I will no longer sell directly from there. It will become a gallery of items I have made. Both sold and not sold
I'm too eager to make new things, but not so much the admin side, so this will simplify things a bit.
To buy anything, go straight to https://madeit.com.au/collections/craft-cove you can buy many of my items from there, or you can just contact me through the contact page, or by emailing craftcove@gmail.com.
You can also request an item to be uploaded to madeit, and bought from there, if you feel more comfortable that way
I'm happy to make to order if it's no longer available, although many things are one-offs, I can often make something similar
I will still take international orders, but you will need to contact me for postage costs
I've decided to make my free patterns also available as printable pdfs
They are still available for free here, but if you want a nice easy way to print it, you will be able to download it for a small fee
Patterns take a very long time, and a lot of effort to create
It is a huge process, that includes many steps
Thinking of the design
Occasionally this step can be easy.
But most often it takes a lot of thought and ideas, and looking at a lot of inspiration
Creating the design
This is probably the hardest part.
What yarn, or thread would work best for this?
What stitch, or combination of stitches would work best for this?
How many stitches will I need?
Then it needs to be made, and undone, and made, and undone, many times, usually, until it's right, and it works the way I want it
Writing it up
This is another challenging part. I usually write notes as I go. But it's a completely different thing to have the pattern written with all the proper terms and wording in it.
It takes a lot of work going through the whole pattern to add all the words, terms and phrases in the proper crochet terms so that everyone can understand it
Testing
This is where other people come into it
I need a range of people who can read crochet patterns to look through the pattern, and crochet the item
They will see it through new eyes, being unfamiliar with the design, they will often see errors, or better ways with wording than I can
I'm often amazed at what I can miss. And how different testers can see different things
Final pattern
And finally we have the final pattern
All my patterns are pretty cheap, especially when you consider my most expensive pattern might only just buy me a coffee in Australia.
The pdf's are $2 Australian, which is half a coffee
This is so not true. I've always known this personally. Words CAN hurt! And VERY much
Then I was asked to join a facebook group of crocheters to create a hexagon, and have it joined to many other people's hexagons to create a lovely blanket to give to their family.
I thought it was such a lovely gesture. I was honoured to help
Then there was another story that shocked me to the core.
A teenage girl was assaulted viciously, she was tortured for 2 and a half hours while it was filmed.
This affected me so much because, while I know what it's like to be bullied, it was never physical.
This beaten girl was disabled. I know many disabled people, and used to work with them
This happened at Moe, a town in Victoria, Australia. The same town where I grew up
The girls doing the attack were 12 and 15!
I know these things have been happening since time began. But usually they happen when no-one else is around, and we don't get to see it. We see the poor kid who was beaten up at school, he is black and blue with bruises. And we think, "poor boy, that is terrible" Or they get told "Just ignore them"
This time it was there for us to see. And it was awful!
I decided I wanted to do something.
I decided I would also create a facebook group, where many people would come together and make hexagons. The hexagons would then be sent to me, where I would join them together into the blanket. Hexagons are a great shape to join together. And so much nicer than squares
The group started as Crochet for Kim. Then we made another blanket, with squares, for her sister. After that we decided to keep the group open to all crafters. It's now called Crochet and Crafts
Then I decided I may as well create the pattern for it too.
Of course I get carried away with patterns, and made it pretty fancy. So I decided I need to make an easier version too.
This worked perfectly. It would balance the fancy version, and the beginners can make it easily
And then I think I better create a chart too, for the visual learners. I find these tricky, but I did it. Then for lots of photos.
I have never created a pattern so quickly before. And I have never organised anything like this before.
A little overwhelming, but I have got a few helpers now. So far, so good
I can't wait to see it finished and Kim snuggled up in it. I hope it gives her comfort
Spring is my favourite season, today is the first day of spring and it's such a lovely sunny morning.
To celebrate I'm having a sale through all of the month.
Everything is half price in my Artfire shop. This includes patterns.
In
stock items only. Not including custom orders.
As you know there's a wide range of handcrafted items including wire wrapping and wire work, crochet, chainmail, beaded flowers, 3d ornaments, and much more.
But I wasn't totally happy. I mean how does this look like something you can wear on your ear?
My husband is better at sculpting than I am so I made up some cold porcelain and he had a go at making some ears. The only problem is the sizes have to be pretty close to real size to have the cuff fit. And of course cold porcelain shrinks, supposedly by 30%. Of course the first try only shrunk a tiny bit.
Then one of the most amazing wire work artists posted this:
She asked what people thought of her new displays. They were skin colored silicon or plasticy ears!! What a great idea!!
So of course I asked her where she got them. But how annoying! They don't post to Australia!!
So I looked around at how other people were displaying them. There were some wonderful black display ears that some people used, others just displayed them on a table, as I did, others used their own ears. And others used silicon-type ears.
I loved the black stone looking ones. So I wrote to many different people asking where they got them from.
Damn! again! They don't make them any more. I looked around on Ebay, and it looks like there's a type of silicon ear that's used to practice acupuncture.
Then I finally found a site that makes these ears for acupuncture! And they post to Australia! And the price isn't too bad!
And now for the next problem! I was hoping to hang them by screwing a screw in the top, so that they would stand out at a market stall, and if it was a type with a chain, it would fall naturally. But when I received it, I soon realized that wasn't going to be possible with this silicon, it would just break and fall out.
I played around with ways of framing it. But to no avail.
With this app, you can buy directly from my facebook page without even leaving facebook, you can shop for items and checkout through ArtFire.com. No account is needed and you get an Encrypted Secure Checkout.
There is also a rapid cart option at the top of this blog, which works in much the same way.
There is currently a 15% discount on everything as I list them, until further notice.
