Owl frenzy - A Krayzee Kraft Kollaboration!

The very latest development to come out of the Cludgie is a collaboration with www.snowdondesignandcraft.com We were trying to think of ways to combine our, ahem, 'skills' and came up with the idea of producing lovely rustic coasters. As ever, everything is hand made with Alex's cute owl design screen printed onto poplar wood which is then sanded and given a couple of coats of Danish oil for protection.

Hope you'll excuse the header, Danish oil and wood dye in a confined space isn't something I'd recommend!

Now for something completely different...

Seeing as we're hosting Christmas for the family this year, I though it only right that I bake a Christmas cake. Naturally, I included twice the brandy demanded by the recipe and it's now in the oven... for four hours!

On the craft front, there's a charity craft fair coming up in Glossop that Alex and me are attending. I'm planning to make at least three lamps for the event, possibly with new designs (there are only so many Koi a man can cut out!).

This time I will post pics of the progress, of the lamps and the cake if it turns out any good!

You can check out the Craft Fair details on the short video featured here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfvHqiR-rQE

Inspirational

Despite promising to update the progress of the Craft Expo piece, I haven't blogged for ages. Trips to London and casualty have bookended my crafting of late and it has been difficult enough to progress my projects, never mind photograph and post them.

Today though, I'm bursting with enthusiasm again after the opening night of the village Craft Exhibition. A great time was had by all and it was great to chat with such a talented bunch... it must be something in the water!

Many thanks also to everyone who's expressed an interest in my work and even owning it! I'll always love putting stuff together in the 'Cludgie' but your interest and kind words are the icing on my crafty cake! Thank you.

Oh, just in case anyone's wondering how the exhibition project turned out, here are the pics...

 ps. anyone who attended the event and would like something from me, 'local' discounts are available!
 

Mega project for the Broadbotom Craft Expo

Are you one of those people who gets bored really easily and can't settle on one project at a time? Yeah, me too! 

I was thinking of doing something that had a little of each of the techniques I've been playing around with lately on a piece for the upcoming Broadbottom Craft Expo.

I've decided on a... well that would be telling! I'm going to post the progress as it happens and hopefully you'll stick around to see what the grand project turns out to be. That's assuming there is at least one person out there (excluding Alex, who is duty bound to read everything I post) who's even a smidge interested!

Who ever you are and whether you're just dropping by, feel free to leave a comment, at least I'll know I'm not 'talking' to myself.

Anyhoo, here's a pic of the first piece of the puzzle, a Tiffany style glass panel...

Things to do as an alternative to electrocution

Unfortunately the Cludgie (shed/workshop) has no permanent electricity, I have to run an extension lead from the kitchen. Of course, our weather being what it is, you can guarantee that when I do have the time to make stuff, it'll be raining.

Now I enjoy electrocution as much as the next person so I started to think about what I could do in the house that wouldn't cover everything in a fine layer of sawdust or kick up a tremendous racket.

The resulting experiments produced a less than satisfactory woodcut (which I may return to later) and a much more successful lino cut. Edging and scooping out swathes of lino is very theraputic, you can really lose yourself in the process. The only side-effect is that I think I may have become addicted to the smell!

I decided to stick with a theme I was familiar with, the Kio design from my lamps (the Koi mania shows no signs of abating any time soon).

Next design is going to be a seahorse or maybe an owl, though I can't decide which!

 

Wabi-sabi?

I can't pretent to know much about Wabi-sabi, the japanese aesthetic centred upon the acceptance of transience, but I think this snapshot I took while photographing something completely different has that kind of flavour.

Just as I turned to pick the flowers up to use them as props, the sun came out and cast a beautiful natural spotlight over the flowers. No sooner had I took the shot, the sun went back behind the clouds and the carnations slipped back into shadow.

A full definition of Wabi-sabi can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

First post - the latest Koi lamp...

This is the first post for the all new blog which is going to feature all the latest developments from KiKU craft & design. Don't know quite how to start so I'm gonna jump straight in...

Just taking a short break from my other, other job as head of the photographic retouching department for www.snowdondesignandcraft.com to post a couple of pics showing the latest koi lamp developments.

I've used a rosewood stain to darken the poplar wood right down to provide a better contrast between that and the shoji screens. Though it might be pretty cool to se what a multi-layered version of the koi would look like.  

Here's a few pics to see how it all turned out...