Wednesday 18 May 2016

Make Your Own COLOURFUL Wooden Puzzle Bracelet - Jane Foster

I bought a cellophane bag of wooden puzzle pieces the other day in Oxfam for 49p and have been wondering what to do with them! I remember them as a child and still love the primary bold colours. I suddenly had the idea that I wanted to make a bracelet with the vintage pieces. This is how I did it!


I added small pen dots to the corners of each piece and then used a very small drill to drill the holes.


I then took two pieces of elastic and started threading them through the holes - initially just as two lines until I discovered crossing over looked quite good!


As I've got quite wide wrists, I figured I needed 4 square pieces to fit. I kept a pair of scissors handy as whenever the ends of the elastic frayed, I trimmed them a bit.

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I got my partner Jim to tie the bracelet around my wrist and knot the ends before trimming.




I couldn't not let our eight year old daughter have a play too - she decided on a whole new style and without any help, did the following. All I need to do is find some more of the puzzle pieces to make more! Does anyone know the name of these?




Tuesday 17 May 2016

Mollie Makes Instagram and Pinterest Takeover Guest - Jane Foster

I was thrilled when Mollie Makes asked me if I would like to be a takeover guest on Pinterest and Instagram for a few days. I've been a huge Mollie Makes fan right from the very first issue. Here's a snap shot of just some of my back issues that I have on my studio shelf! They've followed me during three house moves!




Before Mollie Makes was launched, I always felt there was a gap in the market for a cool trendy magazine and it seemed to coincide with the increased popularity of blogs, Facebook and Pinterest. I've been lucky enough to have had my work featured in at least 7 Mollie Makes issues to date and my favourite one was when I designed the free cover gift of a small red sausage dog to sew. I still have a spare copy with the gift stuck to the magazine front! 


Here's a photo of me from years ago when I was featured in my Brighton home - this was the upstairs room my creative career started in! If you look closely, I was putting together some screen prints along with retro and vintage fabrics to sell in a local shop in the lanes called Appendage. I still have the Orla Kiely wallpaper covered cupboard with sliding doors (originally from Ikea) and my favourite green and white striped Orla Kiely dress. Oh, and I still have the white Mac Lamp that I bought from Brighton Boot Sale!



The photo below shows some of the Mid Century Modern fabric cushions I used to make and sell in my early days. This was how I first started out  -  I was obsessed with collecting as many different patterns from the 50s and 60s that I could find and would get a real buzz if I was lucky enough to find some original Lucienne Day, Marian Mahler or Terence Conran. (I was such a fabric geek!)


I shall be adding posts to Mollie Makes Instagram (@molliemakes) from this Thursday to Sunday and I shall be pinning to a special Pinterest Board on Saturday called Craft With Kids.

I hope you get a chance to have a peep at my posts and that you enjoy them x