Milomade » Work In Progress Wednesday

Interesting Shadows

Milomade — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:00:53 +0000

I got my second wholesale order from Historic Scotland recently which is rather exciting, as my stuff must be selling well for them to re-order so soon. My work is being sold via the Craft & Clan shop at Stirling Castle – somewhere I’ve never been and must go to – and I’ve been working on the order in the front room in the afternoon sunshine.

I was busy threading my buttons onto elastic to make them into bracelets and noticed the very strong shadow patterns they formed. Lovely!

Button Strand Necklaces

Milomade — Wed, 25 May 2011 08:00:12 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of sitting on the sofa watching telly recently as I’ve not been able to do much DIY or work due to my arm injury. But I’ve got to keep my arm and hand active so I’ve been doing short bursts of Milomade activities and one of these has been to make lots of my button strand necklaces.

I got lots of funky buttons on eBay recently and mixed these with some buttons I already have and I’ve been able to create some great colour combinations. What do you think of these?

Red | Grey | Green

Green | Orange

Red | Yellow | Orange

Pink | Purple | Orange

Mint | Salmon | Purple | Yellow

And this is what they look like hung up…

They’re all nice and long and a joy to wear – I’ve been getting lots of comments on a blue one I saved for myself. I’ve made quite [...]
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A New Addition to the Household…

Milomade — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:00:40 +0000

Today I had a fabulous day – despite breaking the car (yet again)! I drove through to Edinburgh to see my friends Sarah & Ralph to pick up a chair they’ve been storing in their loft for a very long time. It’s a chair that’s been in Sarah’s family for decades and as she’s moving home and has no room for it, she asked if I wanted to take it and give it a good home, rather than her hide it away in another loft for god knows how long.

When Sarah first mentioned it was a Wassily chair, I had no idea what she was on about, but after seeing a few pictures I realised what was on offer! It’s an absolute design classic and I was chuffed to bits she asked if I wanted to take it off her hands. I’ve always loved the style of this chair, but [...]
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Custom Badges for Flip

Milomade — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:00:32 +0000

I was approached by Flip recently and asked whether I could made them a batch of custom badges with their logo on for an up can coming promotion. I love making badges so I gladly accepted the challenge despite my limited use of my right arm.

They gave me enough lead-time, so I knew I could print them all out and then just do small batches of 5 whenever I felt strong enough. However I ended up doing most of them in one day as my left arm is fine and I’m becoming more ambidextrous as the months go by.

Here are some images of the process and the finished product…

Three New Spoons

Milomade — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:00:12 +0000

I got these on eBay the other day. Two are the same pattern with a lovely engraved letter ‘G’ on them. The other has a twisted stem and the end looks like it’s been broken off, but I thought it was interesting enough to purchase. I bought it for the challenge.

I won’t be making these into rings just yet as I’m a bit busy at the moment with Wholesale orders, craft fairs and exhibitions – unless someone gets in touch and asks for one specifically – so if anyone wants a ring with a ‘G’ on it, get in touch as I make these to your required ring size – they’d make a lovely personalised gift for someone special.

In the image above the ‘G’ is upside down, so stand on your head to get a better sense of it. I wonder who these teaspoons belonged to – what was their [...]
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New Button Chokers

Milomade — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:54:15 +0000

Whilst recouperating last week I made myself a button choker to cheer myself up. I bought some really lovely 2mm leather thonging a while back and have never used it and when I was in London I managed to get hold of some really lovely buttons at the Spittalfields market – I lay there bored out of my brains and the idea of chokers came to mind.

This is the one I made for myself:

The leather is Round Greek Leather Cord and is apparently “widely acknowledged to be the best leather cord available” according to Palmer Metals where I get it from. It is really lovely to work with and I finished the ends of with these really nice leaf cord pinch ends.

I then got to work making more:

Lots of different colours and styles to choose from. Some have five buttons, some four, some three and some [...]
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Craft Fair Crazy – Part 3

Milomade — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:00:58 +0000

Not only have I been working away like a busy bee on envelopes and my shop keepers dummy display, I’ve also been busy making more paper garlands and coming up with a neat way to package them up. My old sewing machine is on it’s last legs though and the tension control is not what it used to be – sounds like it’s a bit incontinent in it’s old age and I guess it is a little – every now and again it just looses control of the thread and I end up battling away with a pin trying to untangle knots.

I think I need to it back to the sewing machine man in Edinburgh for a little TLC, to get oiled and tightened and cleaned – the machine is about 50 years old or older even, so it needs the occasional M.O.T. to keep it running smoothly [...]
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Craft Fair Crazy – Part 2

Milomade — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:09:43 +0000

I love making envelopes – I can’t stress that enough and over the past week or so I’ve been cutting maps, sheet music, pages from comic annuals etc into envelope shapes. I’ve then been folding and gluing and packaging them up – it’s been hard work, but I love repetitive tasks like this and I do love making envelopes – I know I’ve already said that, but I do!

So if you come along to Ardross Farm on the 10th/11th of July you’ll have the following to choose Envelopes made from recycled:

Sheet Music – always a favourite

Maps and Road Atlases

Snoopy Annuals

The Victor Book for Boys Annuals

2000AD Science Fiction magazines

Beano Magazines

So there’s tons to choose from!

They come in packs of 5 with lick and stick flaps and 5 address labels – wrapped in ethical biodegradable corn starch bags – all that for just £2.95 a pack – not bad!!

If you can’t make [...]
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Craft Fair Crazy – Part 1

Milomade — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:22:10 +0000

I’m going to be setting up a Milomade stall at Summer in the Loft on the 10th/11th July – details on the homepage – and I’m very busy getting stock ready for that. Every surface, including the floor is covered with work in progress or work waiting to be packed or finished work waiting to be boxed up. This time around I’m concentrating on my craft collection and making a lot of stationery, lots of badges, some really funky new button necklaces and of course my button flower brooches which are a main favourite.

Talking of which, I bought a shop dummy on eBay recently to show off my button flower brooches, but as it’s made out of polystyrene and covered in a thin stocking type of thing it looked pretty boring when it arrived and I felt the need to vamp it up a little. I searched through my stash [...]
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Creative Exchange – Part 4

Milomade — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:16:58 +0000

I’ve been really busy with my pieces for the Creative Exchange of late – so much so that I’ve forgotten to post up my progress. I’ve got so much to do this month that time is very limited, but I want to post up a few more piccies to show you how I’m getting on.

I’ve managed to finish both the orange and the green necklaces and here are the only images I took of the green one in progress:

I just wanted to get on and get it finished and Colin wasn’t around to take piccies over my shoulder to document the process. I finished it late last night and love it! Both necklaces are lovely and work well as individual pieces, but together they look amazing, so I’m now in a quandary.

All I need to do now is create earrings to match. My initial thought was to have two separate [...]
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Creative Exchange – Part 3

Milomade — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:59:27 +0000

Last week I cut the two rods of acrylic I received into small discs as I decided to make an orange neckpiece and a green neckpiece too. The next task was to drill two holes into each disc and this is where things went horribly wrong. I nearly cried as it took me so long to cut all the discs out and drilling holes into the acrylic was impossible…read on…

I set my Dremmel drill to it’s slowest setting and drilled away. The acrylic melted and set instantly onto the drill bit. Nightmare!

But I persevered and made a few acrylic buttons, peeling the melted acrylic of the drill each time with my precision pliers, but soon gave up and felt totally despondent.

Luckily it was Friday and so I packed everything up and headed to college to see if my tutor could come up with a solution. Thankfully Andrew has an answer [...]
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Creative Exchange – Part 2

Milomade — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:21:14 +0000

I’ve been working through ideas of what to do with my pieces of coloured acrylic and because the clay pieces that also came in the box, along with the acrylic, are flower-like, I’m going to use these as a starting point for my piece(s). I want to make something wearable and tactile and bright – something evoking spring/summer that’s got movement and a flow about it. So I’m thinking along the lines of making a set of jewellery – maybe a neckpiece with earrings to match and/or a bracelet. Or maybe some sort of brooch or collection of brooches.

We’re surrounded by buttercups and daisies at the moment and I love them! I love the bright yellow of the buttercups and I love the delicate little petals of the daisies. On a recent dog walk I collected a load of buttercups and made them into a chain whilst in transit and [...]
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Creative Exchange – Part 1

Milomade — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:55:20 +0000

I recently mentioned on my facebook page that I’d received an interesting package in the post. I don’t know who it is from, but it came via FCA&C as part of their ‘Creative Exchange’. I’ve got until the 30th June to make something from it’s contents and I have no idea what I’m going to make as yet, but going to get my sketchpad out and thinking cap on and see what ideas I come up with.

Here are some images of what I’ve got to work with:

The box contained mostly coloured perspex – or is it acrylic? It’s amazing how the cut edges capture the light – it’s like the light is trapped within it. So I’m thinking I’d like to incorporate lots of cut edges. – No idea what I can cut this stuff with, so will have to do a bit of googling. Along with the above, were [...]
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