giovedì 30 dicembre 2010

It's Christmas time

Questo Natale è proprio bello. Di alcuni anni ricordo lo stress dei regali, la noia per le vacanze troppo lunghe, la tristezza nel vedere il mondo dare il peggio di sè per una quasi naturale spinta verso il consumismo... Quest' anno invece proprio no. Me lo vivo serenamente, forse anche per un mio stato d'animo nuovo. A casa ci si diverte sempre di più, tra padre showman e mamma socia di crafting... per non parlare dei quasi 20 parenti che mi fanno sentire fortunata. Adesso che siamo tutti grandi vedo che c'è un affiatamento speciale tra noi cugini ed è bellissimo.
Un Natale tra amici di sempre e amici che non vedo mai.
E in questo bel periodo di relax sono anche riuscita ad avere un pò di soddisfazioni in laboratorio. Mi sono messa a studiare i vecchi progetti per capire come migliorarli e ne sono uscita vittoriosa! Soprattutto con i portafogli e un bellissimo portablocco per la Best Friend. ^_^

Anche mia mamma ha ripreso i fili in mano. Si ricordava che la sua nonna faceva un certo tipo di lavorazione bellissima per pizzi e merletti e ha pensato di provare a rispolverare la tecnica. E' la tecnica del chiacchierino, che ormai solo pochissime persone fanno ancora. Quando sono andata alla mia merceria a chiedere del filo per chiacchierino il commesso ha sollevato un sopracciglio come per chiedermi se ero matta. :-) Anche mia mamma ha fatto una gran fatica a trovare le navette in commercio. Poi finalmente ha iniziato a intrecciare e i pizzetti che ha fatto sono veramente bellissimi. Mi chiedo perchè sia così in disuso... forse perchè le cose all'uncinetto sono molto più veloci e comode da fare... però poi spesso hanno un'aria un pò cheap o da nonna.
Questi sono gli orecchini che ha fatto per la mia zia Luciana. Lei fa i pizzetti e io aggiungo perline e ganci. A me piacciono molto e anche Luciana era entusiasta! Purtroppo poi erano entusiaste anche Anna, Barbara, Sandra... insomma, bisogna che mia mamma si metta sotto adesso! :-)




I'm so happy this Christmas. I spent a lot of time with people I love, which is the most important thing to me.
I also had some satisfaction in my lab and was able to find out how to better off some old projects.
My mum started getting crafty as well and created some wonderful tatted pieces. This earrings were a Christmas present for aunt Luciana, who was enthusiast. Now the only problem is that we have to deal also with the enthusiasm of Anna, Barbara, Sandra... :-) 

lunedì 29 novembre 2010

Wallets!

Sono in pieno spirito vacanziero, anche se non dovrei... insomma, avrei ancora delle lezioni, gli esami a gennaio, lavori da fare con l'associazione. Però ho deciso di prendermi il mio tempo. Oggi per la prima volta ho deciso di saltare volontariamente la lezione per restarmene a casa a non far nulla. Meraviglioso!
E già che ci sono mi sono messa in produzione! Poi ieri ho perfino trovato la voglia di fare delle foto un pò più carine ai miei oggetti... non accadrà mai più nei prossimi tre mesi!! O.o

Questo qui sotto l'ho fatto con una stoffa di Ikea e mi piace tantissimo.



Questo è con una chiusura un pò sospetta... ma volevo provare qualcosa di nuovo quindi ho osato! Da vedere è carina, forse un pò meno comoda dell'altra se uno pensa di aprire e chiudere molto spesso...


Poi oggi sto lavorando ad un'altro wallet simile, ma colorato e fiorelloso! Evviva! :-)

mercoledì 17 novembre 2010

A work in progress dress

It's still in progress, but I'm so proud of it that I want to show it anyways even if it's not finished yet.
It's my new gray dress! :-)
I love it so much and it really fits to me. If you want you can try to do it as well. The tutorial is on the Burda website for free (here), but I couln't understand half of the instructions, so I just did it my way! ;-)

E' ancora in corso d'opera, ma sono così fiera del mio lavoro che lo voglio far vedere a tutti anche se non è ancora finito!  E' il mio nuovo vestitino grigio! :-)
Mi piace davvero tantissimo ed è proprio nel mio stile. Se volete potete provare a farlo anche voi. Il cartamodello con istruzioni è sul sito di Burda, ma praticamente ho capito la metà delle istruzioni, quindi alla fine ho fatto a modo mio! ;-)


Qui una anteprima!

domenica 12 settembre 2010

Back to school

Tomorrow is the day. The first day of this academic year, to be precise... I'm not happy to wake up at 6 for the next 6 months, but to be honest I was almost fed up with this holidays!
And holidays for me are never relaxing, I always find some additional job to do, which is more tiring than university!

In my spare time I created a pencilcase for my mother, who works as a teacher in a primary school. All her collegues were very envious! :-)


I also tried to do a new bag, but I was successful only at the second trial... When I first turned it right-side-out it was a disaster. I sewed the parts on the wrong side, which was very funny to see. It's a pity I didn't take a picture of that!
And here's the final result, after I resewed it! I like it, even if it's a bit too small for my style!

venerdì 3 settembre 2010

Little black thing

Yesterday evening I finally did the disco-pocket for my sister. She loves to go dancing and asked me to do a small pocket to hang on her belt, so that her hands are free. She just wanted to put the driving license and a key inside, which means max 10 cm for the pocket!

Here's the result! She was enthusiast!!

mercoledì 1 settembre 2010

Old and new experiments...

In these days I felt less creative as usual, so I decided to reuse my old clutch version to do a kitten portemonnaie. It's really sweet. I love cats and this is my fave fabric!


Then I found a great pattern on the blog Noodlehead, but I confess: my purse is terrible compared to hers! Anyways, lots of love to Anna for sharing her gathered clutch tutorial!!


The only doubt I still have is... do the seams remain visible? In my case it looks pretty horrible because of the many layers I used. Does anybody have suggestions?
Here you see how it looks in my gathered clutch!
(and don't look at the zipper, one day I'll learn that too!!)

domenica 29 agosto 2010

Just a clutch

Today I decided to go back to the origins... which in my case is clutches!
I had a long stop because I finished the magnetic buttons and it's so hard to find them here... but my supplies bought on the internet just arrived! I'm happy!! :-)
This one is pretty different from the others I did months ago. I used to make them in very traditional colors, like black or brown... this one has a tree pattern in beige, brown and fluorescent green!! :-)
I'll post the photos tomorrow.

p.s. Does any italian crafter know where to find printed labels?!?

Appello a tutte: qualcuna sa dove si trovano o si possono far fare le etichette in stoffa stampate?? Grazie per i consigli!!

venerdì 27 agosto 2010

Rock bag

Just a quick post to show you my latest bag. I'm not very satisfied with the model, because this bag is too small for staying closed alone. I should have sewed a zipper on it!
In the picture it's difficult to notice, but there are some decorative folds on the front! :-)

Earrings

This week I'm alone at home, which means I have to look after the animals and the garden. I like animals, but feeding them twice a day is really annoying. Apart from that I spend a lot of time home trying to craft something new.
Yesterday evening I tryed to make some earrings, even if I know that I don't have skills for that.
In the afternoon I went to visit my cousin Anna for a shopping session (5 bras and 8 slips in just a few hours!!) and she gave me an old bracelet to dismantle and reuse for jewelry. So, here it is in the violet earrings (just the two little pearls).


Then I did another yellow earrings which I really like. But in reality they are less orange than what they appear here...

martedì 24 agosto 2010

My Owl

Last week in Cologne we ended up in a pretty interesting balloon shop. You could find any kind of ballon there, incredible! Moreover there was a big area full of ribbons and paper stuff, then another area was dedicated to crafty objects. I really liked it, evn if I'm more that kind of person that does not get impressed by the cool look (I love markets and vintage or second hand shops).
Anyways my friend Vero fall in love with an owl pocket and as it was  pretty expensive I promised to do a similar one for her. Unfortunately it's completely different from the model, but still nice.
I'll post some pictures, even if I'm not 100% satisfied. I still don't get how to put zippers in a tidy way!! :-(

domenica 22 agosto 2010

Back home finally!

I'm so happy to be back home again! My week in Cologne was pretty cool and also the troubles with the organization were soon forgotten. I could enjoy the time with my friends.
We did some sightseeing, tasted the german rain for the first days and the sun in the last two ones, did some working stuff at the videogames fair and had great meals... I'm satisfied after all. The only drawback is that I need a new body now: I'm sick and after the go-kart race every bone and every muscle hurts!! But it was great fun!! :-)
Yesterday was a pretty short day for me, after the travel I collapsed in my bed until this morning. That feels good! :-)
Today I decided to have a look around on the net to see some cool crafting blog and I was surprised to find so many artists here in Italy. I'm also getting into that candy and swap stuff... even if this makes me a bit confused!
I couldn't understand how to link someone's blog... please, give me time and I'll learn how to use the features of that blog!!

So, just to get again into the crafty stuff... here you go with the bag (same style as always, I know I'm boring!!) for my sister's friend. Pretty classical and not too extravagant.


And here a picture of my sweet kitten Tomella. She loves me when I'm crafting, but she's not allowed to touch any material!!

sabato 14 agosto 2010

These days have been very busy for me as I got a job as an interpreter for a company. It was so tiring and time consuming that I almost didn't do anything crafty in the evening. So sad about it!
The only new item in my collection is a necklace made with fabric flowers. Hope you like it! I really do!!

lunedì 9 agosto 2010

Summer bags

After all this flowers I produced I really needed to find a place where to put them and bags are my fave items to craft.
This jeans bag was taken by my sister Silvia before I could decorate it... so I decided to do it today as she was not home. Surprise! She was really happy about the result! :-)


As I'm really bored in that days I decided to do another bag that my sister asked me for. She wants to do a nice present for a penfriend, so I realized the "kitten-bag" with a (super-expensive) fabric I found in Berlin. I have really few of it, so I try to use it only for the best occasions. In this case the kittens did a great job! :-)
A picture of the work-in-progress in my lab and some of the finished work.

More flowers!

It's official: I love fabric flowers! I'm trying some new techniques I found in the net and really enjoy it!
Here you can see my newest flowers. By now I have so many that I should really start to do some bags to pin them on!!


And this is a nice broche I did last week. I love that one, even if it's a bit too big for my style... but I know I'm boring. :-)

domenica 8 agosto 2010

Yo-yo flowers

Here I go with the pictures of my afternoon creations!
I started today, but already love to do these flowers... it's relaxing and the result is always great! :-)



p.s. Does anybody know if they are famous for being brazilian?!

Sleepy August

This is going to be a long August. My friends are in vacation, it's so hot and I get sleepy. And all this spare time is confusing me. :-) But let's do the best out of it!
In these days I'm working on a sewing project of a big green travel bag which I would like to bring with me in my trip to Cologne in the end of August. Actually it's not a difficult bag to do, but right now I'm on a dead point because of the round part I have to sew. I hate that part! :-(
Basically my problem is that I'm afraid of doing mistakes, and the green layers are made of leather, so I can't stich because otherwise the holes would remain visible. Anyways I'm confident! I can do it!! :-D
Here you can see some pictures of the "work in progress".


Another experiment I did was to make a cameo by myself. I saw a lot of great tutorials on how to fill them up with resin, but that looks pretty complicated. I just made it my way with glue and fixing spray... and the result is not bad I think! The images are from a Cezanne painting "Madame Cezanne".


Now I just need to find something to do with them... maybe earrings?!

mercoledì 4 agosto 2010

Laboratorio B

Welcome!

This blog will be mainly about my biggest passion, that is "to do things". My fave things to do are those who look nice, take few time and make the friends who receive them happy!
About me: I'm a student in Bologna (Italy) and spend a lot of time at university for my master in Arts Management. And it looks like everybody is taking that really seriously!
The few spare time I have is usually dedicated to my "videogames related activities" and crafting.
Hope you'll find something interesting in here... I start posting my newest wallets!
If you want to know how I did something just ask, I can make tutorials or send my patterns when possible!


Bene, ci siamo!
Dopo un periodo di riflessione sul se creare o no questo blog, eccomi qua, decisa a condividere il mio hobby preferito, ossia il "fare cose".
Si certo, potrà sembrare un campo d'azione un pò ampio: ci sono miliardi di cose che si possono fare! A me in particolare piacciono quelle belle, che posso utilizzare o regalare e che siano anche divertenti da realizzare.
Premetto che per me questo è soprattutto un hobby e purtroppo ho sempre poco tempo per dedicarmici, però essendo una attività che mi rilassa di solito qualche oretta la sera la trovo sempre.
Adesso che è estate e non ho lezione poi mi sono lanciata anche in progetti più complicati, come un intero vestito cucito da me, ma ammetto che preferisco cose più corte, come borse o gioielli... così vedo il risultato prima! :-)
Su di me, che dire? Dopo varie esperienze da studentessa e lavoratrice errante (con Berlino sempre nel cuore) sono attualmente stazionata a Bologna dove frequento una "super-specialistica" in Arts Management, ossia quella ombra grigia che si occupa di logistica, burocrazia e soldi dietro agli spendidi eventi culturali. Detta così sembra abbastanza terribile, invece mi entusiasma, anche perchè la mia aspirazione nella vita è di organizzare eventi culturali.
L'unico neo di questo corso è che è faticosissimo e mi obbliga a dei ritmi davvero pazzeschi, soprattutto sotto esami. In quei periodi poi ho sempre la doppia frustrazione perchè per evadere dallo studio disegno nuovi progetti di cose da creare, solo che poi materialmente non ho il tempo di realizzarli e restano lì, in attesa di tempi migliori.
Purtroppo questa è una legge della natura per me: i progetti saranno sempre maggiori rispetto al tempo disponibile per realizzarli!


In questi giorni, nonostante varie questioni da risolvere, uso i ritagli di tempo per cucire una bellissima borsa a bauletto verde e nera. Speriamo bene!! Già la partenza è stata un pò travagliata perchè ho sbagliato le lunghezze dei manici e ho finito le cerniere, ma la stoffa è bellissima, quindi sono fiduciosa!!


Intanto posto due foto dei miei ultimi due astucci...


Buona lettura!