Over the rainbow.

Hey!

So, did I tell you that way back in September I won a competition and the prize was a $1000 Flight Centre voucher? No? Well, I did.

So now it's come time to use it! My dad, my beloved Charlie and I are going to Melbourne on Sunday for 9 days. Woot! My bro lives there so we are going to spend Christmas with him.  All my favourite guys in one place!! And we found cheap as accommodation in the city.

I'm pretty excited about it, especially as I made some spending money at Craftwerk.

And I am really really over work and making stuff right now so just doing what I want is going to be sweet.

So that's probably me for 2008.  Hope ya'll have a fab Christmas and a fun New Years!

Kraftbombtastic

Weeeeee! Kraftbomb was fun yesterday!  Seemed a bit busier than last time, but that could have been because I went sans-Charlie again.

I had to have a cup of Fred's delicious lemonade, and 2(!) of City's cupcakes. SO. GOOD.

I also picked up this cute necklace which I have been thinking about for awhile from lilysmakebelieve. I'm gonna send it to my lil sis in London for Christmas.  I know she'll love it!

Bicycles to Drool Over.

I've been thinking lately that I need to get into bike riding again - it saves me spending money on the bus or spending time walking and it's exercise.  Then I start to think about my bike - a charming old Raleigh 20. It's purple and once had two white tyres (but now has one white, one black).  I really love it but it's always breaking down.  At the moment the seat is doing something weird and I need to get a spanner to it and the pedals slip when you are trying to ride uphill (kinda scary and dangerous).

So... I started investigating buying a new bike with the classic old fashioned look that I love.  I found a lot on overseas websites! These are my favourites. Unfortunately they are all hugely expensive and possibly not able to be shipped to NZ.  Anyway... makes for good drooling:

Fietsfabriek "Retro" 

Gucci release this little red beauty as a special item during the Beijing Olympics for a cool US$3,420!

Jorg & Olif have this cutey "Oma" at a fairly reasonable price ... for those in the States only!

These two are from the British Pashley Cycles "Sonnet Bliss" and "Princess Classic"

Kronan! These are probably the most viable for me to purchase - they have an Australian distributer.

I'm digging the cream quite a lot.

Velorbis "Victoria Classic", "Dannebrog", and "Scrap Deluxe".  Another great example of Northern European design. I love the cane baskets too!  And the Scrap Deluxe have an interesting kinda modernist look.

And finally the Skeppshult "Nova", "Promenade" and "Nature" (x2 colours).  The Promenade is the mens model but I love the colours.

YUSSS

I finished my exams!

!

!!!

EXAMS

I will be absent for the next couple of weeks.

Have fun while I am in the library studying.

    (dead eyes)

Kraftbomb October 08

I'm crazy about this guy.

Burgled

Charles's house was broken into on Saturday night, while he was staying at my house and his brother was away (probably the first time in a year of living there that neither of them were home). We didn't know until we came back from Kraftbomb on Sunday.

They took money, a digital camera, a PDA type computer thing, a surfboard, and a few other bits a pieces.  Part of that money was several hundred dollars of Jellybones money (saved over many months of doing markets and lent to Charles briefly). I was going to take it on Sunday to bank the first chance I got.

That kind of thing really makes you feel stink about humanity.

KRAFTBOMB!

I'm excited. You should be too!

Busy-ness

Did anyone ever think that the word "business" was funny? Because it's like busy-ness?

Well I am definitely a busy-ness student. I have been so busy lately, not getting enough sleep and unfortunately not having much (well, any) time for crafty-ness. Uni is a relentless task master! Just finishing my last few assignments, then it's exam time. Fun.

Tomorrow I am going on a road trip with my dear papa to Palmerston North. He won a regional architecture award so we are going down to the awards functions (He won it for some apartments in New Plymouth he designed). It's going to be a seven and a half hour journey apparently. I do quite like road trips though (It's easy when you don't drive!). Dad's promised we can stop at op shops and antique stores on the way back. Yuuusss.

In all my madness of busy-ness I have managed to do some extra hours at work AND...

Auditioned for Wheel of Fortune. Ha! I'd really like to get on and win prizes but the idea of being on TV is a bit scary. I just have to wait and see what happens now!

Oh Yeaaaaaah

I bought a new camera. Weeeee! It's not the newest model or anything but I like it...

Here's a picture.

The end.

Just quickly...

Here are the new bones earrings. They're up on Toggle now too.

Excitement

Kraftbomb was great! Yay for crafty awesomeness.  We had some new bones earrings (cast from some bone lollies I bought at the dairy down the road). I also ate waaaay too much cake despite Charles trying hard to be my healthy conscience.  I didn't manage to get back to City's stall to get one of her delicious cupcakes though, but there's always next time! 

I am now excited about doing some baking soon myself.  It's Charles' birthday soon and I'm soooooo excited. I love his birthdays because it gives me a chance to spoil him rotten and buy him presents and make things for him. Most of the year I resist this, although he does get the occasional present from places like the $3 Japan store when I can't help myself.  So last year I surprised him by baking a super awesome carrot cake (his fav flavour). I'm not sure I'd ever baked for him before. It was such an awesome recipe that I decided to make it again this year, AND make carrot cupcakes with the same mixture because the recipe makes a really big mix.

It's a Jamie Oliver recipe and I HIGHLY recommend it. You can find it here you want to try it.

I recommend being very careful with how much juice you put in the icing because I put too much in then had to add heaps more cream cheese and icing sugar which meant I had enough icing for 3 cakes. You can always add more later!

It's a really nice moist cake that's light but moist and not too sweet (hey, I love sweet food but some carrot cakes do get a bit much).

I'll let y'all know how it goes. With photos. I hope. Thinking of buying a new camera. Weeeee!

Oh... and I really want these.

YEEHAAAAAW

It's building up,
It's on its way,

It's gonna be
A super awesome day.

(I am so lame)
(Lame is the new cool?)

I am starting to feel a bit better after my horrible flu (which the doctor told me was actually Bronchitis - eww).

Bit stressed though. I thought this week was going to be a bit more relaxed after my crazy being-sick-2-assignments-due-and-a-test week. Turns out I have another assignment to do this week, another test and Kraftbomb to think about!

I am a bit sad because I broke my popsicle mold by putting polyester resin in it (thought I'd try it out because I usually use epoxy). Baaa! Who knew that it would ruin it? I might try to make a new mold tonight and then hopefully can whip a couple out before the weekend. Also my hearts mold is ruined because I put too much hardener in the resin and it ripped some of the silicone away with it. After 2 years of playing with resin you'd think it'd get easier but I still make costly (and time wasting) mistakes.

I made a new mold! But... I actually need some beading lessons before I can make it work because I'd basically be making resin beads but I don't know how to make the clasps on a necklaces once the beads are strung up on a wire. Yeek. I wish I could make that before Kraftbomb!

Maybe next time. This is what I keep telling myself. Maybe someday in that magical life I will be leading where I have plenty of time for everything (including the gym) and I have a balanced lifestyle in all ways and everything gets done and my bedroom is not just a place to keep piles (literally piles) of junk that I should throw out or donate to the salvation army.

I think I should stop this rant now. Yes. Goodbye.

Stressed

I have a crazy amount of orders to fill, 2 assignments to do this week... and I think I'm getting sick.

AND... I'm pretty sure I am getting sick because I always feel sorry for myself when I am :(

Jellybones

Just found this picture of me at the Jellybones stall at Kraftbomb.

Fun!

Bunnies and Owls!

So Kraftbomb was awes.  Made an amount of money that I was very pleased with and bought & swapped stuff!!

I did a swap to get a cuuuuute bunny soft toy from Anemone, and I bought  an owl necklace from lilysmakebelieve (which I've had my eyes on for awhile). I wish I could take a photo but guess who has my camera. (If you guessed Charles, you are right. He basically has all my best stuff. He got my heart first and that was a gateway to all the other stuff <3).>

Yes!

Also... here are a couple of pictures taken about 2 years ago on my old camera phone (hence the bad quality) of some bunny soft toys Charlie used to make.

  

Basically the idea is that their bodies don't have any form and so stylistically contain all limbs etc in their lack of form and they have really long ears - some probably a metre long (maybe even more)

He also used to make logs (with cute faces), birds, ghosts, cats, clouds (with and without lightning bolts)... hmm, anything else? I can't remember. Yep.

That's all I really had to say.  I'm busy busy busy.

Ideas!

I had my horrible Finance test last night which was probably the hardest test in the history of the world. And I will probably get the worst mark ever since I got a zero for that one science test in forth form when I accidentally dropped the test tube into the bunsen burner flame. Hehe... but this test is way more important so I'm feeling crestfallen.

Anyway... the real reason for my post is that I have a couple of good ideas for crafty goodness. One will be a super AXESOME (yes, axesome) necklace and the other a badge/brooch.  I don't want to give anything away so instead I'll be annoyingly mysterious until I have actually made them (cue shopping trip for more silicone, weeeee!)

I'm so excited, but even more annoying than me posting about an idea and not telling you, is that I have NO time to make it before Kraftbomb! SUUUUUUUUUUUUX.  I'm all excited about making it but I have to study for another test. Grrrr. And the weekend is far too late to be making a mold and then trying to cast the resin and finishing off the product. 

But what can I do? my hands are tied.

Stuff to do

I'm still buzzing a bit about how awesome Craftwerk was,  and also excited about the upcoming Kraftbomb!  I hope I have enough time to prepare - I've spent the past weekend and few days finishing uni assignments and next week I have two mid-semester tests (Monday & Thursday).  And... I haven't done really any of the readings for them! Eek!  

My general plan is to cast lots of resin stuff every day (if I can), put them aside until Friday night and do all the rest of the stuff required - drilling, sanding rough edges, gluing findings, and attaching more findings.  I think I can whip together a whole lot of non-resin stuff on Saturday.  I hope this timetable works. I don't really have much of a choice on that!  

I also have a LARGE order from a shop in Houston, New York to fill.  Fun times!

After Kraftbomb I have a two week break from uni, so I can finally catch up on sleep, reading (for fun), uni reading, crafty stuff and the two assignments I have due first thing after the holidays (it's just mean!).

Last night...

Golly, Craftwerk last night was crazy.  Crazy awesome.  I didn't have my usual faithful companion Charles with me last night and it turned out to be the busiest market day thingy Jellybones has EVER had.  It was so crazy I didn't even have time to eat or leave the table for a break.  The lovely Esther from Toggle offered to take over and let me have a break but I couldn't tear myself away.  Then she brought me a date scone which kept me going til the end when I was finally able to have some of the jaffa cupcake I had bought from the Cupcake Queen.  I shared it with my friend Bron from Ran With Scissors as she had to babysit it all night so I wouldn't sit on it. Thanks Bron!  Mmmmm cupcakes...

Now for the daunting task of starting to remake all the things I sold so I can be ready for Kraftbomb!

Popsicles!

Just a quick post to show these popsicles I've been working on.  They will be made into necklace pendants.  I think they are slightly too big for earrings but maybe I'll try that one time.  You can see that I took one of them out of the mold too soon and it looks like a melted popsicle - which I actually really like and might have to recreate.  They are made out of resin (of course - it is my fav medium) and the popsicle stick I made by sawing up popsicle sticks into tiny ones and sanding the edges to be round.  Then I drill a hole which will be the hole for the pendant finding.  The whole thing takes quite a bit longer to make than you might expect.  It's especially hard to get the stick in the middle of the mold properly.

CRAFTWERK is next Thursday 14th August back at St Kevin's Arcade from 6pm-9pm. Yay!  

I am pretty much dedicating my weekend to making stuff.  I also have 2 assignments due in a week which should be interesting! Weeeee...

Craftwerk

Yay!  There will be a new Craftwerk on August 14th at St Kevin's Arcade. Weeee!

I'm trying to put through my application now but my internet is sooooo slow (Probably due to flatmates downloading too many movies, grrrr!)  I always get a bit nervous about being accepted for it despite never having not been accepted.  This time around I especially need some money for materials and such to keep Jellybones going.

I've been spending my crafty time making a mold and experimenting in making a mini popsicle pendant.  I have made one so far which I now know how to improve upon.  I'd include a photo but my camera isn't liking close up shots for some reason.  I guess it's getting old and electronics are made to fail so we can all go out and buy new ones. Grrr  - forced consumerism.  Anyway, that's by the by.  Main point: new product. 

I actually have lots of ideas at the moment but I have been very very lazy ever since then end of my last semester (which took a lot out of me - namely my hair!).  I need to chill out a bit more about uni.  I'd like to do a beading course soon but of course I'm cash strapped right now.  I'm not so interested in traditional beading jewellery but I think the skills in putting together jewellery will be good and enable me to do some things I currently cant.  Any recommendations for a good place to do it?  I was thinking The Bead Hold in Pt Chev.

Yeah.

Jellybones out there in the world

Seeing as Jellybones will be celebrating it's 2nd birthday this year and I am only now starting a blog, I've made a history of Jellybones, a list of blogs we've been mentioned in, other websites we're on, and a couple of our stockists.

We started out in 2006 when Sam Whetton organised the first Craftwerk in Auckland and asked if Charles and I would like to have a stall.  Sam is a friend of Charles' and they had worked together in a group soft sculpture exhibition back in 2005 in Whisper Whisper gallery. I forget the name of the exhibition though. Anyway, she was probably expecting a lot more soft toys but we ended up making a few felt brooches, some pencil earrings (real pencils) , and a whole lot of pixelated badges. It was a really last minute effort by Charles and I (mostly done the day before and on the day). We were late and we forgot a table cloth or price labels. Despite that, we made $100 and we were super excited. We decided to keep doing them and we got a little more professional along the way (although Charles has been promising business cards for awhile now!). Check out the gallery photos at Craftwerk.  We were at the first one - despite being no photos of us, promise! 

Shortly after starting at Craftwerk, Esther from Toggle got in touch with us and asked if we'd sell a few of our things through them.  Of course we said yes and we are now selling our Gummi Bear Earrings, Gummi Bear Necklaces, our ever popular Scrabble Necklaces, and a Felt Hedgehog Brooch. Check out our stuff on Toggle here.  Toggle have been awesome.  They are great at promoting their website, which of course has a flow on effect of promoting us.  They're really active out there in the craft world and are always coming up with new ways to get their website known.  I hope all their hard work is paying off, they deserve it! And of course the stuff they sell on their site is AMAZING! I'm particularly a fan of their Ask Alice record cushions and JB Bones' war embroideries - I want them all.  They also have a blog here.

We are currently selling some of our products at the shop at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts in Pakuranga.  I'm haven't been out there for a few months though, so not sure if there is anything left there.  We also had a monthly stall there for their summer market days.  It was a really good chance to get to know some other crafters who we usually don't have the time to talk to at Craftwerk.

Um, what else? We've been mentioned on the Pulp blog (actually a really awesome blog, especially for design objects and such). Also mentioned by Anemone and lilysmakebelieve who are fellow Craftwerkers. 

We have sold a few things to a gallery shop in New Plymouth - Whitecube Artspace. I was quite excited about that one because I spent a large chunk of my childhood in NP and so it has a special place in my heart.

I have a few other things to follow up on as well such as a shop in the states that wants us to sell some stuff to them.  A woman named Allana Owen is setting up a shop soon and is going to be in touch with me about selling there soon (I hope!).  I really need to get working on producing things more often so I can go out and try to find other stockists.  Finding time with the stresses of uni can be hard though.

There are a few other bits and pieces, we were recently mentioned with a small piece about Toggle in the Sunday Star Times recently which resulted in a bit influx of sales for our Scrabble necklaces.  Also on Sunday 14 June our scrabble necklace was on What Now, although the kids watching it probably don't have the means to jump on the internet and buy one.

So that pretty much brings us up to now!

Hello!

I've been meaning to start a blog for Jellybones for a very long time. Here it is! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Spent all of my evening yesterday making big fat coloured pencil earrings.  I wish I could put a photo up but my partner in crime has my camera.  They are for Karin, who owns the shop La Dolce Vita in St Lukes mall (opposite Whitcoulls).

I've been getting all inspired to create some new items lately but it is exam time so I have to just wait til my holidays! I think it's that whole thing where you imagine all the awesome wonderful things you could be doing when you finish studying - like going to the movies, listening to music really really loud and dancing around (or is that just me?), making things, catching up with old friends etc etc