April already ...

Just a quick post today - I spent all day yesterday (my usual day for blogging) at a conference  and it's school holidays (equals bored children completely incapable of entertaining themselves).  

We're going to pop down to Melbourne for a couple of days next week,  it'll be good to get away - we love living in the country but feel the need to get into the city now and then.  It also means I can make a trip to the wool shop to stock up.  I've been using noro yarn in some my woven pieces.  It's not exactly cheap but jewelry doesn't consume vast quantities.   I do like the colourways it comes in and it's quite a hard wool texture-wise (at least the one I use is) which is good for my work as it holds its form well.

 

I received my beads from HappyFallout this week so I was able to use them straight away in this piece.  You can't tell from the picture but they are a really beautiful colour and texture - not completely black but with variations.  I'm in love with the fish bead she included in the mix and couldn't resist wire wrapping this for the shepherds hook closure.  

Vintajia Adornments has asked me how I finish off the loose ends.  There are quite a few methods for doing this.  At the top of the above piece I've used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch along the top and then rolled to make a hem. At the bottom, I've used a technique called hem stitching which involves wrapping groups of warp threads together in bundles.  If you are in to macrame or knotting you can use this to finish a woven piece really effectively.

Another exciting thing to happen this week was Melinda's (BeesonPie) package arriving - full of lovely beads, leather and other fabulous bits and pieces.  I've been having loads of fun going through it and hopefully will have a photo for my next post.  Thanks Melinda. This is the second package she sent - the first one is still MIA, so it was really incredibly generous of her to send more stuff

I also wanted to thank everyone for their kind comments about my son's health scare - it was much appreciated.