Our Handmade Gifts wants to give back to the community, and will be doing so with our Support a Cause section. Our first section focuses on Breast Cancer Awareness, and purchases made in this category will have a portion of the selling price donated to various breast cancer organizations.
A group of jewelry designers got together and decided to build a better website, that showcases handmade and custom jewelry that isn’t run of the mill. Our Handmade Gifts is a site where you can find beautiful beaded jewelry, gemstones turned into earrings and necklaces, chainmail (also known as chainmaille) and custom polymer clay combined with canvas and fabric creations. While the site is focused mainly on jewelry at the moment, you will also find things like cell phone charms and wine glass charms, which site creator Deborah Carney didn’t even know existed a year ago.
Our Handmade Gifts includes jewelry created by artisans Deborah Carney, Liz Ababon, Leah Helmrich, Ralph Helmrich and Vinny O’Hare. Formerly involved with Print on Demand companies to sell her photography and art, Carney found the handmade community sites to be too corporate focused and not personalized enough. Investigating some art links posted by other artists on Twitter, Carney discovered that there is a market for “mini prints” or art on pendants. While most artists work with polymer clay and transfers, Carney perfected a technique to print her art and photography on canvas and fuse it to the clay, and create art you can wear.
Father and Daughter team Leah and Ralph Helmrich work with intricate wire and create jewelry using a technique called “chainmail” which is creating chains, earrings, necklaces and bracelets using small wire rings and weaving them to create their pieces. Leah also creates “steampunk” and enjoys working with wire to create other designs that appeal to the younger crowd. Ralph actually creates not only the jewelry pieces, but the components their jewelry is made of. Handmade in the USA with wire and jumprings made in the USA also.
Liz Ababon loves working with wire and beads and all sorts of components to make her jewelry and gift items that appeal to a wide range of people. Vinny O’Hare focuses on earrings created out of the wire jumprings that Ralph makes.
Andy Johnson writes in:
More:I'm a guy that sews. No, I'm not afraid to say it, I think it is one of the best skills my Mother taught me, besides cooking. I sewed this magazine protector to keep my latest copy of MAKE looking newsstand fresh. I carry MAKE in my backpack, and I carry my backpack everywhere. With all the junk I carry banging around in there, it can get my stuff pretty hammered. I took my favorite T-Shirt, that unfortunately has worn out, and cut out a rectangle 1/2 inch larger than my copy of MAKE on both sides, and doubling the length so it can be folded over. I created a flap on the top and sewed velcro to both the flap and the reverse of the protector. Surging the seams would be the best, but I only have access to a regular sewing machine. If you have extra t-shirt, you can use it to make ipod sleeves, calculator protectors, whatever you like.
- How-To: Sew a Simple Fabric Book Cover
- HOW TO - T-Shirt Book Cover
- Kate Spade Downloadable Book Cover
Filth Wizardry shares her brilliant trick for whipping up a whole slew of cheery mushrooms using foil and plastic Easter eggs.
Read this article | Comment on this articleCandles started to wane as the main lighting source because of the introduction of the light bulb, they became a more ornamental product. Candles ended up being suddenly available in a wide variety of sizes, designs and colours. Customer fascination with scented candles started to escalate.
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Why to Smell the Lid When Buying Scented Candles and Other Secret Candlemaking Details
I love the look of this wine bottle garden edging. If only I had that much wine! [via Lifehacker]
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My son happened to be sitting in my lap when I pulled up this R2D2 felt pin tutorial from our pal Bonnie over at StarWars.com on my computer. He went nuts. Guess who's making one of these for her kid today?
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black & white canvas in action
As I stitched this little quilt block on Zweigart’s black and white canvas one word kept coming to mind — hard.
This canvas is tweeded. One direction has black threads, the other white. While the individual threads are the same as mono canvas, the woven effect is not and therein lies the problem. As you an see from the picture the white threads are more prominent.
While that is not a bad thing for the finished effect it makes stitching and counting extremely difficult. I felt as if the holes in the canvas “melted” into the white threads. And, although I counted threads and the stitches are correct, much of the time I felt as if my stitches were not true.
Add to this the problem that you can’t put a dark cloth or a light cloth under it to see and you have a canvas not for the faint of heart.
Even so, the finished effect is wonderful, so I would seek out painted canvases thaat use it as the background.
Related posts:
- Black Metallic Canvas – Product Review
- Bizzi Creations Box – Product Review
- Tapis-tree Bags – Product review
- Patches’n Planks – Product Review
- Stitches, Thread Color and “Show Through”
See original here:
Black and White Canvas – Product Review
Spring Cleaning sale in the Maker Shed!
Read this article | Comment on this articleSpring is in the air! The snow is melting, the birds are chirping, and we're looking to do some cleaning in our warehouse. What does that mean for you? Well, for starters, we have a bunch of products on sale in the Maker Shed. We'll even throw in free shipping on orders over $125! Just use the code "CLEARME" at checkout.
