Bookshelf...

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life."

- John Lennon

Here is a bookshelf I made today...

I found a guy in the area that sells old scaffold planks in all different sizes so I got loads of 1 meter lengths that were only £1 each...bargain!!

The planks are sanded and waxed to bring out the colours. My cheap sander decided it couldn't handle the job so I sanded them by hand then rubbed three layers of beeswax into them.
These super duper paving bricks were saved from the skip...there was tons of them most ended up in landfill. I only manged to save about a hundred.

I think there could end up being one of these in every room of my house if I don't hold myself back from getting carried away....I'd have to buy more books!
I want a wall of scaffold shelving right up to the ceiling in my studio.

Here are some textured beads and a golden bell recently listed in my etsy shop...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155429324/3-rugged-fork-papa-bead-artisan?ref=shop_home_active

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155434631/10-porcelain-hand-painted-artisan-clay?ref=listing-shop-header-4

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155434745/11-nature-seed-pod-selection-porcelain?ref=listing-shop-header-3

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155434875/8-rugged-stoneware-selection-with-gold?ref=listing-shop-header-2

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155429108/6-rugged-stoneware-selection-with-gold?ref=listing-shop-header-1

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155435583/yellow-gold-ragged-bell-rustic-hand

Enjoy!

Earrings

This week I treated myself to some of ScorchedEarthonEtsy fabulous beads. They arrived within days and I couldn't stop staring at them all Thursday afternoon....lick-able glossy glazes with beautiful glassy crackled parts, and scrumptious colours with contrasting oxide and oily copper bits.

-------------------------Petra please excuse the bad photography, Im clearly not used to taking pics of glossy surfaces---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I adore over wrapped copper wire and big dangle earrings so that afternoon I made some bonkers tribal earrings with my RaggedRobyn beads and some of ScorchedEarthonEtsy love heart pendants too...

These can be found in my etsy shop, I decided to list them as singles as they are super striking and wonderfully detailed. 
As you can see from the photo's above some of my handspun yarn was used to add a visual contrast in textures and a softness in shape.
A steampunk, tribal, boho blend of goodness...I hope

I was having so much fun I also made a pair with buttons...

Have fun! 

The Knitty Bit

Thank you so much everyone for your friendly welcomes and generosity in posting links to my new blog. I am overwhelmed by all your comments and very happy to be here and have such fabulous followers! 

As some of you may know I spin yarn and occasionally do a bit of knitting. I have decided that my yarn will be my hobby as they don't do great on my etsy shop and I seem to to be forever relisting them when they expire.
I have built up quite the stash of hand spun yarns...

 I hope you can get an idea of this project from my terrible yarn and wool photographing skills. 

Now that they are not in my shop I have started to knit a big colourful blanket for my cheerful new home...

My cats are extrememly pleased to have all the wool around and Peanut is forever trying to sit on it and the kitten (Butter) is chasing the ball of wool everywhere so it gets tangled up around me. This is a big part of my knitting experience, maybe I only pick up the knitting needles so I can get some kitty cat hugs and attention? 

Nah! I'm just as in love with wool as they are

This is Butter saying 'mmmm wool'

Peanut's face in the wool

This is where I sit when working on this bonkers striped blanket...

Here is a picture of a rustic blanket I made from organic hebridean fleece...

I found the fleece for this when I lived at the top of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, I had a caravan with a wee stove and a couple of cats and chickens around the place. Every day I would check the tide schedule and make my way down to the rocky beach where I busied myself picking winkles. Sometimes I battled ownership of the road with large highland beasts to get to the shop for a pint of milk. 

Nearby I discovered the whole universe in a ginger pony's eyes (only to be seen by sweeping it's mane from off it's face) big pools of iris blue getting darker in the middle and peppered with flecks of white, a truly mystical being! 

The same neighbours that owned this pony had some sheep that they kept as pets. This is where I got the scrumptious chocolate brown fleece and some wirey stuff as well. 

When I got it home to the caravan my cat Peanut went mad for it, rubbing her face and body all over the thing covering herself with lanolin.

I chose to felt this blanket after knitting which has given it a cushioned dense quality.

Here is a wonderful wobbly felt tail on one corner...

I think I will felt the colourful one as well and perhaps bind the edges with something to neaten it up. That is a long way off as I still have a lot of knitting to go and anything could happen between now and then.

Here is some new listings from my shop...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154105838/reserved-woodland-goddess-handmade-bead?ref=shop_home_active

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154102964/6-ethnic-tribal-round-clay-bead?ref=shop_home_active

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154107779/9-dark-plum-purple-and-brown-textured?ref=v1_other_2

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154101548/waving-mammoth-beads-2-earth-red?ref=v1_other_2

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154109191/7-moody-spring-silver-boho-textured?ref=shop_home_active

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154101002/6-cog-bead-tribal-artisan-selection-clay?ref=shop_home_active

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154105959/chunky-papa-beads-7-ethnic-boho?ref=v1_other_2

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/154105959/chunky-papa-beads-7-ethnic-boho?ref=v1_other_2

Thank you to my knitting friend Susie for this blog post title and holding such a great knitting group.

First Blog...

I have been playing with gilders wax and achieving different surface qualities...

These latest beads are inspired by Nigerian clay pots, my passion for African pots started when I seen a large storage pot in the British Museum in London that was made by Igbo people around 1954. I stumbled across this when I was about 18 years old and studying for my BA(hons) Ceramics. 
I was taken by the scale and practical qualities it possessed...
The design of this round yet pointy pot was to store water in a hot environment. In order to do this the pot had a round bottom for stability on the sand, so that it could be dug into the ground away from the heat of the sun and for ease when carrying.
It had a big round belly, a small neck, a sturdy lip and three coiled lug handles that bridged the distance of the neck and chest. The main body of the pot was covered in nobbles of clay.
This pot and others like it were normally low fired in pits which left a smokey effect and sometimes a red/orange glow on the surface. Animal fat was readily available and this was rubbed into the porous surface then burnished as a way to make the pots water tight.

This is the pot from the British Museum

The shape and surface of my beads are influenced by the similarities between pots and the human body. The way a mug has a belly, a foot, a handle to fit your hand and a lip to fit your mouth. These beads may have belly's, lips, legs, necks and arms, and a polished skin like surface. 
Shapes are developing every time I sit down at my desk to make and working with red clay again has brought back this passion for African pottery once more.

More beads...

....have a peek at my work at www.raggedrobyn.etsy.com