BirdBrain Designs

Archives for September 2011

september’s end

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Yesterday my great friend and I spent the day at our favourite places in Prince Edward County. We ate our lunch on a picnic table at a deserted Sandbanks Provincial Park watching the gulls dive bomb West Lake,

saw some outstanding photography, ate our last Kawartha dairy cone of the summer and finished off with the best cappucino for miles.

Below are some new things to come out of the studio. The first mittens of the season–they are made from recycled 100% wool sweaters and lined with recycled woollen scarves.  As well, the first zippered tote. I’ve been wanting to make one for a while–and I think this is perfect.  I’ve stacked up some fuschia and bright blue leather for the next ones! Meanwhile this tote and several pairs of mittens are available at Bookhou–and I will be there tomorrow hooking on my giant rug from 2:00-5:00.

totes for bookhou show

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I have made two sizes of totes for the show beginning this week. The mid-size totes shown in the first two pictures are approximately 13″ x 14″ x 5″, the large ones are 17″ x 16″ x 6″.

These are made of heavy-duty canoe canvas and trimmed in leather. Inside they each have a zippered pocket. Most have leather handles that are long enough to go over your shoulder, but the red one seemed like a good everyday bag, so I put on a long adjustable strap and snap closure.

tomatoes!

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Last weekend I bought a half-bushel of tomatoes from our local market. In three batches, I turned it into tomato butter. I have been making this delicious sweet and spicy preserve every fall for ever. I first learned the recipe when we lived in rural Hastings County and had our own tomatoes in the garden. I still use our neighbour’s hand-written, tomato-spattered card for reference, even though I long ago memorized the simple list. The aroma, the hand-writing, the satisfying sound of the lids ‘snapping’ are all an essential part of September for us.

TOMATO BUTTER

10 lbs tomatoes, 2 cups cider vinegar, 5 cups brown sugar

3 T salt, 2 T cinnamon, 1 T allspice, 1 T cloves

Scald tomatoes, remove skins and chop. Add vinegar, salt, sugar and spices and boil for 3 hours or until the mixture is quite thick. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Seal in sterilized jars.

cobalt mid satchel

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The red mid satchel was such a good size that I decided to use the cobalt skirt for a second one. Here it is–lined with more bird fabric from Benin, Africa–and a bird zip and open pocket.

Speaking of Africa, we started making our travel plans for 3 weeks of aid work in Kenya next February. More on that later.

getting ready

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If you signed up for the hooking workshop I will be giving at Bookhou, please look for an email from me today. I am really looking forward to spending the day, October 15, with you. We will be making a small trivet, but also learning about colour and values. I hope that when you leave you will be ready to rip up your old woollies and make your own creations!  Above is one version of the trivet and a small exercise in colour and value.

My show at Bookhou starts next week! More on that and some of the things I’ve been making for the show soon.

new pouches

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Here are three versions of my canvas pouches.  They are all screen-printed on various weights of canoe canvas with non-toxic inks. The middle ones are lined with polka dot cotton, the top and bottom have finished seams but are unlined. Some of these will make an appearance at the show in TO at the end of the month, others are bound for Etsy. Let me know if you like them!

Today I am making tomato butter and cleaning up the debris in the yard from the four flowering crab trees (long past their best) which we finally parted with this week. Beautiful day to do anything outside! Hope you enjoy it.

the last of the cobalt

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This is the last of the beautiful skirt I found in the spring. I was able to make the wendie pouch and a clutch and now this one. The first two have gone to cobalt blue lovers–this is the last one. It is a little bigger (6 x 8.5 x 1.5″) and has a zip and open pocket and a detachable wrist strap.

Fortunately I did find a second skirt and I am currently making a larger bag with shoulder strap, much like yesterday’s red mid satchel. We will see how it goes. It’s not as vibrant as this cobalt, but beautiful nonetheless.  Recycled leather has its own story and has a way of letting you know what will work. This leather seemed bound for small hand-held bags for evening or jeans–for those occasions when you don’t need a huge bag of stuff.  Your phone, cards, cash, keys and glasses will fit in here nicely with room to spare.

And Wendie, there was enough for your strap. It’s on its way to you!

why i do what i do

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Sometimes I stop and wonder why I am so intense about finding leather castoffs and making something new. It is close to an obsession some days, trolling through thrift shops, unpicking zippers, reworking remaining remnants. After all, I am retired from job #1 and I should be out enjoying myself–playing golf or something! Yikes!

I am learning that this is enjoyment for me: the hunt for the perfect piece, the item which was once loved and is now awaiting a new life, combined with the puzzle of reworking, redesigning, creating something new that people will carry and use with pride.

So all that said, here are three new bags. The first is City Carissa, once a Michael Kors Italian Leather suit–the leather rich and supple and an incredible deep green.

City Carissa is a bigger bag, 12x14x3.5″, with an exterior pocket and a magnetic closure. The interior is green ticking with a zipper and open pocket and the bird with attitude screen  printed on the side opposite side.

The next bag, the red mid satchel, was once a red skirt, quite short. However the leather was so beautiful I couldn’t resist. I combined it with a my remaining remnant of red croc to make a great mid-size bag. It has a zipper closure, an exterior pocket and a strap long enough for cross body, but thin enough that it can be knotted to make a shorter strap to carry the bag under your arm.

The interior of this bag is great striped fabric from the market in Limoux. The French fabrics are beautiful, their colours intense. The bag has the zip and open interior pockets. It measures 9x13x2″.

The last bag is my City Revival bag. It too started life off as a skirt. Those of you who know my favourite Picton store, know that this skirt was once in an expensive Toronto boutique. Most of the clothes I buy at City Revival I wear, but this gem ended up as a bag. It is beautiful flocked caramel leather. It is lined with screen printed stiff canvas, giving it body and durability.

This bag measures 11x14x4″. It has a long strap, exterior pocket, magnetic closure and great screen printed lining with zipper and open pocket.

dyeing and hooking

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For the upcoming hooking workshop, I decided to do a small demo piece of hooked circles, bright in the foreground, dark in behind. Here is the very beginning of it.

Like every other rug hooker, I have a basket of left over wool from many projects. This would be the source of my background.

I took big handfuls of all colours and divided them into three piles: light, medium and dark. I soaked these in synthrapol for about an hour. Then I plunked the dark group in my kitchen kettle with 3/16 blue violet, the medium group with 3/16 teal and the light group with 1/8 turquoise. I cooked each group about 1/2 hour, adding citric acid in the first batch.

And here is the result. Beautiful rich darks and mediums from the first two batches, and highlights of turquoise for the circles. Wool is incredibly resilient. These strips went easily from the dye pot to the rinse cycle of my machine to air drying without getting tangled. Soon they will be hooked into the trivet. Another way to recycle!