Leather coat into cushions

How did I forget to put these on here? Especially as I see or use them almost every day.

Once upon a time, ooh about 15 years ago, these leather cushions were a 60s suede coat. I wore it a lot but the cotton that had been used to sew it together was starting to lose its grip and the buttons needed replacing etc so, fed up with the constant repairs, I turned it into four 16" cushions using the suede and leather sides to maximum effect.

Each one is a different with plain brown cloth on the reverse side.

Fake stained glass

I had a window created in the wall at the top of the stairs to let light through. Real stained glass was going to cost a lot of money, and be heavy. So I hit on the bright(!) idea of using perspex, self adhesive metal tape and scraps of coloured lighting gels.

Less than £20. Bargain!

Clay Pipe Jewellery

Hard to believe I haven't put any of these on here!

I am still trying to find a regular selling pitch/outlet and I am a bit jaded by the response of market managers saying they don't want any more jewellery stalls without actually looking at what I am selling or understanding that it's all about history, not twinkly accessories.

Any advice or ideas welcome.

Christmas card 2010

This year's, oops, last year's card is an arrangement of clay pipe fragments in the shape of a tree, including a bowl as the trunk. I have so many of these pieces because I collect them to make jewellery.

The 'berries are chrysocholla beads.

For those of you who didn't get a card in the post, or a link to this image on Flickr, I am am sorry but I don't have your address, so please accept this as a Happy New Year card instead.

Wishing everyone a prosperous 2011,

Jane

Christmas decorations

When I was in Junior school my favourite shops were WHSmith and Ryman's where I could buy coloured tissue, paper etc to make things including christmas decorations and cards.

Using my trusty Spotstick I worked out how make openy-uppy tissue baubles and bells by alternating the glue spots. I made about six of the things in various shapes. But I can only now find the four in the picture. Perhaps I threw away the tree-shaped one as it wasn't up to the standard of these...

Impressed with the results, I went on the hunt for coloured foil to make extendable chains and finally found some on a Romford market stall. But the Spotsick wasn't up to the job and so began my affair with double sided-tape, which I had to cut into little 4mm squares! I ended up making yards of the things in (it was yards back then).

Most of these concertina-style decorations still survive today – I only took these pics yesterday – and the glue is still holding strong after almost 40 years (ouch!).

In the box of decs I also found this applique Father Christmas picture I made artound the same time using all sorts of paper scraps plus white wool for his beard – check out the intricate design there! Sadly, he has lost a foot and a hand. Different glue see – had I used Spotsick or double-sided, perhaps he'd still be intact.

And the little paper hearts... I think they are circa 1995. Cheap and effective.

Clay animals

These sit on my mantlepiece and although I must look at them every day it hadn't crossed my mind to put them on here until now.

I think they were made within a year of each other between the ages of 10 and 11.

As I recall, the owl money bank, made by starting with a coil pot, was my attempt to be different to the rest of the class who all made pigs. Quite what I was thinking when I gave it (him/her?) those bright orange beak-lips is anyone's guess. Perhaps to distract the poor thing from having a cork up its arse?!

The pensive bear wasn't originally intended to have that demeanour; he slumped when fired, and so would you. But I think he turned out better for it.

Little things

Here are the two most recent things I have knitted for friend's littl'uns.

The denim jacket was made following a pattern but the cardigan with hearts motifs was just made up as I went along.

Over there years I have made quite a few little items etc for sprogs, but apart from an orange hat I cannot find any photo evidence.

Lampshade

I bought a really nice old lamp stand in France which had a broken shade. I couldn't find a suitable replacement that wasn't ridiculously expensive, so I made my own.

Keeping the inner bits and the ring at the top, I attached verticals and adjoining sections made from wire coat hangers. Then I made a 'ground mesh' by wrapping the frame in cotton thread and then pasting squares of muslin onto that using wallpaper paste, papier maché fashion. The green and gold coloured lines are made using ripped up bits of handmade paper.

It's a bit wonky, but I like it.

Bikini tops and vests

Tit bags. Over the shoulder boulder holders. Bra tops. Vests. All knitted or crocheted by yours truly over the years. The one top left now lives in Malaysia with my petite friend Katy, who has yet to send me a photo of herself wearing it. Katy, get your finger out woman!

The hat also features here.

Clay pipe jewellery

In late 2009 I began making necklaces out of clay pipe fragments that I found along the Thames in 2009. It started out as a bit of a pipe dream (ha ha!!) but I have since set up a company and a web site using my middle name: Amelia Parker.

Clay pipes date from the 16th century. People used to smoke them until they became clogged up so they just threw them away and started a new one. There were hundreds of different manufacturers creating these pipes – more info here and history here.

The idea for creating the necklaces came to me a while ago whilst on the foreshore at Wapping when it occurred to me that the straight fragments with their random shapes, sizes and discolourations from centuries of being battered by the tides, were beautiful and, with their ready-made holes, perfect for threading. So I took a pocketful home with me. I had to clean them thoroughly, both inside and out as a lot of the pieces still contained compacted 17th century ash, and Thames water is full of nasty diseases – I don't want the Health and Safety boys coming after me!

Then it was a matter of grading them by size and coming up with designs that I could duplicate in the hope that I may be able to take the idea further. So I got in touch with The Museum of London and the PLA to make sure that I wasn't treading on any historical toes or ignoring any ownership issues.

The initial designs shown here received good feedback. I created specific pieces to give as presents to friends I visited in NZ and Malaysia and all three of them were impressed and said they loved having a bit of London history around their neck to remind them of their time here. And they all Googled "clay pipes" to find out more.

Since then I have come up with lots more designs, all of which can be found at www.amelia-parker.com

Please do contact me to find out more.

Clockwise from top left:

Earth: randomly pattern wood and plastic beads; Kirsty: thick shafts with large glass beads; Katy: fine shafts with 4-sided metal and glass beads; Red chips: misshapen pieces of red coral; Rachel: shirt buttons; Autumn: random plastic and metal beads

Painting and drawing in Ty Jouen

A friend's sister and her boyfriend had a fabulous farm in Brittany where they lived a permaculture lifestyle surrounded by animals and organic vegetables. In 1990 group of us went there for a week or so armed with paints and pastels. Here are some of my efforts:

Two more needlepoint cushions

As above; two more cushions... the one on the left with the interlocking crosses is fairly well-used as it supports my lower back when I sit on an expensive Italian chair at a company I work for in Islington. You'd think they could have designed the things so that the backs moved in and out, eh?!

And, as you can see, the one on the right is still unfinished. A while back I bought a cane chair which had a nasty burgundy Dralon-covered seat that needed replacing. I came up an idea to replicate the cane mesh of the chair in needlepoint. But when I pulled the seat apart I found that the underneath of it needed more than just a new cover. Somehow the project just never got finished. The chair is now rotting away in the garden. But I suppose I should still make this into a round cushion... one day...

Christmas cards

Last year I made created a photographic montage using images of pubs with a tenuous Christmas theme collected from my pubs set on Flickr.

The card was designed to be a sort of quiz; on the back I invited people to identify the 12 pubs and get back to me by email. I was disappointed that only a handful of friends actually bothered to do this, and I now think most people probably just thought it was shop-bought because it was printed and, to the unobservant, looked like just any other Christmas card.

In the past I made my cards using all sorts of different media; material, glitter, torn paper, even beads and wire, so I can understand why the printed card wasn't really noticed as a 'hand-made' item.

So, as this year I shan't be making any cards at all, I thought it would be nice to display all the ones I have made in previous years.

As you can see there is nothing shown here for 1998. That year wasn't one of my best; the design was a triangle of green fur fabric with glitter glue baubles which looked great during the creative process as the balls of glitter hung in spheres, but as the glue dried they just turned to flat discs.

And I cannot recall or find any reference of what I made in 2007 – I cannot believe that I did nothing at all – if anyone has kept one, please do let me know.

1993 paint splatters using Christmas colours on white paper and gold tissue; 1994 simple computer-generated motifs; 1995 zig-zag machine embroidery using silver thread through two layers of recycled paper; 1996 1995's idea expanded on brown paper; 1997 me in a crown of Christmas lights (hardly anyone recognised that it was me!); 1999 computer-generated typographic design depicting the numbers changing at midnight.

2001 simple glitter glue tree; 2002 holographic red metallic film on hand-made green paper; 2003 filigree paper with glitter glue baubles on dark blue hand-made paper; 2004 machined applique using zig-zag stitching on two pre-embroidered and embellished materials; 2005 crochet tree with glitter glue baubles on white bobbly plastic; 2006 beads threaded onto wire and hung in a window; 2007 photograph of my home-made wall-mounted tree made with garden canes and over-sized lights; 2008 my 12 pubs of Christmas,

Close ups:

Home Sweet Home

Saturday 17th October 2009.

What a lovely way to spend an afternoon; Tracey and I went along to an event at Battersea Arts Centre where we each chose a plot and 'bought' a 200mm cardboard house to go on it, which we then customised using the materials provided.

Had I realised in advance the sort of afternoon that I was in for, I would have planned ahead and taken a few things with me, such a scalpel, and thought of a few ideas in advance. But time was of the essence as both of us had other places to be by 6pm, so I decided to restrict my design using whatever I could find inside three magazines. I relocated and replaced the windows and doors, added a stained glass window on one side and a bit of trompe on the other. The whole thing was then finished off with sedum roofs and gardens made of soft furnishings.

Tracey's house, across the street (which I named Makepiece Road) had wood panelling made from pegs, insulated roof tiles, an iridescent pink frontage and a huge bit of modern art in the back garden.

Had either of us looked into it a bit more before showing up we would have found out that being as it was the last day it was going on into the evening and a 'street party' was planned where all participants could be return to meet their neighbours and collect their houses. How frustrating! I'll definitely be going to the next one.

More pics of the event here and info here & here.

Willy warmers and Durex wool

I was taught to crochet at the age of 7 or 8 by my Nana and the dinner lady at school. I knew that to start you had to create a little chain stitch loop and then make 12 treble crochets into that loop. But I hadn't sussed out how to then make the regular increases which result in a big flat circle or square.
So, depending on the thickness of the yarn and the size of the hook I was using, what I managed to produce was a range of what I called 'purses', complete with drawstring tops, which I gave out as presents. The ones shown here are not originals; I made them last week to illustrate my point as both are created with the same 6mm hook.
Anyway, Mum used to tell me a story that on one afternoon Nana and I were crocheting away, and Nana showed off her latest design using gold metallic yarn which she mistakenly referred to as 'Durex wool'. And sat at her feet was a little girl making willy warmers. Ah bless. (See more about this in the comments below)
Once I had worked out how to do the increases there was no stopping me. Here is my school photo aged almost 9. The photographer commented that he liked my tank top. I was so pleased with myself and blurted out "I made it!!" You can see the precociousness (or is it smugness?) written all over my smirky tight-lipped smile.
Everything in that photo is home-made; Mum made that shirt and together we made the bobble hair thingies.