Letters of Love

© Sybille Sterk 

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission

Photography, edited in Photoshop. :D

More love letters, the actual letters and an old love letter (public domain) mixed up. :D

On Society6

Displa

Redbubble

etc

Recycling and Upcycling and a new bracelet....

Just came across this fabulous blog and shop:

Recycled Market Blog - with lots of recycling ideas and stories.
Recycled Market Shop - with lots of stuff that has been made from recycled or upcycled materials.

I am a great believer in re-using materials and found great inspiration just looking through the shop.

Incidentally I found some time yesterday to make a new bracelet that fits right into the theme....

Not all the materials are recycled, but the beads, the typewriter key and the chains are. I've also used opals and two bird charms. Most of the materials came from Etsy and the beads from an old necklace I picked up at an antiques fair some time ago and took apart.

I'll be making more of these bracelets with the typewriter keys and semiprecious beads soon. There might be a few necklaces as well.... I haven't made much jewellery recently but caught the bug again. I just wish there were more hours in the day!

Mobiles - Dragonfly, Flotsam and Sunset

Three more mobiles, all for sale. The perfect Christmas present.

For details see info below each mobile.

 

Dragonfly Mobile 

recycled glass and glass beads, shells, sea glass, vintage filigree, dragonflies and marbles, hemp, driftwood; medium size; Price: £25 + P&P

 

 

 

 

Flotsam Mobile

glass beads, shells, shells beads, wooden beads, vintage shells, razor clam shells, sea glass, hemp, silk, driftwood;

medium size; SOLD

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Mobile

sea glass, shell beads, kashmiri bead, shells, feathers, wooden beads, hemp, metallic thread, driftwood;

medium to large size (long); Price: £30 + P&P

Click on the pictures to see larger versions. Any questions feel free to e-mail me. :-)

Sweetheart Necklace

For a while now I had this idea going round in my head of a long necklace in greens and blues, but when the green/blue yarn arrived for the Where the Land Meets the Sea shawl, it suddenly all became clear:

The necklace isn't quite as long as it looks on this bust (the bust is only about 3/4 of a REAL person). However, it is quite long and can be wrapped around twice.

I raided my drawers for all sorts of beads, chains and charms that I thought would work well together and there are:

• vintage beads and beadcaps,: lucite, glass, enamelled, copper, brass and gunmetal
  
• new beads (glass, resin and fabric)
• recycled glass beads from Ghana and new glass pearls and hollow glass beads
• vintage and new chain in black, enamelled blue, copper and brass
• vintage and new charms in brass, copper and pewter.

I love the colours and I like the fact that I've combined various metals so I can wear bracelets in the various metals with it rather than having to stick to one metal. The recycled glass has wonderful bumps and inclusions, the vintage has a lovely patina and all in all the necklace celebrates variety.

... and this one's all mine. LOL

However, if you'd like a similar sweetheart necklace with the sweetheart charm and different colours, let me know. I am happy to make another. Indeed, I might make another one anyway. LOL

Knitting Bag - Sari Silk

Here it finally is - my knitting bag!



I wanted something to put my knitting in whilst I wasn't working on it as I often work on more than one project at a time and needed somewhere to keep current projects safe.

It's a story and a half and took much longer than expected. I got the recycled sari silk from an online wool shop but only got two balls as I wasn't sure how I'd like it. It took forever for this first lot to arrive (2 weeks) due to holiday and supposedly to problems at the post office, and when I finally started I realised pretty soon that 2 balls of wool wouldn't be enough. I ordered more and it took another week and a half for that to arrive. Normally, I'd put a link to the wool shop here but I can't honestly recommend this shop. Although the wool is fine and pricing okay, the delivery times are just not up to scratch for the UK. It forever surprises me that some internet shops don't realise that their biggest disadvantage is that customers pay and then have to wait for their order to arrive. The quicker the order arrives the more likely is the customer to order again. Two to four days is reasonable, I believe, for the UK. A week and a half or even two weeks is not reasonable.

However now it's finally finished. Sari silk is fairly easy and fast to knit and I love the effect of the different colours. It's almost like an abstract landscape. However, it's also fairly heavy (the sari silk for this bag weighs 400g). I'd not use it for much apart from bags and possibly hats.

The bottom of the bag has been crocheted in the round. I then took up the stitches with a knitting needles to make up the body of the bag. Along the top is a row of button holes for the ribbon to go through. I used lace weight rough silk (double) to create the crochet lace around the button holes and along the opening rim of the bag. A pale blue silk ribbon and needlefelted flowers in pale blue and red finish the bag. It's quite large so will hold all my needles, crochet hooks, wool and bits of paper with patterns on it.

Below is a close-up of the felted flowers.



Here's the ribbon against the lace at the top and the knitted sari silk:



Here's the crocheted border at the top.


Below is a detail shot of the knitted sari silk. You can see all the different strands that make up the yarn. They are the loose ends of saris, collected in industrial mills and spun into yarn.