Beaded Brooch

unikatissima Beaded Brooch

Links of entry

Are you still looking for a quick but personal gift for a friend?
How about a beaded brooch?
She describes with good pictures how to create a brooch from wire and beads and a lucky charm.
It should be possibl to create pendants or earrings in the same way.
I already have the materials … ;-)


Links:
Get hooked: make your own beaded brooch

Here at unikatissima:
Instructions on how to make brooches:
Necktie Flower Brooch
Needle Felting Brooch
YoYo Pin
Freeform Bead Embroidery Brooch (the tutorial on how to freeform embroider here)

Recycle books

unikatissima Recycling Books

Links of entry

Soon it may be that you get lots of books. You want perhaps to get rid of some old books – or even some new ;-))
Via How to Make and Do-How to recycle Books I found a tutorial for a really great book lamp.
There you can find other good ideas, too.
Find more ideas at How can I Recycle This?, e.g. to make an Altered Book from.
Then I found a tutorial on how to make a book lampstand (which I don’t find as beautiful as the book lamp, but it ‘uses’ more books ;-)).
I also liked the Bookhooks and Romans a clef great as an inspiration for crafters ;-)
I guess that you can make jewelry stands in the same way?!
I also found the book book ends, the book safe and another book safe, the “Audiobook” (an iPod case), the book book shelf and and and … ;-)


Links:
Recycle books
… into a book lamp (at instructables.com)
    (via How to Make and Do-How to recycle Books and How can I Recycle This?)
… into a book lampstand
… into a coat hook
… into a key hanger (via Siebensachen)
… into an artist book (here at unikatissima)
… into book book ends (at instructables.com)
… into a safe (and another safe) (at instructables.com)
… into an iPod case (“Audiobook” ;-)) (at instructables.com)
… into a book book shelf (at instructables.com)
…and much more ;-)

Magazine Embroidery Hoop

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop

Links of entry

Once I’ve seen somewhere (but I don’t remember, where ;-() how somebody made an embroidery hoop from magazine paper.
On the photo you see how it looks. I used quite stiff advertising paper and the hoop became very robust.
This way I can make fast and cheap embroidery hoops in different sizes :)

Material:

  • Paper, e.g. advertising paper
    It should be strong and may not stain(!) the fabric.
  • Log or dowel
    I used a 8mm knitting needle
  • Tape
  • Drinking glass or the like with the required diameter

That’s what you do:
unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop Select appropriate paper sheets.

 

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop Roll and fold the paper sheets to paper strips of equal width (see tutorial here).

 

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop Coil one paper strip firm around the glass and fix with tape.

 

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop Tape the hoop very well.

 

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop Slip the hoop over the glass again and coil the second strip of paper very firmly around the first hoop, tape very well, too.

 

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop These are both hoops, one can be slipped exactly over the other.

 

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop Put the fabric into the embroidery hoop and embroider.
I didn’t iron the fabric, but it’s firmly tightened into the hoop.

 

unikatissima Magazine Embroidery Hoop That’s the way everything looks from the backside.

 

Have fun with your embroidery :)


Links:
Here at unikatissima: Folded Paper Strips of Equal Width

Kali

unikatissima Kali Pattern

Links of entry
 

From time to time I like to play around with programs to create beautiful pictures.
Kali is one of those.
I can enjoy myself with it for hours ;-)

On the picture you see a pattern that I created.
unikatissima Kali Pattern

 

I made a tile by cropping which I coloured in afterwards:
unikatissima Kali Tile    unikatissima Kali Tile Coloured

 

Then I re-combined the coloured tiles to get a repeating pattern.
unikatissima Kali Pattern

 

In the end I made the whole pattern a little more 3D:
unikatissima Kali Pattern

Beautiful, isn’t it?
 


Links:
At Topology and Geometry Software: Kali


Here at unikatissima:
Entries with the tag ‘digital’
Entries with the tag ‘repeating pattern’

Here at unikatissima: Programs to make beautiful pictures with:
Knotsbag
Fractal Art (Fractal Explorer)
Self-made Landscapes (Terragen)
Droste Effects

Weave In Ends While Knitting

unikatissima Weave In Ends While Knitting

Links of entry

I don’t find knitting soo great, if I must weave in all those ends I don’t begin at all ;-)
But recently I wanted to try something where I had to knit with several colours and was glad to have found instructions on how to weave in ends while knitting.
It worked fine, as you can see on the photo. I only have to cut the last ends which is not so hard ;-)


Links:
How to weave in ends while knitting

LS – Liane – Stitch.de (German)

  1. click on Stricken in the left navigational bar
  2. on this site, click on Strickmuster und mehr
  3. scroll down there and click Stricktipps.

Geometric Cut Paper Table Lamp

unikatissima Geometric Cut Paper Table Lamp

Links of entry

I find the idea of the Geometric Cut Paper Table Lamp great: All those beautiful fractal pop-up cards continued ;-)

On the photo you see my version, made from plain printer paper and with a tealight in the middle.
Because the paper is rather light, I’m afraid that the lamp may fall and catch fire, although there is enough place for the tealight.
But anyhow, I find it beautiful ;-)


Links:
At instructables.com: Geometric Cut Paper Table Lamp

Here at unikatissima: Fractal Pop Up

Where the hell is Matt?

wherethehellismatt Dancing 2005

Links of entry

I told before, that I’m stretching regularly to prevent me from getting pain from crafting or from needlework.
Now I have something new that I do occasionally: I’m dancing with Matt.
I’m playing the video Dancing 2008 and dance in the same way that he does (and lots of other people with him).
Afterwards I’m happy and relaxed and my shoulders are enthusiastic to continue to participate in knitting the next item ;-))


Links:
At Where the hell is Matt?: Videos
Somewhere stands the following text: “High quality downloadable versions available here, courtesy of the nice folks at Stride gum.“.
The video is very big (about 70MB I think), but it is worth looking!
I also liked looking the older videos (Dancing 2006 und Dancing 2005).
And reading the FAQ ;-)

Here at unikatissima: Pain From Crafting

Illusion knit

unikatissima Illusion Knit

Links of entry

I tried illusion knitting once (Illusion knit – Shadow Knit) – and it worked – mostly ;-)
I learned it from strumpfbina’s Totenkopf Illusion Pattern (German).
You can see the result on the photo.
As template I used an old filet crochet template showing an angel. After the first rows I realized that fine details don’t show, so I didn’t knit the wings ;-)
The rest looks like a Mensch ärger’ Dich nicht pawn :)

 

unikatissima Illusion Knit
That’s the item seen from above – rather…nice, I’d say ;-)


Links:
strumpfbina’s Totenkopf Illusion Pattern (German)

In the advent calendar of Wollke7 you can find behind door no. 3 the link to a PDF file with instructions for a potholder with a shadow Christmas tree (German).

How to design your own illusion patterns (for Hand knitting instructions scroll down)

At instructables.com: Shadow or Illusion Knitting

At craftster: Custom Illusion Knitting Tutorial – an instruction on how to design your own illusion knitting pattern

Google search result for ‘(illusion or shadow) knit’
Google image search result for ‘(illusion or shadow) knit’

Google search result for ‘schattenstricken’
Google image search result for ‘schattenstricken’

Wikipedia entry for Mensch ärger’ Dich nicht

Photograph the Holidays

unikatissima Candle

Links of entry

I found an article where different points concerning photographing the Holidays are explained.
This way you can surely make beautiful pictures, but sometimes it pays to practice a little bit beforehand ;-)

 

unikatissima Christmas Fractals.jpg
When preparing this entry it crossed my mind that I once photographed Christmas glass ornaments so that fractal patterns resulted.
I even found back the blog entry where I got the idea from :)


Links:
At photojojo: How to Photograph the Holidays

At flickr: Christmas Chaos
At evil mad scientist: Christmas Chaos

Here at unikatissima:
Entries with the tag ‘fractal’