Category Archives: eco crafts & green projects

January 3, 2021 · 3:27 pm

Spoons carved at the end of December 2020 and beginning of January 2021

I have been happily carving more spoons…

I carved a large crochet hook with an owl on it few years ago.

I never used it as a crochet hook, so have turned it into an Owlie spoon….

I did the same thing with a large ‘Fairy Door’ crochet hook that I carved and then didn’t use:

This Cedar Star Sisterspoon had an ooops-

I was tweaking her face and her head popped off! EEgads!

Luckily, I was able to rescue her 🙂 I just couldn’t throw her into the firewood pile after all the hours I spent lovingly carving her!

She will be wearing her blue sweater as long as she exists 🙂

I love this little Goddess spoon that I carved from a blank that my son made for me from a birch log from a dead tree in their neighbour’s yard.

I love having her in my pocket and carrying her around like a friendly pebble.

I carved the Forest Gratitude Spoon as a song of thanks to all the trees and all that do for for us, but even more for them for just being perfectly arboreally themselves.

I love the trees….

My son cut me a lovely piece of wood from what he thinks is Manitoba Maple.

This is what I do to get started with my carving: I draw on the blank piece of wood and sketch in a way that takes into account the checks and splits in the wood.

This one piece of wood has 2 spoons in it…. The Forest Gratitude Spoon, and another one that I am hard at work on, and will show you later when it’s done.

I also made myself some leather thumb protectors after I skewered my thumb with a very sharp pointy rasp.

Ow.

All in all, a fine week’s carving, with a few spoons that became firewood, and one that didn’t and happiness in the ones that are now prompting me to make a shelf for them…

So much fun.

I hope that you are having lovely times, too.

Happy New Year ❤

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Tagged as #carvedspoon, #spooncarving, carved spoons, spoon carving, woodwork

December 29, 2020 · 4:34 pm

Carving Wooden Spoons is delightful

Oh my goodness! Carving wooden spoons is just wonderful!

Hard work, yes. but…. ohhhh….

I have been a wood carver for decades, but have just discovered the joy of carving spoons.

The picture above is the first spoon I carved…. for our grandson.

My husband loved it, so I secretly carved one for him for Christmas, too.

I asked my family if they would like spoons, and the response was an enthusiastic yes!

So…

and

And, then….

I couldn’t resist combining one of my other great delights, which is carving wooden dolls, with spoon carving.

The inspiration that poured out kept me out of bed for a couple of nights as I had to sit and draw and draw and draw

all the ideas that were just pouring out….

I have tied in a few metaphors that have been weaving their way around in my heart…

On Facebook, I learned about stardust that has been discovered in Antarctica and then having a long time friend

sent me a poem about how the trees are full of stardust (as we all are) just enchanted me!

I am now carving what I call: ‘Storyteller Spoons’ – hand carved spoons that are meant to stir up STORIES, not soup.

After, stories are food for the Soul 🙂

Oooh! I had to carve a Star Baby spoon from walnut:

And, I have started a series of ‘Stardust Sisters Spoons’- articulated dolls with moving arms,

This one is carved from a blank that my son made for me from a birch tree that died and was cut down

in his neighbor’s yard:

I carved this Stardust Sister from the bass wood blank that came with the kit:

I love the metaphor of hearts and hands working together, so I went back to

the drawings that I did for the first scoop that I carved for my daughter.

But, I added a hand to the spoon, and carved out a bowl in the palm of the hand

as well as in the scoop of the heart.

While I was carving it, it came to me that spoons are meant to gather things,

but also to offer them, which is the perfect metaphor for this spoon:

I will be working with Hearts and Hands together a whole lot!

I made a video showing some of the carving that I have done over the last 30 odd years,

as well as the very very first beginnings of getting started in spoon carving.

These are just the first spoons that I have carved, and now that I have worked out

a pattern language for myself with this, there will be many, many more!

(I hope!) 😀

And, I hope that you are finding things that bring you joy, too!

Be kind, be safe, be well! ❤

Here’s the video:

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Tagged as #carvedspoon, #spooncarving, #spoondoll, #storytellerspoon, #woodcarving, #woodendoll, carved spoons, hand carved dolls, spoon carving, Spoon doll, Storyteller spoon, wooden doll

September 17, 2020 · 8:24 pm

How to Make a Tutu for Dolls Using Upcycled Cloth Tea Bags

For links to video on how to upcycle cloth tea bags into Teabag Yarn, and how to weave triangles with it, please go to: LINK

I love finding fun and unique ways to upcycle things, and so I have had so much fun turning cloth tea bags into yarn and weaving with it, to make tutus for the Merrie Sunshine and Mermaid Minnie Moonbeam dolls.

For the main page about Merrie Sunshine and Minnie Moonbeam dolls, please go to: LINK

Here is the video that shows how to make the Upcycled Tea Bag Tutu:

How to Upcycle Cloth Tea Bags into Teabag Yarn

Ahhh, tea! One of life’s great pleasures!

Some teas come in cloth tea bags that can’t be composted, so instead of throwing them in the garbage,

here’s a great way to upcycle the bags into yarn that you can weave with (or knit or crochet).

I’ve made a video about how to cut the cloth tea bags into fabric yarn-

What can you do with upcycled tea bag yarn?

Weave with it as if it’s regular yarn… for instance, here are a Star , a Dragonfly and Heart woven on pin looms that I designed for Dewberry Ridge Looms

Or: Make upcycled brooches- here’s a video showing how:

More videos about weaving with teabag yarn –

How to Weave Using Upcycled Teabag Yarn 2 Nails at a Time on Pin Looms:

AND:

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Tagged as #smallloomweaving, #starloom, #teabagyarn, #wovendragonfly, how to make teabag yarn, tea bag yarn, upcycle tea bags, upcycling, weaving, woven dragonfly, woven heart, woven star

March 29, 2020 · 8:38 am

How to Make a Simple Mermaid Doll with Yarn

Mermaids are a beautiful metaphor for staying afloat, no matter how hard the waves may crash upon the rocks.

This video tutorial shows how I took the idea of Yarn Baby (Tassle) dolls and created Mermaids with a little bit of yarn, a whole lot of love and a little bit of head scratching.

Oh, yes, also a few sneezes are included with love from our aged rescued Chihuahua mystery mix dear old dog who seems to respond to the making of video by coming into the studio and sneezing loudly whenever the video camera is turned on. Why? Who knows?

Anyhow, I hope that you will enjoy making Yarn Dolly Mermaids!

Here’s the video tutorial:

Upcycling old crochet cotton with potholder looms

For many years, I have adopted all the stray balls of crochet cotton that I have found at the thrift shop.

I have happily been using them in many different ways, but now they are coming together to be upcycled into lovely kitchen cloths to use instead of paper towels.

They are a pleasure to weave on potholder looms and are lovely and soft.

While we are all holding the fort at home, let’s create some beauty, and enjoy the sweet pleasure of weaving on simple looms!

Here’s the video I made about this very satisfying form of upcycling.

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Tagged as #potholderloomweaving, potholder loom, potholder loom kitchen cloths, potholder loom weaving, upcycling

February 1, 2020 · 8:24 pm

How to Fold an Origami Box

I have been folding little Origami boxes to help me organize the Comfort Bears as I weave them.

People have asked me for instructions on how to make the Origami boxes, so here’s a video tutorial on how to fold them:

Happy Folding!

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Tagged as #howtofoldorigamibox, #origamibox, how to fold origami box, Origami, origami box

December 18, 2018 · 11:20 am

Handspun Alpaca for ANOTHER new book

HURRAH! In 2020, my publisher (Stackpole books) will be releasing not just one new book from me (I was hard at work for almost all of 2018 on it), but-

WHEEE- while I was working sooooooooo hard on the book that will be released in January of 2020, I was also busting my chops on laying the foundation for the NEXT book that I am writing.

And, the good news is that they will be publishing the NEXT book in the fall of 2020, so most of 2019 will have me hard at work on it.

In fact, I am happily working on it now.

Last summer, my friends, Teresa and Darren Griffith gave me a huge bag of fluffy, fabulous fuzz from 4 of their gorgeous alpacas.

I don’t have a drum carder, so I hand carded and carded and carded it all and spun and spun and spun….

this basket of yummy yarn….

It may not look like much, but there is over a kilogram of yarn in that basket!

I thought that Teresa was brilliant to staple a lock of fleece from each of the alpacas to a card, so I would remember the name of each of the sweet alpacas who donated their loveliness!

And, now, I am joyfully weaving the alpaca yarn and will be including it in the NEXT book.

Hurrah!

and a thousand thanks to Teresa and Darren for their amazing generosity! ❤ and blessings to them both

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, personal stuff, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as alpaca yarn, hand spinning, hand spun, hand weaving, hand woven, weaving, weaving books, writing a book

June 11, 2018 · 3:55 pm

How to Make a Niddy Noddy from Cardboard to Wind Skeins

My friend, Teresa gave me a bag of gorgeous Alpaca fiber – bliss!

I started spinning it up, but realized that I had misplaced my Niddy Noddy.

So, I thought… I can make one from cardboard.

One thing lead to another, and I soon ended up with 2 charming little characters who do acrobatics to help me wind a skein of yarn.

They are sturdy, work perfectly and are easy to store.

A totally successful upcycle of re-using cardboard. Yay!

Here’s the pattern that I finally settled on… after a LOT of tweaking and twiddling:

Print it full page: I couldn’t get the thumbnail to open to a larger version, so I have added a larger version at the end of the post that I hope will work for you!