Orla Kiely stamp

Inspired by my recent trip to the Orla Kiely exhibition I made this carved stamp so that I can easily make Orla Kiely style leaves.

I made two sides to the stamp – a solid leaf that can be stamped in a colour, and an outline to stamp around it in black. 

But I found that my favourite use of the stamp is to just use the outline on patterned paper, then cut round it! You can then position the cut out leaves on a stem in true Orla Kiely style, or position them more randomly.

Retrocraft: Art

I've had these scanned in for years with a view to putting them on the blog, but seeing Marceline's posts about her art history reminded me of them, so here they are!

Most of these were done when I was in my late teens, I think. Some of them are watercolours, and some are chalk pastels. They are no great artworks, but they give me a real feeling of nostalgia when I look at them.

This self-portrait was from a favourite photo of myself, and I'm sure I've attempted to draw it various times! I will have to try to find some more self-portraits I've drawn - it would be interesting to see them all together!

Retrocraft: Lavender bags

While I was tidying I came across some of these lavender bags languishing at the bottom of my underwear drawer! Now that the drawer has been tidied, they are in a much more prominent position.

Two of these, the white ones with embroidered flowers on them, were made when I was a teenager, so they are very retro!

And the fat fluffy cat one is even older - my childhood friend Claire bought it for me as a tenth birthday present. It's long since lost its scent, but I love it so much that I'd never throw it away.

The others, the blue bag and owl, were made a few years back from lavender that my brother and sister-in-law brought back from their holidays.

Lavender bags are really easy to make from fabric scraps, and are a great sewing project for a beginner. I think that the blue one is the most successful design, because the ribbon can be untied and the bag refilled when the lavender has lost its scent.

Retrocraft: Dolls

Today I'd like to share some of my much-loved dolls, which were made by my mum during my childhood.

Suzy, a knitted doll, was one of my first dolls, and I used to carry her around with my elbow clamped around her neck all the time, so her head got a bit floppy! Pretty much every photo of me at a young age shows me carrying her. I also got told off once when I was older for hurling her around my head in the garden shouting. "Suzy the skeleton!"

Alice has a pretty pink dress and a pinafore of white fabric with tiny pink roses on it. She still sits out in my bedroom! When my bedroom was blue I made her a blue dress, but I prefer her in her original pink. Mum made a number of these dolls for friends and neighbours, all in their own unique outfits, my favourite (other than my own) being one in a green velvet dress and white pinafore. I used to love taking her next door to my friend Ann's house where we would play with our dolls together.

Finally, my Cinderella doll is a reversible doll, with her rags on one side and her finery on the other. She was a real favourite with my friends, who always preferred the rags, while I liked her white dress.

Retrocraft: Fimo

One of the crafts that has been a constant since my early teens is working with polymer clay to create miniatures and jewellery. The first type of clay that I bought (and the only type that I'd tried for many decades) was Fimo, which I discovered in the big John Menzies on Princes St in Edinburgh. Going on a trip to Edinburgh was a big thing, and I think this particular occasion was probably to celebrate my birthday. This may also have been the day it rained so much we had to use plastic bags as rain hats!

When I bought my first few blocks of Fimo, I also bought a Fimo book, which I still have. Many of my first attempts at using it were projects from this book.

I soon got into the swing of using Fimo, and began a bit of mass-production, making brooches in the shape of hippos, penguins, owls, robots, and teddy bears. I also made marbled beads which I turned into earrings. I would take these brooches and earrings to school in a little tin, and sell them to my friends. My gran would save tiny safety-pins that I would use to make the brooch backs.

At my parents' house, many of the brooches hung on a padded frame by the front door, so we could choose one to wear when leaving the house. This frame stayed there until not long ago, and now I have it! A few of the brooches are a little worse for wear, with some little parts having fallen off, but most of them are in good shape after all these years (decades, even!).

I also enjoyed making other items such as Christmas ornaments and gift tags. Each October holidays I would get started on making my Christmas projects - something I still do now! I have vivid memories of how I would sit at a desk in the utility room at my parents' house to make all my clay items.

I love... retro!

As a child of the 1970s, I really love anything with a retro design, and this is just a random selection of photos I found on my computer with a retro theme - I'm sure this is a theme I will revisit in future with even more photos! Above is a cookbook I found in a charity shop, in fact I saw it in the window of a closed charity shop and had to go back another day when the shop was open! It reminds me of the packaging of the Pippa dolls that I collected.

This is a detail of an old poster at work, showing the formation of oil. I loved this particular shape, and would like to try making a piece of jewellery inspired by it.

 I couldn't resist taking a photo of this poster in Ikea, it's got such a retro feel to it!

This teapot was a recent find in a charity shop, and the yellow is just what I wanted to fit in with my kitchen makeover.

These are some books I rescued from being thrown out at work! The Book of Experiments was one I loved borrowing from the library as a child, so I was really pleased to find it, and the other one has photos of 60s architecture that reminds me of the school I attended and the one I work at.

These are two of my favourite childhood books, which I recently tracked down and bought online.

I really love my Viewmaster, which I found for a ridiculously cheap price at a charity sale, along with lots of the reels, including this one with some great old photos of Edinburgh.

This box was a find at an antiques fair, and the picture shows Seefeld which was a lovely village I visited in Austria.

I love the covers of these old sound effects LPs we have at work.

If you'd like to try a retro-inspired project, how about this 1970s felt pincushion.

Retrocraft: Tiny macrame plant hanger

Macrame is a craft that I've been wanting to try for a while, after admiring some plant hangers that other people had made. It's also a craft that I grew up with - my mum was very into it for a while, and made wall-hangings like a huge elephant head, a giraffe, and an owl (which is still on the wall!).

Mum still had her macrame things, and gave them to me so I could try it out. So I used a real vintage macrame board for this project!

I decided to start small, very small! This plant pot is only about one inch tall!

1. The plant pot was green, so I spray painted it copper and added a tiny succulent cutting.

2. I cut eight pieces of thin twine, and tied them all together in a knot near one end.

3. I pinned the knot to the macrame board, placed four pins in a square, and at each pin I tied two strands in a knot.

4. I placed another 4 pins outside this in a square, and took one strand from each of the pins on either side.

5. I unpinned it and gathered all the strands together, placed the plant pot in it, and tied a knot at the top!

Check out some of my previous Retrocraft posts:

Pincushion

Altair postcards

Vintage dollshouse