Friday, 16 December 2011

summer treasury list by Sonka Sushilov

If you want to feel a bit warmer and happy right now check this out guys!!! :))) one of my earrings has been included in this summery collection, it is so great especially in this bad cold weather in London :) http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTUxMjk0ODF8MTUzOTY1MjAzOA/summer-treasury


 

Thursday, 17 November 2011

Rudolf Red-Nosed Reindeer costume

I thought it might be nice to share with you some pictures from making Rudolf Red-Nosed Reindeer costume.







Gingerbread Man costume for Christmas

As I told you before I will be making some more costumes for Christmas. SO here they are Rudolf Red-Nosed Reindeer costume and Gingerbread Man costume :))) 

Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer costume is made from thick very soft fabric and it includes hat (face elements are hand stitched) with stuffed horns, ears and x-mas leaves and jingle bell decoration and long sleeve t-shirt with stuffed belly and decorated with red cotton thread with jumbo jingle bell.  I made som photos whilst I was making it so I will show them to you soon :)






Awsome gingerbread man costume is made from thick very soft fabric and it includes hat (face elements are hand stitched) and long sleeve t-shirt decorated with felt buttons and white rick rack ribbon to imitate icing sugar elements.


Friday, 4 November 2011

elf costume


Still warm, as I just made it yesterday, first costume from my Christmas costumes collection (there will be more in few days time), which is Santa's elf. The pictures I took are without my cute model for now but hopefuly I will be uploading some very soon - I need to wait untill she will be in a mood to wear it :)

So the elf costume is made from thick very soft fabric and it includes hat and dress. Both parts are decorated with snowflakes and jingle bells which is giving real feel and sound of Christmas. Dress is short sleeve as the idea is to put some long sleeve t-shirt under (ie. white and red stripes, red, white) and some matchin leggins/thights with it.






Friday, 28 October 2011

Christmas /home deco

Christmas will be soon, so it is time to think about how do we decorate our homes and our trees. I thought it will be nice to make something myself and I have decided to choose paper as a main source I will be making decorations from. Easy you would thing. Nothing more misleading as I found out very quickly that even most simple looking pieces are not so easy to make as I thought, and it takes long time and patience to be able to make them look really good. 

First decoration I have decided to make it was very challenging and time consuming flower ball inspired and based on ancient Japanaise technique called KUSUDAMA ("The Japanese kusudama (薬玉; lit. medicine ball) is a paper model that is usually (although not always) created by sewing multiple identical pyramidal units (usually stylized flowers folded from square paper) together through their points to form a spherical shape. Alternately the individual components may be glued together. (e.g. the kusudama in the lower photo is entirely glued, not threaded together) Occasionally, a tassel is attached to the bottom for decoration" (read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusudama )) You have to be very precise to make it look perfect but it is also fun to make, especially when at the end you can be very proud and satisfied with what you made. The flower ball is made from 60!!!! separate pieces - 12 flowers where each is made of 5 leaves - glued together. I have decided to make it just out of white paper and finish it with pale pink ribbon but you can make it of any paper you like. 












Another decoration I made were paper stars with music notes and finished with pink and green ribbon. Each star is composed from 12 pieces. I have decided to make my own print on a paper and I have used for it some Ludwig van Bethoven "Adelaide" notes (listen it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zEfJ3CGALQ )


 The hardest part of making this stars was to sew 12 of them together with ribbon perfectly aligned and on the middle. My sewing machine was braking the thred few times and making ugly noises before I managed to do it.


I think I will be making some more decorations this and next week as although challenging it is still fun :)

Thursday, 20 October 2011

introduction to structural jewellery City&Guilds course - week 3

For our homework we had been asked to make design for an arm piece we supposed to make in another 3-4 weeks time. We had to decided about it's shape, texture and material as today there is finally time for some shopping :))) I have made few hand drawings for different ideas. I have been discussing it with my life partner Sebastian which option would be the best and from making of which one I might learn the most. Have decided for two options and I made paper models for them. Now it is up to Felix to help me decide which one should I choose, so I can finish it on time. Both of them I would like to make in silver.






Option 1 would be from two wider and thiner pieces of silver which would be joined together by setteling between them 3-4mm five black onyx stones. Both silver pieces would be decorated with drilled holes in the same size as onyx stones and filled with the same stones and 5 empty ones as the places after the ones being used for joining.




Option 2 would also be made from two ider and thiner pieces of silver and 3 rubber washers in between them, everything joined by 2 paraler pieces of silver.




We all discussed with Felix our bracelets ideas individually to make our shopping lists. She told me that I would not be able to finish option 1 on time as it would take long time to settle it so many stones. So I go for option 2. Now I have to decide how much silver I have to buy. Very good tool for that is Cookson Gold website http://cooksongold.com/  where you can choose material you would like to use, it's thickness and lenght and it will calculate for you how much does it cost. Now I have to say, the true is devastating. I knew silver is expensive but I havent expect it to be so so expensive. If I would like to buy 2 pieces of the 0.7mm silver in a width as I designed I would need to pay £76!! So I had to cut it down by half to be able to aford it. So now I end up with 2 pieces in a mesurmets 20mm x 210mm  (this one I have to cut in two to make rings), 7mm x 85mm so I will spent for it £34 - look at the pictures on the top on my calculations - I haven't writte down the one for £76.

Before lunch time Alex, Vicky and I we went to Hatton Gardens for our silver shopping. We went to two shops, one is Rashbel http://www.rashbel.com/ where apparently you can see what you are buying and it was the one I spent money in and where I have be served by the biggest, tatooed and pierced and very nice at the same time man I ever saw in such a delicate shop :)) Vicky didn't get there everything she needs so we went to Cookson Gols ones I mentioned above. This one has look more like a bank - lots of counters, secutity guy and you have to take number before being served.




                                I also bought 2/0 sawing blades

Just shame I havent take picture of the silver I bought before I worked on it, maybe next time ;)

In a week 3 we have learned how to ANNEAL metal and how to use ROLLING MILL.

Annealing metal is used to make metal more flexible and soft and less springy. To anneal metal piece you have to heat it up with torch untill it will gain cherry red color. You have to be very carefull to not overheat it, especially when you do it with silver (new piece of silver first goes black then cherry red immediately after). Pickle it and wash it. Silver would not be shiny any longer for now, it will be mat and almost white, but don't worry you can polish it later :)

To make texture on a metal you have to use ROLLING MILL. First you have to anneal metal piece. Then cut textured material into metal shape and sandwitch it wita a paper which you have to cut into shape as well. Set up rolling mill placing your sandwitch in between so it is tight but not too heavy to roll it. Now roll it roll it roll it until it will comes out from the other side. How exciting!! I choosed for my texture cotton lace I brought from Mexico even that Felix was saying it will not comes out as clear as something harder. I just wanted see :) And look, she was right, but I think it still looks good even the texture is not very deep. You can see it better on a piece of paper I used to make my textured sandwitch sandwitch.



Looks like we done so much work today! :)