isn't one that has ever come to me. To be honest, after some poor attempts at elementary school I had lost all ambition to even try anymore (even my mother gave up on me after she made sure I might be able to mend socks and sew on buttons in a case of emergency ;-)). Crocheting, ok, knitting, ok, but give me a needle and thread and I'm lost and will try to get the needle through the thread rather than the other way round. Or even a sewing machine? No chance, I won't go near it and never felt the urge to.

The more I admire what other people can do with these things. And there is not even a reason to admire from afar, no, these people sell the beautiful pieces that I can just dream of making. Our guild has some talented members in this section and I want you to share some of my favorite pieces with me.

I am a cat person, so of course this handmade purse appealed to me right away.
"Materialised" has this Cool Cats Purse in her ArtFire studio. Very cool indeed, not only the fine fabric, but also the details. Look at the smug little cat faces!



I also like movies and the first movie I ever saw going to the cinema all by myself was "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Indiana Jones, my hero - I wanted to be his Marion.
Are you a fan, too? So why not get your very own Indy to live with? Check out the "The House of Mouse" and this cute little fellow.




Are you ready to meet Elvis now? The King is alive! In this case he has changed from sparkly white suits into red fur, though. This Elvis is a parrot and what a cute one at that!
The studio where you can find him looking for a partner who will play with him is "Eddy's Pressies". He's not the only cutie awaiting you there.



Last, but not least we'll bring a little bit of old times into this modern world with a special bag from "m.a.p.h.i.a".
Look at this gorgeous pompadour, fit for a queen. And you as well.



I hope you enjoyed the little trip through the wonderland of thread and needle. I sure did :-D

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I wish I could do that

Visit our studios


Getting to the heart of the matter


My True Colours logo is based on the open heart, but the European Artfire Guild has talented craftspersons who put me to shame with their gorgeous hearts!

One thing I have great admiration for, having tried my hand at it for just one day, is lampwork. This I do wish I could do, but one can spread oneself too thinly... Christa of Luccicare Lampwork has a whole set of heart beads she creates from glass and embellishes with a silver core to run a broad chain through. I am hoping she will soon post a gorgeous violet/purplish one I came across on a Flickr site, like this blue one but more majestic.

Continuing with the lampwork theme, there are hearts from Bab's Beads and Design

Earrings and necklaces in the blue/green colours that relate to the subtle heart, in fused glass from DichroicDazzle,
and in lampwork from Gwendoline

and a lovely necklace in silver with lampwork beads from Silver-Soul-Designs


One of a number of gorgeous enamelled copper heart pendants from Paintboxcrafts caught my eye:

A specialist in hearts is Gillian of iheartcrafts. She makes a variety of heartshaped items in clay and in fabric:


A lovely silver heart pendant from Alibalijewellery

A piece from The Sheriff's Daughter that she calls 'Heavy Heart', with a tiger iron pendant, I'd be inclined to call it 'Heart of the Tiger':

Hearts are really popular! Look and you will find many, many more of them in our Artfire Shops! My last choices for something I do wish I could do, or could have the patience to do, are the lovely collaged card from The Spotted Sparrow, a card she has called simply 'Beloved':
and the gorgeous Valentine mouse from The House of Mouse.


Heartfelt wishes for enjoyable browsing in our studios!

I Wish I Could Do That! - Book-binding

Book-binding is a wonderful craft, something I would really love to learn to do myself someday. It combines two of my absolute favourite ingredients : paper and fabric. The book-binder also needs a great deal of skill, patience, and a great attention to detail, so I'm happy that beautiful hand bound journals, made by experts are available to buy on handmade sites like ArtFire.com

There is something very special about a new journal - it's so full of potential...what could you fill it with? Family photographs and mementos, sketches and ideas, romantic poems, or perhaps your deepest darkest secrets...the choice is yours, but what could be better and more luxurious than using a hand bound book.

These velvet bound books are a great example , available from ignis fatuus they measure 6 and a quarter inches by 4 and three quarter inches and inside there are 64 pages of bright white recycled paper for you to fill any way you like. The red velvet is very soft to touch as well as being extremely elegant!

I wish I could do that

One thing I've always wanted to do is create these incredibly detailed tiny fairy and mermaid dolls out of polymer clay.
The artists that make them take hours of concentration and skill to perfect them. But for a beginner wanting to start; a good place to visit would be Fairy Heaven run by Satsumamoon on Artfire.
Not only does she offer books and tutorials on these closely guarded secrets, but she has a whole range of supplies too. Here you will find alsorts of amazing things from the polymer clay itself to a full range of tiny doll eyes in a choice of 34 colours to these amazing real butterfly wings specially treated so that they can be wired and attatched to your little creation.


To use her own words...
Preparing the wings is a very delicate, painstaking and time consuming process, during which 5 out of 10 pairs dont survive :-( I have spent about 2 years trying out lots of different combinations of artist products suitable for stabilising and protecting the wings These prepared wings have been sitting out their test period for over a year now so you can be sure they will last you and wont go disintegrate and become tacky. Some of my other butterfly wing experiments have ! ************ You may like to know that either the butterflies' bodies or antennae were broken and so were rescued from going in the collectors trash and given a new lease of life!
Where else could you get such specialised tools and supplies? Well worth the visit.

I wish i could do that

Tired of trashing photos because they don't cut it? Tired of re shooting again and again and still get crummy photos?
You can still use those not so perfect photos by tweaking them a little thus avoiding re shoots.
Every program has a layers tab and there is where you are going to perform some tricks.
i use Ps so the nomenclature will be theirs, but it is pretty similar in all programs.
Here's a quick and dirty mini tute:

• Make a duplicate of the layer
• Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels
• Move the first slider on the right until you get the whites
• Adjust the colors with the middle one
• If need be increase the contrast with the last slider
  
• When you get what you need click ok.
  

Now flatten the image. The overcast is gone! The white background is white!

If you need to fine tune the colors.

• Duplicate layer

• Go to Image>Adjustments>Curves
• Adjust the RGB channel by clicking on the line and adding points. Move them until you get what you want.
• Click ok then flatten the layers.

i usually treat each color separately on it's own layer one at a time merging after i finish each color and duplicating the resulting layer for the next color adjustment.Then i crop the image,and perhaps touch up a resilient shadow:)
You will be surprised how much you can improve your photos.
Now, out of focus is not so easy to improve it means re shoot sorry:) !


neki desu