You know that feeling of happiness when you see something beautiful and it makes you take a sharp breath in? That’s what happened to me when I saw the Caron x Pantone yarn palette for the Pantone color of the year “Living Coral”. It was like potential just opened up to me. The color coral is one of my favorite colors. In clothing and in home decor it makes a statement but if “Living Coral” isn’t your thing maybe you should check out the Caron x Pantone yarn braids. While it’s not as though the whole gradient yarn thing is new, Caron yarns kicked it up a notch with the Caron x Pantone color play tool. The Caron x Pantone Rainbow Chip Color Play Cowl (Crocheted) is a fun way to test out the tool. Instructions can be found in this video: https://www.yarnspirations.com/yarn/retail-exclusive-yarns/caron-x-pantone/caron-x-pantone-educational-centre Caron developed a lookbook (though I prefer the old issuu style lookbook) for these great yarn braids. Mix and match the colors as you please with FREE patterns. For more free patterns using the Caron x Pantone yarns follow this link to the Crochet Crowd’s collection of free patterns. You’ll love the selection. Michaels Stores are the exclusive distributors of Caron x Pantone yarns. You can see these exciting colors in person! (right now on sale online!) Or use the color play tool and buy directly from Yarnspirations. (example: the color block crochet cowl) The amount of yarn in each color bundle of color is small, as one can probably tell from the photos. If you are a charity knitter/crocheter like I am you might want to use up your stash or buy colors that blend in larger amounts, you might try snapping up paint chip samples from your local paint store. My daughter and I thought we might try that ourselves! Using some free paint chip samples we thought it might be fun to try some color blending based on color families. It’s a fantastic way to make the ordinary into something extraordinary as a gift for charity or a gift for a friend. All the colors found in nature can be found on the shelves of any yarn shop… get creative with your blends! Scarves, hats, mittens, baby blankets. Add a little spice… Have fun! Now I turn the blog over to T.k Wilson for her ideas! Anyone who knows me well knows I adore color. When I wear dull colored clothes, I feel like I have to have something bright on with them. Socks, jewelry, something. Looking into the Caron x Pantone yarns and getting the paint chip cards reminded me of my love for color and how much I enjoy picking out colors for projects. Color blending is one of my favorite techniques too. I love doing it especially with doll clothes. You have no idea how much a few subtle changes can make or break a piece. Using the wrong thing in the wrong spot spells disaster! Because a lot of my doll clothes are built around specific characters, or what I see as the doll’s “personality” color choices are very important. The idea behind Caron x Pantone is actually pretty brilliant for all kinds of crafting goodness. For instance, I can see the yarns used for stuffed animals and amigurumi dolls with ease, and the idea of color matching will work brilliantly with making doll clothes. Our love for color has actually brought my mom and I closer together in our crafting lives. One or the other of us will have an idea for a color scheme and run and tell the other, it’s great fun!
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I do folk-art style of wood carving. My particular specialties are small gnome figures, and walking sticks carved with faces in them. I don’t recall why I started carving gnomes, or walking sticks, for that matter, but my style has some old roots. American folk carving has its roots and in Scandinavian flat-plane carving. As you can guess, the technique originated in Scandinavia. In flat-plane carving, as the name suggests, the image is made by carving flat planes, or surfaces in the wood. Very little rounding or sanding is used, and tool-marks are usually left on, giving it a rustic appearance. It was brought to the united states by Scandinavian immigrants, and has enjoyed popularity ever since. Carving, even simple flat-plane carving takes a bit of talent. You have to think about things in three dimensions. You also have to have the right tools for it, as well. I have a set of chisels given to me by my Grandfather. You have to spend a little cash in order to get a decent set of carving knives and chisels. But that’s not to say I don’t use electric tools. You can buy some pretty good electric carving tools that can make your work go a lot easier. The materials are also essential. The type of wood you use will either help or hinder your carving efforts. Don’t use a very hard wood, like cherry or oak, or you’ll just be wasting time and effort. I’ve tried using pine wood with some success, but it chips very badly, so I wouldn’t suggest it to a beginner. It’s a good wood if you plan on using power tools. Probably the best woods to use are maple and basswood. Maple is hard, but not too hard. It can make a very fine carving, and it’s good for walking sticks as well as figurines. Basswood is a lot softer, but it doesn’t chip like pine. It’s probably the best wood for beginners.
Happy carving! Hey, Everyone! T.K. here with a small preview of what I'm doing to prepare for my comic-con engagements in 2019! My first one isn't until April, but time flies fast, so I'm prepping now. My mother has always loved a bit of the Gothic. She grew up reading Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe and watching Monster Movie Matinee. Her love of that Gothic-Lite rubbed off on me a little, along with my own fascination with the fantastic, to create the crazy, whimsical person you see before you. A vivid childhood memory I have is seeing, right before I went up to bed some Saturday nights the delightfully freaky intro to "Masterpiece Mystery", featuring the work of illustrator Edward Gorey. I recall being scared by the intro; but not the "bad", nightmare inducing scary, but the good kind of scared, the little thrills that kids seek out. Of course, it stuck in my mind for good. The work of Edward Gorey, with his his irreverent reverence for the spooky, the defanging of monsters while keeping their danger has inspired a new idea for my comic con table. My idea? Take Mattel's Monster High dolls and transform them into Edward's Gothic flapper girls! These monster mavens will appear in a special corner at my table, all waiting for the show to begin. I will have a few of them in stock including Frankie Stein (daughter of Adam, Victor Frankenstein's monster), Lagoona Blue (daughter of a sea monster), and Clawdeen Wolf (daughter of the Wolf Man). One more monster I will be doing is Cleo De Nile, the daughter of one of my favorite movie monsters, the Mummy. But I'll be treating her a bit different then the "Gorey Girls". When I watched the Mummy (the original from 1932), I was fascinated by the powerful Imhotep and his "tale of love, and crime, and death." And oddly enough, Cleo bears a bit of resemblance to Zita Johann, the woman who played Helen/Princess Ankesenamun. Inspired by The Mummy, I will be transforming Cleo into a flapper with homages to Zita's beautiful costumes from the movie. Since Egyptian style costumes were quite popular in the Flapper era, it wouldn't have been too out of the ordinary. I'm really excited about this idea, I love historical costumes.
This is only the first entry into my Countdown to Comic Con, stay tuned for more sneak peeks and ideas from all of us at Tabitha's Mountain Rhapsody! |
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