Jewelry
-
So, who uses an abacus nowadays anyway?
I was set to the task of coming up with a knitter’s abacus. One of the gals at my LYS had purchased one but it snagged her knitting. She wanted one with my flush-cut jump rings. Apparently they do not snag, and folks love them. I chose to do my first prototype in shrink film. I love playing with that stuff, and it turned out very well. I added a definite geek factor to them by using the same color code used in transistors. I will be following with a bead version, and increasing the number of links to 10, per requests by those who have seen them.
-
An evenings good labor
I am pleased to get all these done tonight. 5 sets of 10 simple markers, and 6 sets of ssk/k2tog markers. On the second item, I made the beads, and managed to print them 2 sided. Next up will be drafting a few new designs. That which is in my head is having a wee bit of difficulty making it intact onto my computer. I will persevere.
-
Doodles
I was doodling and came up with a fun tree. I drew it up in Illustrator, and added a Christmas flair. They made great gifts this year. I will be refining them, and doodling more, to come up with a greater variety of images. I am very pleased with how these turned out! Shrink film is not a very forgiving medium, thus the warp on the large one. I have come up with ways to work around this, though. I have even managed 2-sided printing. We will see if I can get these up to my standards for commercial use.
-
Sweet Success!
It took a couple of days of trial and error, but finally I have a bead I can love. The first batch is headed for Yarn Harbor. From here I can go anywhere though. I am quite pleased! Just for fun, a shot of the “process” as well. Shrinkys are very inexact, so the only way to get the color density and size correct is by trial and error. Once you have something you like though, they do produce a result relatively the same, as long as you don’t burn them.