This month on emuse

This month has been about pins, cards, flowers, walks, and vintage things, as well as a few other craft projects.

There were lots of posts on the subject of enamel pins, which are my latest obsession:

How to wear pins

Shopping for pins

Pin banner
Pin frame

Storing and displaying pins

My pin collection

These are the cards that were on the blog this month:

Gin card

42 card

College card designs

And some other art and craft-related posts:

Animal number stamps

Verdigris earrings

How to Draw Almost Everything book

I went various places to see lovely flowers and vintage things, and got a lot of exercise doing so:

Botanic garden

Grassmarket vintage weekend

Bluebells

And took some self-portraits:

Selfie, selfie

Botanic garden

This month I have been mostly…

Watching:

French political drama Spin, Pan Am which I’d never seen before but my Mum has on DVD, Bake Off Crème de la Crème.

Reading:

Josephine Tey, A Life, by Jennifer Morag Henderson – I’d seen the author do a talk with Val McDermid at Bloody Scotland back in October, and bought the book then, but didn’t get round to starting it until now. I’m really getting back into reading real books rather than ebooks now.

Listening to:

I came across a great programme on Radio 4 called Costing the Earth, which was all about sustainable fashion, charity shopping, repairing your clothes, and developing a relationship with your clothes where you love the things you wear rather than wanting new things all the time. It seems to be a series so I've started recording it. I’ve also started listening to the Hashtag Authentic podcast by Sara Tasker.

Doing:

I went for a lovely walk in Ravenscraig Park in Kirkcaldy on the Monday holiday at the start of the month. This is right on the coast, with secluded beaches, a castle, and beautiful bluebell woods. And, of course, I went to the big Christian Aid book sale in Edinburgh that I go to every year!

Audrey and the bluebells

On the May Day Monday holiday, I went for a walk in Ravenscraig Park in Kirkcaldy. It’s my favourite time of year to go walking there, because there are masses of bluebells in bloom.

Last year I took self-portraits with the bluebells, but this year I decided to do something different and take some doll photos. Luckily Audrey was already dressed in this outfit that looked perfect with the flowers.

I took some more photos down at the beach too.

How to Draw Almost Everything book

I came across this at the same time as I was shopping for my mum's birthday present, and decided to treat myself to it. It’s by Chika Miyata, and is of a similar style to the books I have by Sachiko Umoto.

I thought this book would be a good encouragement to use the Copic marker pens I bought myself after Christmas. And it is helping me to become more confident about using them, and to know which colours to use for different things.

I’ve always struggled to draw some types of animals, so it was perfect that the book starts off with this. I also particularly liked the food drawings. I’ve already worked my way through the animal section, and look forward to working my way through the whole book. It’s easy to pick up and do a few drawings, and very relaxing.

Deep Thought card

I’ve had this card in mind for my brother ever since I turned 42 myself four years ago! For those who aren’t in the know, the number 42 is the “answer to life, the universe and everything” from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. My family watched the TV version when I was nine and my brother was five, and it’s become such an ingrained part of our family’s culture that we quote from it all the time.

For this card, I wanted to show the scene where the massive supercomputer Deep Thought announces the great answer after millions of years of calculation. And it’s not quite the answer anyone was expecting or hoping for! It’s one of my favourite scenes anyway, and very appropriate for my brother’s 42nd birthday.

I made the whole card out of green card, and simplified the shape of Deep Thought so that it formed the shape of the card. I also gave the computer a face. Then I added two figures, and speech bubbles. Each of the four sides of the card forms a panel in the story. I had fun positioning the heads of the figures to make it look like they were eager and then puzzled/shocked!

My pin collection

It took me a while to get into collecting enamel pins. I bought some last autumn, but earlier this year I started buying lots more! I had a few I’d picked up over the years, but there are so many great pin designers now that I couldn’t resist collecting more and more!

Japan

I started my collection off with a mainly Japanese theme. I loved hunting Etsy for pins to go with this theme, but I did get a little frustrated that some of them were in other countries with high postage, so I mainly stuck to those from the UK. One of my favourites is the Mount Fuji pin by Marceline of Asking for Trouble - the reason it's not in the photo of my banner is because I was wearing it!

I did, however, buy a couple from Japan. They are not actually pins, but have a screw back on them, so they are best for using in a buttonhole. I think they are supposed to be some sort of hiking badges? I just loved the designs on them so much. I also bought the beautiful moon pin by OHNORachio, because it reminded me of a scene in one of my favourite films, the Japanese film Afterlife. 

Japan, mountains, and space

But it was the “I know where my towel is” pin by Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes that got me addicted to collecting pins on other themes. My family are all great fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so, when this pin was released a few months before my brother’s 42nd birthday, I just had to get one for him and another for me!

Since then, my collection has expanded into various themes other than Japan and space / sci-fi (I added another Hitchhiker’s themed pair by Jade Boylan). Some of the other themes are tea, mountains, cats, feelings (especially those that are a bit amusingly introverty), and plants. I also like to group pins by colour, shape or size. I particularly like pins that are circular, and I like black or pastel colours. 

I think that’s one of my favourite things about my pin collection – finding new combinations to wear together! Things like speech bubbles or thought bubbles are really good for this, because you can combine them with other pins in fun ways.

Tea, feelings, and other random things

It would take me way too long to mention all the sellers of all the different pins, but if you have a browse around on Etsy you’ll find the majority of them there!

Cute foodstuffs and plants

 Mountains, space, and cats

 Tea

Storing and displaying pins

I’ve had to find some ways of storing and displaying my growing pin collection, because they were starting to take over, and it was hard to find what I was looking for! I started off by storing them beside some of my badges in a small box, but they were getting a bit muddled in there. So here are some of my storage and display ideas.

I made a pin banner

And a pin frame

I often use this soap dish, especially for pins that I’ve just bought, and all the other little dishes around it

A small cup is great for holding a small selection of pins

Use a jacket or waistcoat

I even had the idea that I could put some on the curtains in my bedroom, but I haven't tried that yet!