Hand made Viking Knit tool

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  I was lucky enough to have the week off.  One would think I would have been very productive.  Not!  This is the first vacation I've had that I did virtually nothing.  Watched some movies, did some Viking Knit....it was great.

I did manage to spend some time in my studio today.  I've watched a lot of videos the past few weeks on Viking Knit and was thinking about how I could make my own tool, without having to bend wires and use tape!  The idea came to me one night as I was trying to go to sleep.  {Don't all good ideas come then!!}  Luckily, I remembered my idea and made a tool that didn't require any extra wires or tape.  Of all the video's I've watched, I haven't seen anything quite like this, so I decided to make a tutorial of my own.      

This was my first attempt at making a video for You Tube.  All in all I think it turned out pretty good...I found a way to make it using my Picasa 3 editing program.  Next time, I may try a speaking tutorial, who knows??!!?

If you like, feel free to add comments, questions or ideas to the video.

Til next time, stay safe and be happy!

Happy Holidays

Well, it's almost here!  Shopping done - check, Christmas Tree up - check, gifts wrapped - check, worked half day today - Yea!  Hope, if you are celebrating, you are ready and can enjoy the holiday.  That's what I'm doing the rest of the day today, and tomorrow!

I have been making an effort to spend time, weekly, in my studio.  I find if I take a few hours each week I can make several things, further organize the room and just work on getting the creative juices flowing.  So far, so good. 

I'm sure I've mentioned Cindy Lietz before.  She's a polymer clay expert and has video tutorials you can subscribe to.  The videos come out monthly and the price is right, so, I've been following her for a few years now.  Recently she did a tutorial on faux enamel and viking knit.  As usual, I couldn't wait to try it.

Here are a few pieces I made this past week. 

I've downloaded a few photo editing programs and have been trying to figure out how to work them.  My goal is to retake pictures of my inventory and redo my website.  If your are interested you can download Picasa 3 and Photoscape.  They were both free.  Just make sure when you load the Picasa that you decline the ads.  I made the mistake of thinking it was part of the download process and I thought I didn't have an option to decline.  Well, several weeks later and with the help of my neighbor {IT genius}, I got the ads off and reloaded the program.  It should be interesting to see what difference it will make with my photos.  The picture above was done on Photoscape.  I thought the frame was appropriate for the season!

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a fruitful New Year!  Til next time, stay safe and be happy.