In The Studio with Metis Caravan

Roni, of Metis Caravan is our guest blogger today.  She is generously offering the how-to on making one of her handmade leather purses.

From Roni:

Our leather is all salvaged and recycled.  Natural hides I buy when I go home in the summer to Cape Croker-Nawash.  If animals are hurt on the road or put to rest for health reasons, they are traded to First Nations' by whom they are used completely for crafts, tools, food.  Many of our harder tan or coloured hides come from used clothing stores to get repurposed.  No animals are harmed or forgotten.

Holes in hard tan leather like this are made with an awl and hammer.  For soft leather, a belt punch makes it a lot easier.

Stitching on medicine bags gets folded in so sage and other leaves can't crumble and fall out but most stitching is done on the outside so if you need a lace to tie something else this lace is accessible. A nice round stitch helps to keep small things in and is decorative.

A little water or glue on the knot shrinks the leather and keeps it tied tight.

We treat our leather with bee product.  It cleans any little spots off and waterproofs the leather.  We get ours in Carlisle, just up the road from Rural Creators' Collective.

Roni's work can be found year round at the Rural Creators' Collective in Carlisle (details on the side bar).   She will also be at the Carlisle Country Craft and Old-Fashioned Market Mercantile August 23 and 24, 2014.

Linking up with: Keep Calm Craft On over at Frontier Dreams

In The Studio - with Rustic Revivals

This time up, our "in the studio" feature is brought to you by our guest blogger, Julie of Rustic Revivals (she's also on Etsy over here by the etsy shop of the same name).

Step One: for thinner pieces of weathered wood, look for old fence lines to tear down, or someone's old deck.  The most 'coveted' signs are the naturally 'ripped' ones at both ends, to emulate the 'faux ripped'/jagged edge signs one often sees.

Step Two:  For painting, you will want to find pieces that haven't split TOO much.  While knots and cracks make for delightful character in beams, walls and other larger signs, you'll want to find a weathered piece whose surface is still 'tight'.  (Worm holes are excellent though).

Step Three:  I try to always paint my signs from the middle OUT, to balance where letters will go. The characters and arrows should be painted (or wood-burned, or twig glued) on first, then letters added around them.  For various methods and fonts, see here.

Step Four:  for consistency of shadowing to add a more 3-D 'pop' to letters, choose which side and direction your light source would be in and keep this in mind at all times when you add in the black or darker colour behind the letters.

Step Five: for extras like dots or half-moons, simply turn the paint brush upside down.  Wipe off excess paint after every second dab.

Step Six:  I often use jute rope or rusty chain and small u-shaped fence staples to attach a hanger, but this custom order requested eco-friendly furled paper 'raffia' bows in the blue tones.  It can be time-consuming to unfurl the paper, so sometimes I leave it 'roped' and just unfurl what is needed for the actual bows!

Step Seven:  The finished product is ready for hanging.  Sometimes I prefer to tie the bow off to the side (see last photo) rather than dead centre, as it's easier to hang and looks less contrived.  If the sign is meant to hang over a finished wall, I will sometimes cut and glue old grey felt to the back to avoid any potential scratching on walls.

Step Eight:  If you head off to the Rabbit Hole, don't forget to find your way back!

Linking up with: Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

From the Farm Blog Hop

From the Studio - the making of a mug

Today's studio series is brought to you by Natalie of Remembrances.

 Sometimes it seams like mugs are the bread and butter of a potter's earnings, so I thought I would share the process with you.

Please excuse the lighting.  Most of the time I work in my basement as pottery making is such a messy affair.

One of the most important steps is to wedge your clay, which basically consists of whapping the lump of clay over and over again on an absorbent surface.  This removes air bubbles and aligns all the clay particles.

If you happen to have a slab roller, you can roll out your clay to a nice even thickness with it.  

I use a rolling pin.

Smooth out the surface with a metal rib (this prevents cracking later on as it also aligns the clay particles).

Cut the slab to the size you want, depending on the vessel you are making.

Score the edges, and apply water or joining slip (depending on how wet/dry your clay is).

Wrap the clay around your tube.  Make sure to wrap your tube in newspaper first or you will never get it off.

Gently press the seam down.

Wedge another small ball of clay for the base.

 Roll it out and cut out a circle just slightly larger than your tube.

Score the clay at the bottom of your tube, and around the edge of your base...

 ...apply water or joining slip, and gently attach them together.

 Use a metal rib to smooth out the seam (at the bottom and down the side)...

...and wipe it down with a damp sponge.

 Roll out a coil of clay, and wrap it up overnight to set up a little bit.

 Cover the tube with plastic and let it set up overnight.

(you can probably tell - these are going to be beer steins, not mugs, but the process is the same).

 Remove the newspaper from the center of the tube and clean up the inside.  If you want to belly out your pot (on the right) or add texture, now is the time to do it.

Make your handle from the coil - flatten it, roll it, pull it, etc. and attach it to the mug (score and slip), smoothing out all the creases and marks.

Loosely wrap it in plastic to allow it to dry slowly.

Load it into the bisque kiln for the first firing.

 After bisque firing, you can still sand it down a little bit if you have left fingerprints, scratches, etc.

Wax the bottom of the mug.

Glaze as desired.

Fire it again.

Ta-da! Obviously, these are not the same mugs.  The beer steins are awaiting glazing and will be fired at a later date, but here are some finished mugs none-the less.

Remembrances is one of the confirmed artists for the

 Carlisle Country Craft and Old-Fashioned Market Mercantile

in August.  It's a great family event worth checking out.

Linking up with: Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

One Block Wonder

 Miriam of Minimade (she can be found on Facebook and on Etsy if you can't make it into the store) has been making a line of beautiful quilted items for the home called One Block Wonders.  She is generously offering a behind the scenes look at how they are made.

She cuts 6 layers of identical fabric,

 aligns all 6 layers with pins,

 and cutsthe stacked layers into strips.

 Then she cuts each strip into equilateral triangles,

 positions each stack of 6 triangles to form a hexagon,

 sews half together and presses the seams open,

and pins the two halves together.

 Next she positions, and repositions the hexagons until she is happy with the design.

 Half hexagons are sewn together into rows,

and the rows are sewn together,

 until the piece is ready to trim the edges.

 She adds borders, 

 layers it with batting and backing,

 and machine quilts all the layers together.

 Binding is added to the outer edge, and...

Voila!  A beautiful finished piece.

 She makes table runners...

 wall hangings, and plenty of other pieces.

Go check out her work (on Facebook and on Etsy) 

and of course, at the Rural Creators' Collective in Carlisle to touch and feel them in person.

AND...

she will be at the Carlisle Country Craft and Old-Fashioned Mercantile 

show in August (23rd and 24th) in Mountsberg Ontario if you want to plan a trip.

You can find details here.

Linking up with:  Keep Calm Craft On over at Frontier Dreams 

                          Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia 

                          Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder