Extract Dye From Plants

Extract Dye From Plants

Links of entry

At eHow you can find a lot of instructions on how to extract dyes from plants or parts of plants and so forth.
One instruction is e.g. ‘How to Extract Dye From Leaves and Grass’.
I tried some of them with different results, some worked better then others.
But unfortunately I didn’t record what I did, so if I needed some dye today I had to start from scratch.
That way everything stays interesting for me ;-)))


Links:
eHow: A website with how-tos galore
How to Extract Dye From Leaves and Grass
Search results for ‘extract dye’ at eHow

Self-made Lamp

Self-made Lamp

Links of entry

This isn’t a real instruction but more of an inspiration. At Atelier Verena you can follow a class about recycling. At her website, Atelier Verena describes how to make your own recycled lamp (last item on page): glue two terracotta pots together, wrap them with fabric, use some fabric stiffener and paint it with acrylic colour.
I haven’t done it yet, but I think that you also can wrap the glued pots with paper mache or plaster of paris and do some kind of collage or decoupage or glueing interesting tissues an it and so forth.


Links:
Self-made Lamp (last item on page)

Designing a Celtic Knot

Designing a Celtic Knot

Links of entry

No, this is no April Fool’s joke ;-)
With this instruction you can construct your very own Celtic knot, a pattern I used to find too complicated to design of my own.
The image shows a Celtic knot I created some time ago, but I still like it.
I have nearly forgotten about this technique, but now that I rediscovered it, I have several ideas how to use it more often.


Links:
Designing a Celtic Knot
The original site doesn’t exist any more and is now only available through webarchive: Designing a Celtic Knot (Constructing a Celtic Knot)

Droste Effects

Droste Effects

Links of entry

While surfing I found one day images with a so-called Droste effect (examples at flickr).
I was thrilled!
And I wanted to do that too ;-))
At flickr I found the Droste Effect Tutorial where Josh Sommers explaines about everything.
One important hint: Read everything *thoroughly*.
I didn’t and spend a lot of time searching where my problems came from although everything was explained somewhere ;-)
More explanations can be found at Escher’s Droste Print Gallery and their discussions.
Here I took one of my photos and played around with the Droste effect. It was so much fun!


Links:
Wikipedia: Droste Effect

flickr
Droste Effect Tutorial
Escher’s Droste Print Gallery: more explanations
Escher’s Droste Print Gallery Discussions: more explanations

Cardboard Box Loom

Cardboard Box Loom

Links of entry

I really wanted to try weaving, but I was not keen on buying a loom without knowing if I like weaving.
After some surfing I found All Fiber Arts, a website with so many instructions about – yeah, all fiber arts ;-))
I will get back there later again writing about another subject.
But for today: The instruction on how to build a loom using a cardboard box and how to weave on it was a great help.
I tried it with remains from my yarn stash and wove a little piece of fabric. This little piece of fabric stayed an UFO (unfinished object) since then, because I find weaving not so much fun then I expected it to be ;-))
And so I didn’t bother to take a photo.
At any rate I’m grateful to All Fiber Arts, because they prevented me from buying something expensive that I didn’t really need. :-)


Links:
All Fiber Arts: A website with information, instructions and much more about everything concerning fiber arts
Instruction on how to build a loom using a cardboard box and how to weave on it

Crocheted Hats

Links of entry

I always wanted to crochet hats, not the beret-like but really hats (although I never ever wear hats ;-))
Then I found the Yarn Lover’s Room with so many interesting crochet and knitting patterns.
They also have a so-called Antique Room with crochet and knitting vintage patterns.
There I found eventually the Antique Hat Patterns.
I did not yet find time to crochet them (in fact, I don’t know what to do with them when I ever find time and finish them ;-))
But I loved to bookmark them – just in case!


Links:
Yarn Lover’s Room: The name says ist all
Crochet Patterns
Knitting Patterns

Antique Room: Vintage crochet and knitting patterns
Vintage crochet patterns
Vintage knitting patterns

Antique Hat Patterns

Beaded Amulet Bag

Beaded Amulet Bag

Links of entry

Sharon Bateman shows very interesting beading loom techniques on her website. One of them is an instruction on how to make an amulet bag with a so-called tube-aloo. This tube-aloo is nothing else then a clear tube.
I once tried this technique with a toilet paper tube. I think that the clear tube-aloo is easier to use, but for a try the toilet paper tube really was sufficient.
Because I don’t use amulet bags and still have no idea what else to do with such a little bag I didn’t finish my bag ;-)
But it was an interesting experience and I found the technique not only easy to work but actually ingenious.


Links:
Sharon Bateman
Beaded Amulet Bag