Getting to know me - in a crafty style

Today I’m participating in Handmade Makers Market’s ‘Getting To Know You Challenge’. They love handmade and believe in shopping local and direct from the makers, crafters and designers themselves and so do I. Find out more about the Handmade Makers Challenge and answer the questions for yourself here.

*First up, give us a quick introduction, who are you, what do you do?
I'm Vikki, a crafter and musician living in beautiful Abingdon, with the Jam, witchcat (above) and the chickens.

*Give us one unusual or surprising fact about yourself, something we wouldn’t expect!
I only have 1 cup of coffee a week. Always at 11am on a Sunday, at that time I make my coffee and phone my mum (because I used to make her coffee and have a chat when I lived at home) its a excellent ritual, I thoroughly recommend it!

Me & mum at Chelsea flower show a couple of years ago
*What are the 5 words that best describe you?

Energetic, passionate, crafty, mad, lovely

*What do you make? Perhaps you are you a crafter or designer? Is it a hobby or a business? Perhaps you make something less tangible, like happiness or connections between people?
*erm well my craft enterprise is Back to the Castle Industries, a kind of banner for everything that I create (which so far has included a wedding dress, a dress made entirely of paper, 100 meters of customised bunting for a wedding, wedding outfits for toy bunnies, jewelry, felt chickens, painted masks, cards, decorated & decoupage boxes oh and quite a few scarves and blankets). Basically if its got anything to do with fabric, paper or craft I'm probably doing it, or very interested!

* Describe your normal day (if you have such a thing!)
Well 9-5 I work in arts publishing, of an evening I sit at my lovely rescued desk and work on any current projects (of which there is usually a handful, I'm def not a one project at a time type). The blog gets updated once a week and I try to get out and about at least 1 night to pick up inspiration & get ideas. When I'm at home I also enjoy playing my fiddle and I go to wood school of a Thursday evening (I'm still finding the actual carving quite a challenge, but slowly I'm getting better).

*Where are you happiest?
At my desk, with the heating on, working on my latest project, that and spending time with Jam and my animals (if I'm working Witchcat sometimes comes & sits next to me, which is always nice, Jam has the added advantage that he also makes a very fine cup of tea!)

*What the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Just cause someone tells you it can't be done, doesn't mean they are right, if you can dream it you can do it! (I have this handy sign above my desk to remind me)

*What talent are you most proud of and why?
I'm always looking for new things to learn and experimenting.

(I learnt to spin quite publicly by writing an article for a knitting magazine)
*What would you like to be better at and why?
Timekeeping, I look up and its 10 O'clock, where has my evening evaporated to I think.

*What would you like to have more of and why?
Time! My uncle Julian used to say you either have all the money and no time or all the time and no money, like him I seem to have not very much of either...

*If you could be given any gift what would it be?
Are we talking tangible stuff? Or superpower? If I could have a superpower I'd like to get wings & fly. Stuff wise I've always wanted a pond with big Koi carp in it, I think they are beautiful and called them magic fish when I was younger.

*If you could give any gift to anyone, what would you give and to whom?
Jam is studying a lot at the moment for an exam so a fantastic result for his exam (which is aggrrhh this Friday) would be good, I like giving things I've made to my friends and family members. The really awesome thing about handmade is that you can tailor it and also it tells people you've put your thought and crucially your time into making something special for them, tis great (have got lots of BTTC Christmas presents done but I can't talk about them just yet, as certain crucial people read this blog!)

*What’s the next big thing you’re looking forward to in your life?
Making Back to the Castle Industries a viable alternative to the 9-5, that and Christmas (I would deck the halls now if Jam would let me).

 (barmaids mince pies, recipe here, developed while I was working in a pub, they are quite potent...)
*What’s the item your house that makes you smile the most, maybe it’s a piece of artwork or furniture or maybe a secret culinary ingredient, cd or dvd?
My uncle made me a chair for my 18th birthday, its made out of wood that he bent over his Arga and has a beautiful inlay-ed oak tree on the back (which was the symbol of our college at university). Whenever I sit in it I feel happy and content, its really one of a kind and I think its fabulous.

Bird-brained

(Image taken from here design copyright Robert Oddy)

Mum and dad wanted to get me something for my birthday. I'm trying to get rid of stuff at the moment, to send anything I don't need or regularly use to our fantastic Oxfam charity shop (as William Morris so rightly said "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful", quite!). I've wanted to try stained glass for ages and have recently been spurred on by the beautiful glasswork over at Orts and Fragments so when I found a course at Arlington School of arts & crafts (a 2 day course at that, meaning two days out of work in the week making lovely things) I asked mum and dad if they would mind contributing to that. Happily they said yes and I'm on the course! Now comes the really hard task, I have to do a couple of designs before I go. I know I definitely want to do some kind of bird (probably not a chicken as our house has lots of chickeny bits in it already). My first thought was owl so I did a bit of research on windows that exist already & here is what I found.

Barn Owl image taken from here, design copyright by Sandra Phipps

 

sadly I don't know who this one is by but I found it on this owl blog

Those are all quite complex but there were a few that were simpler that also had their charms

taken from here design copyright Gwen Furey 

This simple snowy from here 

Or perhaps and owl and a pussycat?

from Langan Stained Glass here

My eye always gets drawn back to the complicated ones though. Oh decisions decisions

from here

from here

Probably time to stop looking at what other people have done and start drawing some designs of my own!

Masquerade

For as long as I can remeber I've been interested/freaked out by masks. Mostly people in masks like the scary street corner people who are usually painted gold or silver or indeed this lot (Dr who geek alert)

 As I've said on a basic level masks frighten me, but they also intrigue me in that you can be whoever you want behind the mask. I bought my mask in venice, the first time I went there with my parents, its classic me, music notation all over it and classic Vikki purple. It hangs on the wall to remind me to be myself without the mask as much as possible.

 The first time we went to Venice we found an amazing mask shop down a side street by the canal. I found the most beautiful leaf mask but it was from an artisan mask shop, I couldn't afford it (luckily we found my first mask on a street trader stall & mum & dad bought it me for my birthday. When we went back to Venice I had time to save up and so I finally got to take my leaf mask home (and just in case you are in the area this is where my mask came from).

I had my first stab at creating a custom mask a couple of years ago when my friends Alice & T held a halloween party and we were all instructed to dress as woodland animals. My brother had recently given me a load of phesant feathers and so I made this:

 Which looks like this on

Now I've started work on a second, which I've nicknames my ice queen mask.

 I'm not sure the blue is quite right yet & I think I need to find a blue stone for her forehead (and maybe pain a tear running down her cheek, but we'll see.

Orts and Fragments - an inspiration!

(N.B the image on the top of this post is not one of Marlowe's pieces for those please see Orts & Fragments, this is stained glass made out of photos, clever isn't it? )
Regular readers of this blog will know that as well as writing here I'm a keen follower of other peoples blogs, particularly those of an arts & crafts persuasion (I find it really interesting to see what other people are working on). Imagine my delight then when following a link from another blog (Needled - knitting, patterns and wonderful Scotland) to stumble across Orts and Fragments, a beautiful blog written by the multi talented Marlowe which mainly (but by no means exclusively) features her many beautiful glass pieces. Drawn in by the fantastic finished results I found myself curious about how these pieces came about: were there sketched ideas first? Did the colours of glass themselves suggest ideas? How much the glass dictated the design and what Marlowe's workspace looked like (I'm on the verge of sharing mine, just need to Tidy a bit first :-). So I plucked up courage and finally asked my burning questions in a comment on a post. And you'll never guess what? Awesome lady that she is she dedicated a post to her creative process! You can read the finished blog entry here. All I can say is wow, I am still very much in awe of not just the finished pieces but the fact that the glass just seems to flow without sketches or mood boards, amazing. However this may not be the end of the glassy journey for me, spurred on my the beautiful-ness of glass and the fact that I've never worked with any type of glass I had a look locally for a taster session/short course and found this wonderful place. Its about 7 miles from my workplace and they offer a fantastic array of courses in stone and glass, including a 2 day taster in stained glass in October! I was talking to mum about it and she has very kindly agreed to pay for my attendance at said course for my birthday! I'm really excited at the prospect of finally getting my hands on some glass so thank you Marlowe for intriguing me with your own creations!

Bunting - finished at last

So for the last week Jam & I have been working non stop on bunting for my friend Beth's wedding. Unfortunately I got really ill on Monday & Tuesday last week, so we were behind schedule with everything to do. You may remember the fabrics a pale pink, cream and mint green. Jam was an absolute star cutting out all the triangles and cutting the lengths of bias binding that we were attaching them to. Then all that was left to do is sew. The finished bunting was 100m in total in 5 & 10 m lengths. Here it all is on Tuesday morning waiting to be taken to work to give to the anxious bride

 

As an extra treat (and to make the bunting extra special) I added felt letters and hearts detailing the bride and grooms names.

Here it is in the only arrangement I could manage to fit it all in (it should say, and indeed does when laid out, Nick + Beth. Beth was really pleased with her deluxe bunting and plans to pin the embellished bit behind the top table at their wedding on Saturday. I can't wait to see it!