Origami Portrait - beginning

Hello,
It's been a while. We've just moved into a lovely old house so close to the zoo I can hear the lions roaring at night, so although it's a nice place to be, it's been a bit hectic lately. I've also had much trouble setting up the internet here, but no matter, because I have been on uni holidays, and the break from the distractions of the internet has allowed me to make a good beginning on my new project. The idea came to me at uni one day when I was waiting for a lecture to start. I'd found this tutorial a while ago when I was making christmas crafts and I began thinking that I could make boxes from squares of old magazines and turn them into a portrait. It wasn't until a good few days into this project that I realised how big the task is. But I'm hoping the payoff will be equally large.

So I started off by gridding up the picture I want to recreate, and deciding what shades and colours I would use. I decided on three shades of skins colour (so I wouldn't be completely overwhelmed trying to find exact shades in the magazines), hair colour, black and white, and a background colour - blue. Here is the grid.

I copied it into a maths book to help define the shades I would use, and expand the picture, to make sure the final product would show the detail of the glasses.

Next I had to go through a heap of magazines to find pages with the right colours/shades.

These were cut so that I would get lots of squares of the appropriate colours. I started by drawing up the grids on the magazines and cutting it with scissors, but soon found, a craft knife a lot faster, and use the width of the ruler as the length of the sides of my squares, so there's no need for measuring and ruling, I just lay the edge of the ruler against the edge of the magazine and cut down the other side of the ruler with the craft knife.

So now I had to fold the boxes. Here's that link to the tutorial again.

Cute, aren't they? They're about 1cm wide, and 5mm high.

So then I have to separate them out into the three shades of skin colour:

and all the other colours:

And finally I have begun to glue them together, following my pattern. If you look with the right kind of eyes, you can tell that the part I've completed is his left eye and some of his glasses.

Hope to bring the finished project to you soon! (but not too soon, because I have another few thousand boxes to make - wish me luck)

See my progress here

Quote

I'm in the middle of my university first trimester (I'm currently procrastinating by writing here), so my crafty explorations have slowed down a bit. I did want to come on and share something of myself though so I thought I'd share a quote that I discovered a few years ago and love and find really inspirational. It's from a guy called John Ruskin, who was a philosopher and all round brilliant human being (or so I gather from his writings). It goes like this:



Think not of your faults, still less of other's faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.






I hope you think as much of it as I do. I'll put it in a frame sometime, and post the picture on here when I do.

Yarn Made From Old Jeans

So I had some old jeans that had served me well but were getting holes in the crotch. I was about to throw them in the bin but couldn't help feeling it was such a waste of jeany goodness. So I thought I could attempt turning them into yarn. I'd seen tutorials for similar things to be done with old t-shirts (T-shirt yarn tutorial) so I figured why not? (My jeans were stretchy and quite thin though, I'm not sure how well this would work on a tougher jean)

The first step was to lay out a leg of the jeans. I did it so I would be cutting towards the seam. You need to cut even strips toward the seam, stopping about 1cm from the end. Do this all the way down the leg.

Opening it out along the seam it will ook like this, and the next step is to cut diagonally from the outer edge to the the beginning of the cut on one side, as I've done in the photo.

Then cut diagonally from the end of the cut you've just cut into on the previous step, to the beginning of the next cut. Keep cutting diagonally from one cut to the next, and your jeans fabric should be falling beside you in one long stream. Repeat on the other leg, then sew the ends of the two streams together.

The jean fabric didn't curl up like t-shirt fabric does so I twisted it as i rolled it into a ball, I think this will make anything I knit look tidier. I'm thinking the strong fabric might lend itself to a knitted handbag. I've got some worries about knitting with the chunky seams, I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy crafting!  :)

Knitted Kindle Cover

I received a Kindle (e-reader that's easy on your eyes and generally wonderful) for Christmas and decided I definitely needed a case. Although it's fairly easy to find cases to buy, handmade and homemade is always preferable for me. 

I had this stripey yarn that someone had given me which I really liked for the rustic sort of look and feel of it, but wasn't enough to make anything substantial out of, so it was perfect for this. I simply knitted a long rectangle that folded over to just cover the Kindle nicely. 

Then I sewed on two rectangles of soft white fabric to make a nice inner (as you can see in the inside-out view in the last photo). I folded the edges of the fabric under so it looks pretty and won't fray.

All there was left to do was to fold it together and sew it all together into a nice little pocket. It would probably be nice to put a little loop and button on the open end, but the Kindle hasn't seemed to want to slip out yet.

Comfy Beanie

I knit beanies like nobody's business, particularly as my careless boyfriend is always losing the ones I make him. Anywho, I found this soft blue wool at my local craft store, and it was marked down (an important aspect for a poor, lowly student like me) and thought what a warm delicious hat it would make. Here are the results:

The red one is one of the first beanies I ever made and I still love it because it's bright and loose. I love making beanies because the take only a day or two to make and require little concentration. Also I can be as free as I want with cabling and what not. Basically all it takes is to cast on around 100 stitches, 110 if you're looking for a looser fit. Cabling makes them tighter. Once the knitting reaches around 15 to 20cm you simply begin to decrease to around 11 stitches and pull them together. Then sew it into a magnificent beanie. They make good makeshift and yet personal gifts.

Cropped Stripy Cardigan

I've been on a knitting spree lately (I tend to switch between knitting, painting, or paper crafts, obsessed with one at a time), and the latest creation is this, my striped cardigan.

I adjusted a simple pattern for a long cardigan, making it shorter, and the sleeves shorter, and making it stripey. The stripes were actually very helpful in making sure every piece was the right length. Hope it inspires :)

Soft Chewy Caramel Fudge

I have a killer sweet tooth, I can't help myself, particularly when it comes to this fudge. I make it a lot for gifts and always get rave reviews. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
125g butter
395g tin sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup good white chocolate

Method:
1. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, then add to it the condensed milk, golden syrup, and brown sugar.
2. Stir over a low heat until it comes to the boil, then simmer for 11-12 minutes stirring slowly and constantly (simmer for 9-10 minutes for a more traditional fudge consistency).
3. Remove from heat and stir in the white chocolate.
4. Pour into a prepared tin lined with baking paper. Allow to cool. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

It doubles nicely for all the piggys out there, of which I am a proud member. Hope you love it as much as I do