About
Living in Sligo, Ireland since 2000… I dabble in what ever I can get my hands on. When I get the urge. I like to promote crafting as well. When you’re making something, people always want to get their hands on it. Children are more obvious about it- they literally want to grab it out of your hands. Adults- well, they’re more subtle. They stare from the corner of their eyes, and ask a few questions. But really they want to give it a try too.
I love learning and teaching, and creative crafting gives you a good chance to do that.
I was blogging when I lived in Japan (followed the fella there), but my urge to blog was killed when I had a weird experience with a publisher. I also was traveling and then out of work for a few months, and lacked any inspiration at all.
Now that I am very busy, and have loads to do- I finally have inspiration again!
Old notes
In my height of blogging I was invited to write at Whip Up!: Just about one of the coolest crafting sites- it’s a group blog. I was stunned to be invited, as I had just started craft-blogging. It shows how welcoming this online community is, even to ‘newbies’. You can see my posts at: http://whipup.net/author/makingtime/
I’m also studying Japanese, and keeping notes about learning Japanese online.
More and more about me… I wrote this profile for Whipup, and it’s much better than what I had here!
see my author archive
How can you be so Crewel? - If you are just trying out crewel (wool embroidery) or you are a crewel expert, Please join this group blog where you can post and share crewel-related links, works in progress, or tips!
About Me
My mom says that the reason I’m so creative is that when she was pregnant with me she spent alot of her time doing crewel work. (How she did that with 4 other kids in the house, I don’t know). I grew up with her beautiful woollen images and today, I am my most calm and satisfied when making things. I live in Japan now and I’m constantly inspired by what I see, and finally have the time and space to be creative.
I am a casual crafter, trying to get more serious about it all. I studied fine art, focusing on sculpture and Asian art history. I’m pretty far removed from my practice at this point, and find that making crafts in semi-traditional forms fills my creative urge to MAKE. Mostly I crochet, and I like to make gifts for people, (bags, hats, toys, mittens). I’ve just graduated from my MSc, and I can craft and blog about crafting guiltlessly now.
Why I blog
With most of my endeavors, I tend to focus on how to do things, or the way to do things. I love learning, and I get great satisfaction teaching. Knowing the best ways and hows makes it easier to teach. I’ve started a blog to share what I learn, make connections to like-minded people and also track the development of my crafting.
Like many people, friends would constantly say to me: “you should SELL your stuff”. But what does that entail?
In the summer of 2006, my friends and I will rent a space at a festival in Japan, and ply our wares. Before that I need to learn about developing a line; refining my aesthetic; calculating costs/time; creating collapsible and portable displays; and finding out about my potential audience/market in Japan. And I only have a few months! I’m going to chip away at it each week, and see if I can make a go of it. So I’ll be keeping notes online at Making Time
Creative Inspirations
I grew up around antiques; my mother is an antique dealer. She is known as “The Linen Lady” in her part of the world. She has literally hoards of “inventory” I love rifling through. I have a mental record of anything made in fabric from the mid 1800s-1960s.
Some things that inspire me include Cabinet de curiosités; wonky knicknacks; flocked miniatures of animals; well, anything miniature; natural history and science museums; German wooden toys; natural fibers; independent comics; Fluxus mail art and multiples; beach-combing, rocks with holes in them; vintage wind-up tin toys; crazy-quilts and yo-yo quilts; images of bambi-like deer; and my two favorite children’s books “pokey little puppy” and “ferdinand the bull”.
