A quick post here- one that was already ready to go but I always feel it is nice to add a welcome to you, written on the actual day! It's only 6 days since my last broochage post but I haven't got much time to do anything else but I wanted a wee distraction!
Hope there's something you like here!
You can just see Nessie on the right. He's from @fairytalecollars on Etsy! He seemed to fit right in with the Orla Kiely pattern I felt.
And here are the teapot and teacup brooches I made a while back out of Shrinkplastic. I started making another brooch the other day, one that has been sitting waiting for ages. The subject of it is so cute so I will be dismayed if it goes wrong in the oven!
Two photos of this one. I thought I'd wear my Glitterpunk pastel keyboard with my Miss Patina Aristocat blouse!
Last but not least, is an ensemble you will have seen a few weeks ago. My charity-shopped Robin jumper with Rosebud Casson Robbin necklace plus her Blackbird pin and a Primark bird pin plus a Christchurch welcome badge!
I am sorry I have been quite absent this week. It's been really exhausting being back at school and I have had a lot of tasks to do. I will hopefully catch up with your posts soon.
This week at school, we had a Roald Dahl-themed week. As you will surely know, it is the centenary of his birth. He is such an important author to so many people.
I adored this books as a child, particularly The Enormous Crocodile, Matilda, the Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I read and reread them a myriad times.
When I was planning Singing assemblies for the first few weeks, I wanted to sing some songs based on Roald Dahl lyrics. However, it was quite hard to find short songs. There are, of course, two musicals, but I wanted to sing Roald Dahl's actual words.
Thus, I set myself the task of writing my own songs to two of his songs- one from Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and one from the Enormous Crocodile. The Crocodile one was well-received by children and teachers alike which I was pleased about.
I had a successful lesson today with Year 4 teaching literacy in which I set them a task based on identifying character traits of The Twits and then writing a paragraph denouncing the couple!
Anyway, here's the backdrop to this week's brooch choices.
On Monday, I went with a subtle reference to the Roald Dahl books. Which character might advocate the sentiment of this Fable and Black brooch?
I'll put the answers at the bottom to allow you to guess.
On Tuesday I wore this animal brooch. Which book might this refer to?
On Wednesday, brooch and dress matched. But which book is today's outfit referencing?
Thursday's brooch was one I made specially for this week out of Shrink Plastic.
You should be able to recognise the character but I'll allow you to guess anyway!
Friday (today's) brooch is also one I made especially for this week. Who is the character and from which book?
Any favourites here?
How would you have interpreted Roald Dahl week in brooch form? I'd be intrigued to know!
xxx
Answers are below...
1. Matilda
2. Esio Trot
3. Fantastic Mr Fox
4. Matilda again.
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Willy Wonka)
Since moving, I've done very little craft, mainly because most of my craft stuff is in my friend's garage back in our old town and secondly,because the rest is in a box somewhere.
However, I wanted to make something for Pi day which is the 16th March.
***EDIT: IDIOT! It was Monday, the 14th!!!!! Not Tuesday 16th- which isn't even the 16th, it's the 15th!!!****
I decided to draw myself a simple cartoon of a feminine-looking Pi. This is not an original idea, loads of people have done this over the internet, including Kate Gabrielle who has a whole host of adorable Pi paraphernalia. I wanted to order her Pi-day pins but I left it too late and I also got stung by Customs last time I ordered some of her stuff.
So I drew myself a cute polka dot Pi and got ready to put it in the oven.
Stupid, stupid baking sheet, the foil flew off into the fan at the back of the oven and the Pi was wrecked!!!
So I had to make another one the next day. This time I put it in a deep loaf tin.
And this time, it worked out!
I thought I'd show you the comparison between the original picture (I traced it) and the shrunk version.
Happy Pi day!
Sadly, I suddenly realised I am at the Royal Albert Hall all day (as you read this, I will be hoping that my 26 children are behaving, safe and singing well!), so I will not wearing it as planned as I will be wearing my Royal Albert Hall and Music School pins from the previous visits but maybe CBC might sport my Pi pin instead.
You've been party to my brooch parties over the last couple of weeks (well, month really).
A little while back, I shared 3 shrink plastic brooches I had made so it was with interest that I relocated the shrink plastic a couple of weeks ago and decided to give the drawing, colouring and shrinking routine a little go again. The results are below.
I'll talk through them a bit (because I am like that- sorry if you like to think for yourself- I like discussing my reasoning for actions)
The first one I made was the popcorn brooch and sadly, it went wrong.
You can see the stages of making it below.
1. Drawing my design, 2. Tracing it onto the shrink plastic, 3. Colouring it in with watercolour pencils. 4. Using a paintbrooch with water to make the colours more solid, 5. Going round the outlines to give it a cartoony quality.
And stage 6.
Trying to use my heat gun to shrink it. I should just stick to the oven. I panicked when I shrank it as it curled up on itself for longer than it usually does, not resuming a flat position. I frantically tried to flatten it with a paintbrush-end and mat, reheated it too many times and frankly burnt it.
I eventually managed to get it to lay a bit flatter but it does look a bit decrepid above and the colours have sort of cracked. Plus, the people who say that plain pencil disappears when you shrink it are plain liars as you can clearly see my pencil lines through the paint where the scallops are. Humph!
I MIGHT try to make this again OR I might just put up with a manky brooch!
The second one is of course, a tea-cup. I love tea and I felt this would be a cute and easy brooch to make myself. It was. I put a Cath Kidstonesque design on it based on something I saw on l'internet and this time, I didn't paint the pencils, just left them to do their own thing. Oh, and I used the oven so it laid perfectly flat! Hurrah! I do believe this is the best of the lot!
You can see the colours before shrinking. Shrinking the plastic intensifies the colours.
The next brooch is INCREDIBLY geeky, a bit 'in-joke-ish' or a bit 'Freemasonesque' (as it in secret handshake!) I'll tell you why.
I love the composer, Dmitri Shostakovitch. He lived in Communist Russia and he had a really difficult time of it being a composer during that regime. So many stoppers were put on his creativity but miraculously, he managed to avoid getting too much into trouble or defecting like many Russian composers.
Anyway, in his symphonies, he created a motif (that's a small music ideal, often only consisting of less than 8 notes- it's not a TUNE, it's a little idea- like the Da Da da DAAA of Beethoven's 5th symphony) which was essentially the musical version of his name.
D S C H (short of Dmitri Shostakovitch).
D= note D
S= note E flat (not sure why)
C= note C
H= Note B (again,not sure why)
It is instantly recognisable in his music and in the 10th symphony which I played this summer, it featured over and over again! Anytime I've ever written reveille wakeup music at music camp, I've always used Shostakovitch's motif and I thought a cute little brooch showing it would be funny, to see how someone who knows the motif would react. Though probably, I've got the rhythm lengths wrong! Again, you can see below, the design prior to shrinkage.
The final design was done alongside the disastrous popcorn brooch.I had this tiny scrap of shrink plastic,not really fit for much so I decided to experiment and just draw some colouring pencils in the small bit of plastic. They at least went flat but the colours went all grainy. They are super tiny, about 1.5 cm long and 5mm wide!
And here's the complete collection, I forgot to snap the brooch backs, but that's not really what you wanted to see was it!??!
