I’ve learned so much from my Mom, mostly about how to be a strong woman. But one of my favorite things I learned from her is the Art of Crafting – yes, I am capitalizing those words. When I was young we would sit at the kitchen table and craft. We would color, finger paint, and bake. As my motor skills increased she taught me how to cross stitch and sew. Most recently she’s been trying to teach me how to knit – I failed miserably at crochet so we moved on to knitting. My Mom used to make most of my clothes and Halloween costumes. I had tons of smocked dresses and baby bonnets. One of the most special gifts she ever gave me was a Holly Hobby quilt. I used it as my bedspread for many years as a child. Even now, I use it when I’m watching tv and laying on the couch. By looking at the details, you’ll see the hand stitched quilting around each square. I don’t know how she had the time or patience to applique all the Holly Hobbys onto the quilt.

Recently, my Mom has switched from sewing to to knitting and crochet. She always seems to have a needle and yarn in her hands. Here’s a picture of a blanket she made for me.

The most special piece my father has ever made was the wedding gift he gave me. My husband and I only had a five-month engagement, so my Dad spent all of those months building a prayer bench for me. He even hand-carved two crucifixes. The workmanship is spectacular!

My husband and I used the prayer bench during our wedding ceremony. The bench has also been used in my cousin’s wedding and hopefully will be a cherished heirloom to be passed down from generation to generation. I don’t know how many hours Dad spent building the bench, but I can tell from the tiniest details that he put a lot of love into it. It’s made of solid oak and you can’t see a single nail or drew head. The pictures don’t do it justice; it really is a work of art.

Here are a few close-up pictures of the crucifixes.

On a side note…my Mom crocheted the throw to cover the kneeler pillows and Dad even hand-sewed the pillows.

Happy Tape

Cute Tape

Click on the links for sources.

You can click on this link to take you to Etsy or click on the Shop tab at the top of my website.

Anyway…enough of my rant. Here’s a few pictures of my repurposing a tank top that was too big and a skirt that was too small.

Lately, I’ve been trying to work with wood molds to make plates. Needless to say I don’t know what I’m doing and so there have been several disasters that have gone straight to the recycle bin. I will eventually break the plates and use the pieces for something crafty. Here are some pictures of my latest projects. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed practicing some new glaze tecniques.

Anyway…

Here are a few work-in-progress pictures. I’m still learning my kiln and how the glaze reacts during firing. I created a few test tiles to let me know how many coats of glaze I need to put on a piece. It’s very interesting to see the difference between one, two and three coats of glaze.