Donna Marie Strachan

The house is like a crafter’s den just now.  Darren is painting models, there’s a distinct smell of paint or glue depending what stage he’s at, and I’m painting and varnishing polymer clay.

Spring is also kicking off in earnest here, the garden has flushed with green and fat fluffy bumble bees are boinking into the window and looking round for flowers.  Darren’s on holiday for the next two weeks, so I decided to get some work done in the garden to get a new lawn laid and plant seeds for my containers.  By summer I should have a lovely garden to sit and paint in or just relax after work.

I’m building a new website this weekend.  And this one isn’t for me, it’s a charity that my family are heavily involved in and one in desperate need of help.  Once I get the backbone of the site up and running I’ll be spamming the entire interwebs with details.  In the meantime you can see the existing site (not one of mine) here: www.dooniesfarm.co.uk Search the internet for Doonies Farm and you’ll see why we’re so passionate about saving this farm - it’s a gem.

The Friends of Doonies are urgently in need of funds right now as the farm is once again staring closure in the face.  Please don’t be shy if you would like to help us out with cash before I get things setup properly - use my contact form page to send me an email or get in touch through the existing site.  I know times are hard, but this farm is loved by our community in Aberdeen and it adds so much to the local area that we need to dig deep.  Look under the dustbunnies in your pockets, and if you find any coins please help us out.

We urgently need to raise funds of approximately  £10,000.  So even if you just have a pound, we can put it to use.

Isn’t it funny how the first chill of winter gets you knitting?

I’m part way through knitting and crocheting a shawl that I’m using as the prototype for a new pattern. Essentially the centre triangle will be plain and then I’ll go to town with some crocheted edging. I also want to make up variation designs that are entirely knitted and crocheted.

I was going to sell the shawl originally, but the fine yarn is taking me too long to knit, and I’ve always made this style of shawl and then sold it. I figured it was time I made a really lovely shawl just for me. And the sheep who the fleece comes from is quite special. I have her mother’s fleece knitted into a scarf I now treasure so I wanted to have something from her daughter too. It’s funny knitting this shawl and seeing how similar it is to a scarf I made nearly 10 years ago! Fleece to me is a treasure when I have pet sheep, because I can still “cuddle” them when I don’t have them anymore. Yes, I’m a sentimental animal crazy crafte!

So here’s a pic of the work in progress as it sits now. This is undyed naturally coloured Shetland sheep wool by the way. I spin it in a way that keeps the colour variations in there, so that a solid “plain” bit of knitting actually has a subtle texture of its own. If my knitting and jewellery share anything it’s my love for showing natural materials in their untainted state whenever possible.

One of my “success first time” experiments with wire. I’ve been trying some herringbone weave around beads this week and wanted to see if I could make a bracelet using a single base wire rather than making separate wrapped sections and joining them. I wanted a wrist-hugging solid bracelet rather than one that moved or twisted.

I’m a bit disappointed that the citrine chips were too pale to contrast with the silver, but that’s something I can change later. The way it’s constructed, I can swap those beads out - at least in theory. I’m annoyed I didn’t buy some cloudy yellow resin beads to match the darker ones now, but polymer clay can make a nice faux amber so that might do the trick nicely.

Just added this bracelet to my Etsy shop.  You can find the full listing and some more photographs here.

The bracelet is based around a gold plated chain which has been decorated with wire wrapped gemstone chips in a variety of rich autumn colours inspired by the golds, reds and greens outside my window.  Some glass pearls were added in as well, because I still have a cascade of tiny white flowers on my white Bacopa, and they look stunning against the autumn foliage outside.

A mixed gemstone charm bracelet by Donna Marie Strachan

I’ve been taking new photographs this week, so my Etsy shop is looking even better.

I’ve also listed another wire wrapped shell pendant. It’s a popular design and would make a great stocking filler for Christmas. You can buy this pendant here.

I’ve recently finished a crocheted scarflette.  It’s made from my own handspun fibre courtesy of my sheep and the colours you see are all natural.

This scarf isn’t for sale, but I will be making more and possibly also selling the pattern online.

I haven’t finished cropping all the photos of this scarflette yet, but here’s the first one I’ve uploaded:

You’ll find more photos on display in my Flickr Photostream as I upload them.

Blurb.com got a mention in the Guardian newspaper today.  It’s good to find out about other options for self-publishing, especially as Blurb looks great for making up a quality brochure or portfolio of images to show to customers and the like.  I haven’t done any serious price comparisons between Blurb and Lulu and the like, but on the face of it they’re different enough to give artists a good choice in how to publish their own literature and what form it might take.

Have you used a self-publishing site to produce media?  I’d love to hear readers’ experiences with these sites (good and bad), because I’m curious about the quality of their books and how beneficial the sites really are to designers and writers.

And we still love our little fur babies..

more animals

I found this website by chance, and I was really impressed by it. Lovely clear tutorials and a really nicely set out website with its own community.

Take a look and see what you think yourself - JewelryLessons.com