Crochet Jewellery Workshop 2009

About to begin.

The first of the workshops for 2009 kicked off on Saturday. The students that came were the bravest of guinea pigs for this new class and they certainly had quite a work schedule to face. Whether to sit in the garden room or out in the rose-filled garden!! Whether to keep the sunglasses on or if the sweater was redundant!

Where's that stitch? Preparing the motif prior to starching.

Then it was down to the real deal of the start of the journey of enlightenment with some good old crochet. A simple motif in crochet thread and fine hook. Alot of crochet students are unfamiliar with this more rarified medium so it's an exercise in itself to get your eyes focused on the tiny stitches. How did people cope before the days of chunky and aran crochet!?
Is it time for lunch yet?!!

Motifs completed, we starched and left them to dry before breaking for lunch. I'm a pretty hard task-master and hate to see people enjoying themselves so after about, ooo, well, an hour we turned our attention to bead crochet. The temperature began to rise and that wasn't because we were sitting in the garden. This did test the skills and needs to have the patience to do and then re-do those opening rows. The results are there for all those who persevere and then you're off! I used patterns from Need for Beads with the Bead Crochet Primer produced by Leopold McKenzie. Lots of super design ideas sprang from this part and I hope to post the outcome later.

Keep your yarn from twisting! Beading tips for you!

The last part of the puzzle (and I use that word with a reason!!) was the wire crochet project courtesy of Yael Falk of Yoola Designs. We used her patterns for the Glamorous Bracelet and the Sunflower Earrings. The method is more like knitting with a crochet hook so did give my crochet gals something to think about.

A break for cupcakes courtesy of Me Ling. They were YUMMY!

The day was drawing to a close and there was some tired folk who scrambled onto the train. But these people are crochet heroes and the hooks continued to work after the sun set and results of their work continue to flow in.

Wire crochet tube from Me Ling

I hope they would agree with me that it was very successful launch of our year of workshops.

I think this testimonial from Kate might sum it up:

"I always love coming to the crochet days, it's such an oasis of calm and so nice to be with other obsessive crocheters/knitters. "

Treasures

Thank you to lovely Yael of Yoola jewellery on Etsy who included me in her Treasury. These lists of carefully chosen collections are very highly sought after by Etsyers and shoppers alike as they are wonderful showcases for the very talented people on Etsy. They can be collated by colour or theme and I love to browse the hundreds (yes, that is really true) of fabulous treasurys on offer. I've always lusted after curating my own but they are incredibly difficult to obtain and you have almost to sit up all day and all night to get one! So congratulations to Yael.

Posting at the moment is a bit of a luxury for me as I'm up to my ears (and everything else, it feels like) in preparing for my jewellery workshop in June. I know it sounds pathetic. It's still 5 weeks away, but the amount of preparation is quite alot. It's better to be away from the computer and go and sit with a crochet hook, beads and wire.

Sorry but I will be back later in the week.

A little starch

My jewellery projects and plans have set me thinking of different types of crochet. Wire is, of course, the obvious. Jewellery needs structure to be effective. There are other ways, however, of giving your crochet work some 'backbone' and starch is one of them. It's an area that I haven't strayed into but many others have and on Flikr there is a whole group devoted to it, Starch It! started by Inger Carina who some might remember for her starched crochet TV!!
You can really starch anything but some items lend themselves better than others and filet crochet seems to be the favoured medium. It has some pedigree as the Victorian method of crochet, filet, really blossoms with a bit of starch. It really shows off the lacey effect. Many people stick to the doily idea and I think that this crocheter, Suzy_12, that I found on Flikr really can 'do' doilies. I love these, they're so structural which is what I'm drawn to. Of course, there are many other ideas you can go with. Tea-cups for some reason are very popular. Perhaps because they work so well. Pushing the idea further along, designers have made lamps which I think are stunning.

A designer who keeps popping up in this context is Marcel Wanders and his lighting and seating ideas. Strangely I think we're coming full circle as these designs are very much in a tradition that we've explored before with Joan Vasconcelos from Portugal.


For us mere mortals, a few lessons might not go amiss and there are plenty of how-to sites to dip (without the starch!!!)into. I've selected a few but there are many forums that will help you if you do decide to get the starch pot out.

The basics

Questions of starching

Good luck and please let me know if you've ever tried this out.

Updates and some jewellery highlights

I'm in the early process of thinking about my jewellery workshops in the summer. I want to be able to create an atmosphere of feverish creativity!!! Or just a really pleasant day in the country with some like-minded crochet addicts and some wire and beads!!!

Anyway, when you're starting on a project like this, it's a good idea to get lots of material to inspire and inform and of course the best place is with those who are talented and prolific. Immediately I thought of a couple of chaincreative's friends, Veerle at nevousinstallezpas and Yoola at Design with a crochet needle. Both designers are wonderful for the amount they tell you about their creative thoughts and for a look at what goes into the making of crochet jewellery and, in the case of Yoola, working with wire. I hope you love their work as much as I do and visit their blogs which are personal journeys with their work.

Now I can find some starting points for my thoughts for the summer workshops. They should be really inspiring!

New Year's plans

We're so excited at chaincreative with lots of new plans for the blog this year and the most exciting project at the moment is planning the Designer Interviews for the next few months. They're a positive flock of talented contenders lined-up for your delight and I know you'll not be surprised to learn that they're all just the nicest people. Let me give you just a sample of their kind and generous replies to my interview request.

'Oh yes we've seen you're blog, it's fantastic. We would love to answer some questions. Anything that helps spread the love of crochet.Cheers,Brigitte and Janine'

'What a lovely message you have sent me. I would be delighted to answer some questions for your wonderful blog. I'm honored that you asked. Dennice.'

'Thank you so much for your beautiful message. We are thrilled by your interview request. You have the most amazing crochet blog we have seen on the net. We can not thank you enough for this lovely opportunity. Asyegul'

To whet your appetite for this exciting event let me just let you into a sneak preview of the proposed list of crochet heroes with their beautiful creations that I've pictured (from the top of the post down)with their creations in brackets:

IrregularExpressions (fabulous Lavendula necklace)

Gitte (cute Boo pendant)

LeilaandBen (Earflap hat pattern)

Hedda Vatter (decorative felt stone necklace)

Fringe (Out-of-the-Past Capelet)

Cosy up (Camille Capelet)

Is that enough to get the creative juices flowing? I think it's going to be a very happy crochet new year!

Designer interview - Yael Falk

Last week was Jewellery week and to bring that to a close chaincreative wants to introduce a talented (aren't they all) designer who uses wire to create both sculptures and jewellery in completely unique ways. Chaincreative has been a bit of a fan for some time and we've met her before in our visit to Israel. Yael Falk is a crochet designer which fits in well with her other career as a product designer. The structural quality of crochet has been something that's long fascinated us here at chaincreative which goes a long way to explaining why we're such fans.

I was so pleased when she agreed to be interviewed and it will be lovely to find some great images of her work to support our Designer Interview for the Jewellery strand.

Chain Creative Interview
Questions of creativity and inspiration

My real name is Yael Falk, I market my hand made designs under the name YooLa .

Country of origin? Israel

You are certainly very talented in so many ways! Tell us where we can find out about your very different areas of work : www.baribua.com is my industrial design firm web site, it has a sub section for YooLa, my hand made designs.

Describe your various creative skills:

I’m very inventive, good technical capabilities, ok hands (but not super), good sense of colours, not patient (hard to believe, I know).

This is the question I love to ask!! When did you start to crochet and who taught you? My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was sixish (maybe a bit older). the first item I remember making was a dark purple and yellow rag for my dolls ….
Surprisingly it survived many years of neglect. When I started crocheting with metal a couple of years ago I was surprised to find out that my fingers still remember, apparently its like riding a bicycle, once you have it its yours for life.

When did you start to concentrate on using metal as a crochet medium and why?
On 2004 while we were on a relocation period in Switzerland I was looking for a way to keep my creativity and hands busy. I took two courses at a local jeweller, one was basic jewellery techniques and the other was manipulation of wire metals….. and the love story began.


The name of the business is interesting. What was the inspiration behind it? Yoola is actually sort of a nickname to my name Yael, and by that it reflects the personal aspect of my designs.

What influences your style and output? What are your inspirations?

I assume the fact that I'm an industrial designer (and this) influences my items in regards of it being very structural and I hope rather “ clean” and clear. I adore nature structures and colour combinations and although I could not gaze at nature for hours I certainly love to use it as inspiration.

What are the most important aspects of your work to you?
I think that I could not have gotten so far without being very creative, and always exploring new materials and techniques. I love inventing, I find it hard to repeat anything, I'm always further developing... I think that without that “piece” of the puzzle I could not have found my patterns and it could not have become interesting.

Which project or piece of work are you most proud of?
I’m very proud of my pomegranates, (these were the inspirations for us too!) I feel it has been sort of a turning point into arty larger scale projects.
Here is the place to tell a secret, during the last couple of months I have been working on a series of metal crocheted lampshades. (That sounds really exciting and fascinating; we look forward to seeing those!!!)
People that find me crazy crocheting the poms stay overwhelmed with my lamps. I hope to be able to share it with you shortly.

When are you most happy when you’re working?
When I have a new idea, I love to look backwards and be able to track the process I went through getting there.

Thank you for chatting!
Thank you for inviting me to chat

Love Bee

Don't forget to keep checking for those lampshades and much more at Yoola's Etsy shop!

It couldn't be easier

It sounds pretty pathetic, I know. I've crocheted with fabric, leather, plastic, cord but never, never with wire. I'm certainly not proud of the fact and this is going to be the year that I change that. I'm planning classes and to that end I'm organising my in-house personal training!!

I wonder if I'll be looking like these hands of Joan Dulla!

Now to begin - there are obviously groaning bookshelves of how-to guides but while I'm at the computer there are tons and tons of helpful sites. Here's a selection of a few I like the look of and some that come with recommendations.

Let's start with supplies. The raw materials are pretty easy to source but here's a word for the 'yarn'. Artistic Wire has luscious colours and choice beyond a crochet girl's dreams. For findings, I've discovered that Etsy, once again, has alot of choice and many designers have handmade items. The best of those I've explored are

Milena S and a nice list on Craftystylish (have I already said how many nice things are on Craftystylish????).

Stitch Diva, bless her heart, has tutorials and gives a warning to delicate hands and precious hooks. Best advise - don't use without alot of preparation and keep your favourite hooks for less extreme conditions!!! Steel or aluminium only!

'How to' with Wire sounds a sensible suggestion and gives some funny insights into do's and don'ts. Nice tips like 'wire stretches', 'wire shrinks' which you might not be aware of. Well, I wasn't anyway.

Craftystylish, as always, has some nice articles and also some tips on wire choice. Ooo, it doesn't sound as straightforward as buying a nice colour!!!

Craftypod gives some simple tutorials and directions on crocheting a wire flower.

Will I ever be able to aspire to the type of work you see here from Louise Hill (designer). Beautiful.

If all this makes you feel a bit lightheaded and your fingers are feeling tired just looking at all that wire then sit back and enjoy the wooly jewellery makers.

Gitte is a designer that chaincreative spotted before and we love her fresh, floral style in this daisy chain necklace. The felting technique offers texture and structure. There's nothing worse than floppy jewels!!

At the moment I'm loving Irregular Expressions on Etsy and particularly the ethnic origins of this beautiful neck-piece.

Simply for the variety of everything crochet and embellishment you cannot find a more prolific designer than Hedda Vatter from Estonia so go check out her Etsy shop. You'll find these earrings there.