Encased

 I made another lot of the glasses cases last week, I love the florals theme and I just had enough blue felt to line them all. Here's the cracked vintage floral being fed through the skiving machine. I can also just see my Wind in the Willows cassette, which Hazel and I have been listening to in the studio, my parents used to play it to me as a child.

Ready to be closed up, my sewing machine is such a beast it can happily stitch through 10 ml of chunky leather and felt.

 Now to turn them the right way out, it's gonna be strenuous!

 Yep, it's really hard work, but I have strong hands and a few tools (chopsticks) to bag the corners out.

Ready to play show and tell at Finders Keepers!

Baby Sneeks

Time for a production run. Clear the bench and get methodical. Cut all the components and prepare to get miniature.

 Wow! I love to see flat pieces of leather taking on three-dimensions, I find it really satisfying, and get a bit happy in the studio, as you would have seen on instagram @emblueski

 A whole stack of vamps. A sandwich of vamps. I am loving this colour combo.

 Almost done, mudguards are stitched on, now time for the soles...

 At this point I often wish I had a post machine, but I was taught to turn uppers inside out to close certain stages. It's not that hard, and when I get to the end I feel a bit clever!

Voila, a tray of baby sneeks. Small, Medium and Large. Damn they are cute :)

I'm also doing a run in red/royal blue, they will all be at the Finders Keepers market on Oct 4/5 at the Royal Exhibition Building here in Melbourne town.

Finders Keepers!

Hey peeps, I'm thrilled (and somewhat daunted) to announce that I'm having a stall at the next Finders Keepers here in Melbs! Dates are Friday 4th and Saturday 5th October to be precise.

This is the reason I've been making like a mofo, with huge to-do lists every day of the week, including the evenings. Things always take a bit longer than I'd like, but it's all coming together, slowly but surely.

If you're following me on Insta @emblueski there are a lot of updates on what I'm making, and I promise to be more regular with blog updates too. On the menu today are Baby Sneakers, they are so darn cute, very fiddly but very satisfying. I'll blog those during the week.

Enjoy the spring sunshine!

Making like a mofo

 Sampling some new things. Playing with old designs/materials and reinventing them. I will never get tired of circles!

 Sending samples of new things off to magazines in the hope of some press.

Every night I am at the kitchen table making work by incandescent light. Not my favourite, I prefer daylight, but I need to make the best use of my kid-free time. Here are some pinwheels on the go...

...and here they are finished. They've found new homes at Craft Vic, Five Boroughs and Klopper.

Thanks for the feedback regarding my previous post, I know it often appears that other people have it all, when we are probably all a bit guilty of painting the best possible picture of our lives, despite the mess and chaos.

We are battling coughs and colds brought home from daycare, interrupted nights with the small girl, last night we struck a deal that she would spend all night in her bed, lo and behold it worked!

I've got a few new projects on the boil which are very exciting, I'm also in full production for my little Christmas range, and I'm doing the Finders Keepers in early Oct, so it is full steam ahead!

I love plastic!

First prototype - plastic engineering - Napisan container

Right now!

Hi there, welcome to my studio! Today I am lasting a pair of boots, the old-fashioned way.

These are the tools I use to last any uppers. If they are on my desk all at once it means - BUSINESS TIME! You can see the lasts on the left, with appropriate build-ups for this client.

The uppers are pulled over the lasts with pincers, and then wrapped over the insole and held in place with tacks. The pincers are a combination of pliers and hammer, in this image I'm using them as a hammer. Tap tap tap.

And here they are being used as pliers. I keep the tacks in my mouth and pull them out when I need them (a very old-school method), the face I am making in this pic is because I'm fishing around in my mouth for a tack. Tasty.

The toe stiffeners are on, I'm painting them with adhesive so that they form one layer when the upper is pulled over.

The upper is all lasted, held in place with tacks, and here I'm hammering down the pleats. The boots will stay like this for a day or two, then once they are dry I can start to clean them up and get ready for soling.

Tada!

Time for some action

 After spending the WHOLE school holidays working like a mofo, hearing about all the leisurely activities folks got up to, this week I finally got my chance to immerse in something just for me.

I've had this pattern for so long, last winter I tried making a panel but I only had wool, and for summer I figured cotton would be better, so I ordered some from Bendigo Woollen Mills. I am such a sucker for a capped sleeve, so I'm making the lovely blue number on the right, in my usual colour of navy (how I love thee).

Here's my progress so far, it is quite time consuming, as lacy work tends to be, this is the centre back panel. Ironically this will not be ready for the current summer, but we are planning an OS jaunt in June, so there's my deadline sorted!
 

I must say that I have had no creative time on the couch for a few months, every night I've been online monitoring media, and it is hard to get back into crafty mode. It feels a bit like I'm shirking some urgent task of supreme importance, but no - time for some crochet action.

Watching Season 2 of Girls, freaking out about the 'shirt' Hannah wore in Episode 3, also watching Clone Wars Season 5 with Leo, we are on our Star Wars bender for the year, I'm so glad my son is as obsessed as I am!

What are you guys making? Easy projects or time consuming madness? Do share!

Summer bedspread

 

Take one handmade tablecloth, gifted by a school friend who picked it up in Greece.

 

 

Take one flat sheet from Ikea, some cotton batting from Spotty, and with your sisters' help pin all the layers together (on a rarely clean kitchen table).

Stitch the layers together along the obvious join lines, then around each crocheted motif until cross-eyed/satisfied.
Stitch on satin binding while watching the Chaser, then spend many evenings hand stitching the reverse side. Wonder when it will be finished.

Take one toddler who refuses to sleep the whole night in her own bed. Watch as she sleeps serenely under your new creation. Remain content that you finally made this item, which has been on your list for a year  :)

Fancy some fluoro?

Brickies' string, a crochet hook, brooch backs and some Boardwalk Empire results in the above riotous botanical display.

Available at Craft Victoria.

Lovely lasting

First I handskived my leather stiffeners, built up my last a bit, and added the cone and ankle build-ups. When you make a boot you have to allow for more room in the ankle area, so these extras are tacked on. I have some plastic ones, but have made many others from veg tanned leather. I usually keep all that stuff in a box, so I can rummage through and see what fits each last, when I need them.

Then I checked out the proportions by resting the upper sitting loosely on the last. Take note of my heel block; Hazel's clamshell phone and a slice of plastic toast.

 I tested a new pair of leather shears on heavy duty 5ml veg tan soling leather. I found these beauties at Northern Sharpening in Coburg, I needed to get a new bandsaw blade and George said he would MAKE me a new one from industrial steel, not 'hobby' steel, which he said my old one was made from. Profesh.

They are amazing, like a great pair of secateurs, but for leather. I'm gobsmacked that such a thing exists, I've always used bandsaws or a Landis cutter.

I had to cover the upper in plastic, to avoid getting glue, dirt etc on them. They are the tallest boots I've lasted, so there was a lot of leg hanging around, if you know what I mean.

Just illustrating how useful a lap can be. Sometimes I use a lasting pin to work on, but often it's my lap. A great workout for the adductor muscles in your inner thigh as you squeeze to hold the last firmly.

Hello bandsaw, I am so glad to have you on my bench again. This baby was at Sam's for a while, but after some huffing and puffing and possibly one strained muscle, it's back with me. Watched a few youtube tutorials on bandsaw blade changing, just to check that I did it right. Those videos are awesome, I wish I knew a lot of those informative blokes.

All this action while wearing my Tron boots from a few years back. I try to keep my exhibition pieces in perfect nick, packed safely for another show and tell day. But I've been wanting to wear these long boots to keep me warm and look robotic. Thanks to Sync for the collab.

 Done. Gold star to me!

Argyle Argy Bargy

 Sure enough, stitch by stitch, my diamonds have been taking over this piece of canvas.

I can't quite estimate the hours, must be about 30 so far, but it is very satisfying to see one finished. I laid some of the upper pieces over the top in the studio the other day, and I'm really looking forward to sewing them together and getting lasting.

Now for one more! Don't forget that shoes come in pairs :)

The lergy and the muse

 

 The small girl brought home a virus from daycare. We have all been afflicted with the entire range of wintry symptoms, with the added bonus of loads of night time coughing keeping us all awake. Our humidifiers are running constantly, there are rivulets of water running down our windows from the humidity. I really wish we could go to Cairns and eat tom yum soup and get lots of sunshine.

 For a few days she just sat on my lap in front of ABC Kids, all day long. It didn't help that she had an ear infection, plus molars coming through. My world shrank to the walls of our house. Amongst all of this Sam and I have so many deadlines, meetings to get to, or to cancel when Hazel is home from daycare.

 There are so many things on my hand stitching list: knitted gnomes for daycare, a cardigan for Hazel, embroidered boot uppers for the Needlework Needleplay show in August, and these embroidered brooches I've been planning and sampling for a workshop later in the year. I've been getting in as much stitching as I can, in the car while Sam is driving, on the park bench while the kids play in a briefly sunny window, constantly on the couch in the evenings. My TV viewing is all about Game of Thrones, Mad Men, West Wing and Treme, my current projects will always remind me of these shows.

 I'm also applying for a few grants, which require a lot of succinct writing, support material, and searching for co-funding and sponsorship. It's taking up a lot of time. There are not enough hours in my day!

 Each day Sam and I reach a point where we are exhausted and fed up with the relentless routine of small children; the MESS, the reading bag, the mealtimes, the getting them to bed, the night waking, and the inevitable co-sleeping. We look at each other and say 'how are we meant to be creative, to skillfully make things of beauty during this constant chaos?' There is no answer for this, we simply have no choice, shit happens and things are unpredictable, not just for us.

BUT we did get to see Prince again, which was so darn fine, I wish I could see him every fortnight. I tracked down some great tickets on ebay, you can see how close we were to the stage. The camera police were super-vigilant in our area, I only got to take this pic because The Artist wasn't on stage at the time. Bloody great show, I lost my voice for a few days and am still exclusively playing Prince tunes around the house.

I hope that you're all faring well, getting things done, keeping warm, eating good food. I'm wishing for  a bit of sun to dry my laundry, a grandparent to look after the kids for a while, a personal assistant to write emails and submissions for me, and a chef to whip up some inspiring food that will clear my sinuses.