Tuesday 30 October 2007

Ballet Hair (not Only)

I began to learn ballet dancing and we should have our hair tied. On the other hand we often have to lay down on the floor with arms stretched out and laying on a bun can be quite incomfortable, as you can imagine.

So this is how it originated. And please don't call me Mickey Mouse. I am not.
These are just two ordinary buns (ribbon-braid-ribbon, twisted, pinned), but during the twist you must pay attention - do it with help of both your hands, the bun must be as flat as possible (which is not much). Sorry for the line, I have only a brush here. I thought I could use it in Gothic.. I should look for some images. Unfortunatelly today was the first lecture in which we didn't lay down on the back:-D
And after the lecture I cut my hair, it's been too long already..

No, that was a joke of course, it's just a knot pinned in one spot. Then I unweaved the braid's tail. I must admit it's not very symetric, next time must be better.

Thursday 25 October 2007

Sealing

Some months ago I made a sealer. It was a griffin scratched by a pin to gypsum. The due was decorating diplomas for kindergarten. Now I have this task again, some birthday invitations.
But work with sealing ring is tricky:)

I complete seals with a cord (folded in the middle). I don't use any spoons or anything like that, I have impression that all the wax should be heated and then poured on the paper. No, my method is to hold the wax bar above a candle and drop it on the paper. For more comfort I make a circle (coin) to hit the final shape better.
I put some drops onto the cord and after a few seconds (explained further) I press it down by the flat end of a pencil.

Then continue dropping until the circle is fulfilled. You may rub the paper with the wax bar but be careful, colding wax is like a very sticky plasticine and it will form little (sometimes seem endless) tails from the wax poodle to the bar.

Uh, pungent work:) And these aren't all..

Then I hold the sead above the candle until the wax melts. The paper may start smoking but if it doesn't burn it's ok ;)

And now the sealing itself: you mustn't begin immediately, the hot wax is very sticky and it wouldn't let the sealer go. This is how I spoiled the original, these are just copies..

Since then I always try the wax with a pencil - you know when it doesn't cling anymore and it's still formable.
Press the sealer as strong as possible at the wax poodle.
I test a new non-sticky theory, I put the sealer to the fridge before beginning, it could help, but it's not prooved yet.
The result looks like this.

And here's a big one for the honoree :)

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Ribbonless Hairdo

I wanted a ponytail without the nasty ribbon visible. It's a long time, now I finally did it!:) First take two strands from sides of forehead and join them behind as far as you want.

Use these strands as a ribbon - twist once and thread with the rest of hair. If you think the ribbon's visible, you may thread a small bit again for it to get inside the ponytail. I like that I can make wide catch of hair - the further you join your hair the looser the ponytail may be.

And this happens if you thread the ponytail as many times as possible. After hiding the ribbon comb your hair to rejoin split strands.

Friday 19 October 2007

Pansy Tablecloth

My mother desired very much the cross stitch embroidery that in fact I made for her. She wanted to use it as a tablecloth for the living room.

I wanted it to fit well to the size of the table so I took canava and pulled four threads to mark the rectangle.

For the cloth to be nice I bought a lace (I didn't know they're so bloody expensive:) ). As first I sewed it to the rectangle, than I folded the rest of canava and resewed it by using zigg-zagg.

I didn't want two boring rectangles one inside the other, I folded the edges this way. Canava of the broidery is of other colour which is caused by multi-year work:) and not washing. I was afraid it would spoil the impression, but fortunatelly I was wrong.

The lace was put to this shape as well so it looks as if the embroidery piece was just laid on a plain tablecloth.
Mum's birthday is on Sunday, she'll certainely like it as she has been waiting for it so long :)

Sunday 14 October 2007

Brown Pillow

My friend.. One of my many friends:) asked me to make her some pillow cases. Three in fact. Two of them are for a classic square pillow, the third one is a block.

This is the second pillow - the first I made last weekend. I started with ironing the room for a zip - unlike at the flute case I didn't presew the fibre to the zip. As first I sewed the small part before the zipper, then the zipper itself, but not to the end. I let a bit unsewn.

Next I sewed the final piece and then I completed the part I had left out in the previous step.

This is what it looked like, I didn't forget to secure the opening side of the zip by what's called a lock in Czech.

I cut the fibre along the fastening and ziggzagged it (forgotten to do this at first at the previous pillow case:-) ) and then sewed the sides.

The least is to iron the sides for the something to look like a pillow case :-D

Saturday 13 October 2007

Bracelet Starting

I haven't done a bracelet for a long time. Now I've chosen this pattern from a nice bracelet site, just changed some colours. In fact it's not sure it would be a bracelet, it could be a decoration for a bag or some band, I cut the threads longer than usual, on purpose:)

Friday 12 October 2007

Bachelor's Hairdo

This is a very special hairdo. My sister gave me a carte blanche in this area. I think it wasn't the best idea:-)

I started with a single thin ponytail. Then I twisted some strand and folded in the middle, leaving a third of it untwisted. I continued to cover the spot around the ponytail.

In the end I pinned the twists and made arcs out of the rests of strands. Sister told me she wanted some free hair, so I let the little tails there.

So this is it and it seemed a bit crazy to me, but mum quite liked it and sister as well:)