Oodles of Updates

I survived my travels, despite delays and detainment. (Awesome! Not.)

I've finally adjusted to the 13 hour time difference. (I'm now a time travelling machine!)

Since being back I've enjoyed many swims at the local lakes and beaches, umpteen BBQs, a fair share of rum and cokes, and a ride around the trail. (And maintained my pale skin so far so good.)

I've got some sewing done, though mostly hems and corrections. I've a new purse in the making but not much to show for it right now. Soon!

I've got a bunch of jewellery made/started that I'm really proud of. (Here and here.)

Although I mostly use tumblr now for general life updates, I figured I'd let anyone who's still following me on blogger know what's what. 

I split my shop into two divisions and opened a new etsy shop for one. Tamed Raven Designs is now for the weird, quirky things. 

Like these.

The new shop, called Eltu, hosts the eco friendly, recycling fueled pieces like the spoons, shells, and some new designs I'm working on. 

Like these ones.

Since I'm only home for the summer I'm currently just working on jewellery for the shops, and will continue with the purses and clothing when we finally settle back in Canada, whenever that may be. A small price to pay to see the world and take part in all these experiences.

I'm thoroughly enjoying spending my days making things instead of running off my feet selling coffee or candy, and spending time with family and friends. I hope all your summers are going just as well. 

Tutorial: Painted Glitter Heels

Glitter shoes became immensely popular quite fast, but they seemed like such a pain with the layers upon layers of mod podge, glitter, mod podge, glitter, mod podge.. Not to mention when you walk it would crease the fabric and you would lose your glitter..

These shoes are much more subtle, and guaranteed to not lose glitter on me! Plus it's the perfect way to spruce up a pair of nude pumps and give them some more 'oomph!'. 

I chose my base colour as a frosty mint, and added two coats to the back of the shoes. I also painted the back of the heel itself, but stopped at the area that touches the ground. No point in painting that part, I say.

I let those two coats dry overnight to ensure that they were, in fact, dry. After that I started on the glitter coats. The first coat does a light splattering of glitter. The second coat really pumps it up because the first coat gives it a rough feel so the glitter really has something to stick to. And, if any spots were missed, your base coat will take care of that and no one will notice!

I smoothed out the glitter and made sure it was all laying flat, and now they're ready to go!

Easy peasy, now go rock your new glam kicks!!!

Note: You should clean the area before painting, and tape off the parts of the shoe you don't want painted just in case. I had no tape so I made sure to be extra careful. 

The two brands of nail polish I used are ones I found here in China. They're soooooo nice, I want to buy every colour the store has!

Box Set

I ordered some earring bezels before Christmas and have finally gotten around to photographing some of the sets I've made with spoon pendants. I just love how these came out. 

Now if only I wore earrings myself to show them off ;P.

A Day (and a half) In The Making

Phew! As I type this up I'm struggling since my fingers are so sore and probably slightly swollen. I made myself a new purse the other day and it had a little bit of hand sewing to finish it off and my fingers dislike me now for it. I started working on the pattern the other night after supper, and started the purse right from when I got up in the morning, with only breaks for food. I wasn't stopping until it was done.

Totally worth it.

BAM! Check it.

My old record purse was falling apart and I wanted something new. Record purses don't fare well in the winter anyway (the records crack much easier) and I used this one far past the point of it looking good or being responsible. One of the straps was worn away to just threads and it was going to let go any day.

I kept seeing people around with these really good looking bags, with two huge side pockets and a zipped pocket in the middle. After searching 'purses' on pinterest and scrolling for ages, I finally found a reference picture to go by.

Not the most helpful of pictures without zoom..

From there I sketched out the pattern (which took a while, I kept getting stuck on one piece until my fella miraculously solved the mystery!) and made a pattern to size.

One of the pieces.

From there it was pretty basic putting together-ness..

And after ages I finally got my finished product!!

From the side. My zipper pull will always be a key. 

I love the detail on the strap. It's simple but came out looking great. 

The outer pockets are lined with snap closures.

Top down. 3 huge pockets!! This purse holds everything, it's fantastic.

Since we were taking pictures of the purse anyway, I wanted to get one of my shirt.. I seriously love this pattern, it's so comfy and fits like a dream!

But because I'm a nut case, one thing led to another and we ended up taking blurry pictures of me being a moron.

If you actually sat through this ridiculously long post, thank you! 

New Years Casual Shirt

So after much time spent trying to shove random fabric into any nook and cranny it would fit in my apartment, I decided to go through it all and get rid of some. Now it all fits nicely in one drawer (well, two, but it fits nicely and that's the important part).

It's very cleansing going through and making the decision that 'no, you won't ever make that sweater so stop holding onto that fabric you don't even really like it' which gives your brain a whole new open slot for ideas. One of which ended up being this shirt.

I took all the measurements, sketched it out onto wrapping paper (now I know why I'll hold onto all my extra paper this year, it's big enough for patterns!), and it ended up working perfectly!

Now I have a fall back tshirt pattern that is simple, looks good, and can be changed up easily with a different curve of the neckline. Sweet!

It was also my first time trying a double needle, and let me tell you: total game changer. No more zig zag stitch finishing for me!

Another first? Sequins. Also a last. This shirt was a labour of love! Having to remove all the sequins from the seam allowance not only took so much time, but my apt was covered in little silver slivers of glitter afterwards. I vacuumed. Still there. There's one stuck to the wall. Never again.

It's really the perfect shirt for the holidays, casual enough being essentially a tshirt, but the flattering fit and the pattern of sequins really makes it do-able for an evening out.

Another one, with cuffs on the sleeves and bottom this time.

The pattern. 

Eating chips and blogging is where it's at.

Hello! I know, I haven't posted in AGES! I honestly haven't had anything to share with you and so I've been doing other things. I ran out of resin, I've been working, so I hadn't had anything to show off. A few days ago though I made my way up to Michael's, loaded up on resin, and I've got some great new things poured and set :). I'm getting the opportunity to sell some necklaces at work this Saturday so that's pretty exciting! Other exciting things happening Saturday include me being allowed to open my secret santa presents (and show off not only what I got but what I made with you) and my mom is coming up for a visit! Yeah, I'm pretty stoked. She's going to be here until almost Christmas. It's going to be awesome!

Yes, 2 of these spoons I made ages ago and the third I peeled the resin out to redesign the spoon. The 2 smaller are presents.

This is really hard to photograph, but the paint inside is so rainbow-y that it looks blue, green, yellow and pink!

Another shot..

One of my favourite new pieces. The shape of this spoon is astounding!

Touch Screen Mittens

It took me forever to get pictures of these, but I'm so excited to be able to share these with you!

Handmade mittens with a big surprise, you can use your touch screen phone while wearing them! Goodbye cold fingers.

Check out the magic!

I'm in love with these for many reasons. All the fabric I used for them is high quality wool, and the money from buying the fabric went to a local non profit. They have threads sewn in to make them work with your touch screen (without scratching it at that). Last but not least, look at how cute they are!

I've been having a blast making them. I know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year...

A Curious Collective

Great news! Tamed Raven is going to be at the Curious Craft Fair (and swap!) Oct 14th. If you're in the Ottawa area, come on down and see what's going on :).

I'm going to have all my new stuff, goodies for Halloween (and maybe Christmas..) as well as a section of discounted jewelry that I want to destash. There'll be some seriously good deals not to mention everyone else at the fair that will have some great stuff I'm sure!

More comics

I found some tiles, which is making my life substantially easier with making my comic necklaces. Takes a lot less time and a lot less resin per piece. Although some of these pieces have some serious resin staining, it's all in the learning process :).

This one got pretty wrecked :( Too bad.

My coat is coming along, though I thought that I had fixed my serger, when I was testing tensions it sewed fine, as soon as I started with the real pieces of fabric it jammed up on me right away. I wonder if it has something to do with the speed I was using it at.. Hmm.. I also need a seam ripper cause I made a bit of a boo boo.. Will have to wait until tomorrow to get that fixed up!