An African Cricket

I made this little chap today. I think he's rather fetching.

Playing with aperture

I've been experimenting with the aperture on my camera. Had a slight mishap where I got the tripod stuck on the camera and badly scratched said camera trying to get it off. Oh well. It's on the bottom anyway. Above you can see my efforts. I've been going through my3boybarians' photography course (free) '31 days to a better photo'. It's really great for refreshing my photography knowledge.

I used a 50mm lens for these photos.

DIY: Easy to make Washi Valentines decorations

I'm not the most romantic person in the world. However I was looking at my small stack of washi tape and decided to make something with it for Valentines Day.

These hearts are super easy to make.

You get some card (I used drawing card but this would be a great project for using up some cereal boxes) and draw hearts onto it, then cut out the hearts.

Then you stick the washi tape, in whatever pattern you want, over the front of the card and fold down the edges.

Easy!

Now you have some beautiful heart decorations to do with what you will.

The Year of the Snake

Today is Chinese New Year! And it's the year of the snake. 2013 is the year of the water snake (according to wikipedia). I made this decoration in celebration using my favourite material - felt.

Piles of goodies in Jaipur

In Jaipur we were treated to piles of gorgeous things that the shop owner pulled out to show us whilst we drank tea. The above are silk bed covers. The photo below is Indian patchwork made up from pieces of old clothes. 

Block printing in Jaipur

Woodblock printing is a technique used on fabric and paper throughout Asia. Jaipur is particularly famous for it. This being so when our taxi driver offered to take us to a 'textiles place' I had to say yes. I was really glad I did as it turned out to be a shop with a small studio attached showing the different techniques used.

So many blocks!

The technique involves dipping a carved wooden block into dye and then pressing it onto fabric (or paper).

Above you can see some table-cloths in the process of being made. These are waiting for the next layer.

Here the worker is applying the next layer of block.

The pads where the colour is applied (above).

They also showed us one quick run of the process.

The bit where it got washed in salt water and changed from red to green was pretty magical.

This was a great technique to see being done in person. It made me itch to block print my own fabric!

A red-riding hood box case for a Galaxy Ace

A month or so ago I accidently destroyed my mobile phone. This was my old, reliable, Nokia that cost £7 and could do nothing fancier than send text messages and make calls. Oh, it also had a torch. On the night of Diwali I left it next to a bottle of water. The condensation from this bottle then formed a pool around my poor phone. It's battery was completely destroyed. 

Old phone and new phone

So I was forced to buy a new one. I had been sneaking covetous looks at my boyfriend's smart phone so bought one similar, but an older model (I don't need to go overboard with the fanciness). As I had a new phone I needed a new case (old phone didn't even have a case so unconcerned for it's well-being I was).

I pulled out the pelmet vilene, bondaweb, fabric scraps and embroidery thread and started to make a case.

Measuring

Checking for size

Pieces waiting for assembly

Ta da!

It is ever-so-slightly too big. Blast! And I did so much measuring. I think the problem was that I gave a seam allowance which I didn't need because I sewed the pieces up using blanket stitch. It is fine for it's purpose though.