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| Honey bees... looking for love |
Dammit... Where has this year gone?? I do not really remember the summer but winter is most certainly knocking at the door.
With winter comes the retrieval of the thick coats, alpaca hats, kayaking down rivers, the holiday season and the madness that it brings with it, and with that madness comes a surge in the production of crafts from my workshop. All of those offcuts of Western Red Cedar (WRC) that have been filling up every available space all year and thus annoying me are slowly leaving after a transformation into something Christmassy (ish).
Honestly... I should of been thinking about Christmas crafts during the summer but since I am not able to recall a Welsh summer in 2012 I will just plough on with making items to sell at the remaining stalls that I will be attending this year.
As a person who appreciates the environment and our wildlife, my theme just had to be Nature... but how can one sum up Christmas and Nature from several bags of Western Red Cedar offcuts??
I rattled my brains (which was more of a hindrance rather than helpful to be honest) and "keep it simple" kept springing to the forefront of my mind.
"Impressed" is what I'm thinking about myself this year, to be able to produce in a very short turn around period a collection of multifunctional gifts. All of the items which are WRC also have the added value of being a moth repellent during the warmer months next year.
Inspiration...
Have you ever really looked at a tree?? I mean really look at a tree, there is something so fascinating about them, their shape, how they compete with each other, how they provide so, so much for our wildlife, how much they change in a season. I think I will make more trees to capture and exploit their beauty, just cannot seem to get them out of my head. There are already much bigger plans evolving in my mind (as I'm typing, and yes it is distracting).
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| Trees and their fascinating shapes |
Then there are these boxes, lots of time and effort have gone into producing these. The wood smells amazing, the joints are perfect and I just love the ideas people come up with to utilise them.
The Christmassy craft is upon us, so a lovely selection of tree decorations were made but they looked so sad laying down in their respective bundles. TREE... TREE... TREE... I kept hearing, so a proud Black tree has sprung into existence, for them to lure in customers glancing eyes.
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| My very own Tree |
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| So much hassle keeping these giant Honey bees and dwarf Reindeer apart |
Finally, there has been certain bespoke items requested, fortunately my imagination and design was allowed to run loose. Again the "Nature" theme was paramount but for the items that they requested, I think practicality was essential. So I give you these small but perfectly formed door stops which have my lovely "Burnt Bees" on them.
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| Practicality prevails when making wedges for a wonderful valued customer |
And last but by certainly no means least... I bring you a Tofu Press... For the wonderful person who asked for this, my thoughts were drawn to personalisation and the extra effort would really make a difference here. I have never drawn a butterfly before, well not an accurate one anyhow but since I decided to use pyrography to produce this butterfly, then it best be a great one...
Mission successful (me thinks)
Good night everyone
Nos da bawb
P.S If you wish to get in touch please follow the links below to the relevant website. My contact details are highly visible.
Thank you
Diolch
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| Tofu Press, personalised with this beautiful butterfly |
Labels: Burnt Bees, Christmas Crafts, Offcuts, Tofu Press, Trees, Western Red Cedar, Woodcrafts
