Talk Crafty To Me

DIY Roller Pendant Stamp

kelly — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:12:29 +0000

Awhile ago I posted about carving your own rubber stamps. Today I came across a really cute idea from Just Something I made. Cathe took a wallpaper seam roller and a rubber band, and made this fantastic rolling pendant stamp. What a great way to decorate cards, envelopes, packages, or any number of things.

Head on over and check out her tutorial so you can start rolling pendants on everything!

Recipe Look – Draw your way to yummy food!

kelly — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:17:48 +0000

Two of my favorite things together at last… food and illustration! Run by Tom and Amelie, Recipe Look is full of interesting food ideas all drawn by hand. The recipes are all user submitted so each one is unique in style. It’s great to see not only what people’s favorite recipes are, but how they interpret them from boring text recipes into works of art.

- Visit the site to submit your own illustrated recipes

Handmade Pottery in Costa Rica

kelly — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:09:46 +0000

In my quest for crafty adventures while we travel I came across the Guatil Pottery Studio in Playa Tamarindo. It’s a small shop run by Arbin Espinosa Guevara, who learned the traditional art of Chorotega Pottery from his mother in the village of Guatil (about 1/2 an hour from Tamarindo). In addition to selling his beautiful pieces, Arbin teaches classes to anyone wanting to learn. I spent a few days with Arbin at his studio, learning the traditional ways of Chorotega Pottery, a pre-columbian form of pottery, that has been handed down from generation to generation for over 800 years.

The whole process starts with a dense clay-like soil called barro, which is found in the hills that surround the village of Guatil. The Chorotega indians believe that the barro must be collected at the end of the lunar cycle, otherwise the density and strength of the clay is compromised. The barro is combined with a fine sand, called Iguana Sand, and then mixed with water by foot, similar to stomping grapes!

The pots are made using a “coil” building technique, piece-by-piece on a manual hand wheel. You start by rolling your clay into a ball, and then using your thumbs to pinch the clay into a bowl like shape (a pinch pot), that will become the base of your pot. You then roll more clay into a long log shaped strip and coil it on to the base. You use your fingers to fuse the clay together then spin the clay on the manual wheel, and use traditional tools like corn husks to help shape the pot. You continue in this way, adding coils until you have your desired shape.

Once you’ve shaped your pot it needs to dry for about 24 hours, before you can polish it. Hand polishing is done using small pieces of smooth plastic or stone that are rubbed over the clay to work out all the lines and imperfections created when shaping the pot. It’s a long tedious process, but worth it. The more you polish your pot the smoother it will be after firing.

After polishing a white-clay is painted on and allowed to dry for a couple of hours, before painting and etching begins. For my piece I chose to do a black base with a design etched into it. For this I needed to polish the white clay like in the previous step, then paint a black base, and then polish it again. At this stage polishing is just as important, there are no glazes used in Chorotega pottery so polishing is done to make it shiny after firing.

After painting and polishing, the piece needs to dry overnight again. The next day I etched out a design exposing the white clay beneath. This part made me a little nervous, as there’s no fixing it once you’ve started etching, so you have to be sure about your lines. (I chose to do something a little more modern, but in addition to etching, traditional pieces are often painted with clay that has been mixed with different colors of sand.)

Once the piece is completely done it’s fired in a wood burning kiln made of black earth, bricks and dried horse manure. The entire piece is created pre-firing, so once it’s fired in the kiln and cooled it’s done.

If you’re heading to Costa Rica, I highly recommend spending a few days with Arbin at his Tamarindo Potery Studio. Not only did I have a great time, but now I have a fantastic souvenir of our time in Costa Rica.

- For more information visit the studio’s website.

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Happy Hearts Day & Happy Chinese New Year!

kelly — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:22:26 +0000

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The Olympics are here!

kelly — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:11:32 +0000

Today kicks off the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, and what better way to celebrate than with these adorable cupcakes from Coco Cake in Vancouver. The Opening Ceremonies start tonight at 6pm pacific time. Go Canada!

Valentine’s Flip Book

kelly — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:35:51 +0000

Check out this super cute Valentine’s Day Flip book from Color Me Katie. This simple project is a great way to make a big statement… and it’s pretty easy to pull off. All you need is a camera, a printer, and some markers, and you can make your own “kiss in your pocket” flip book.

- Flip Book from katie sokoler on Vimeo.

Heart Cake Tutorial

kelly — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:00:13 +0000

I’m in love with this cake… not only does it look absolutely delicious, but I love the surprise when you cut into this cake. This is one of those cakes that would actually make it acceptable to steal a piece before it makes it to the table.

I am baker, has been busy perfecting this cake and has posted a detailed step-by-step tutorial… if you’re daring enough to attempt this!

- Check out the tutorial here

The World’s Smallest Valentine

kelly — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:06:57 +0000

Lea from The World’s Smallest Postal Service has a super sweet teeny tiny Valentine’s package. This “cute as a button” package is exactly that…. cute as a button. Each teeny tiny package is custom addressed, and includes a little strip of paper, saying “You are as cute as a…”. Under the teeny tiny newspaper, your valentine will find a vintage button.

- Order now while supplies last

“Vote for Us” in the Handmade Olympics

kelly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:49:03 +0000

Woohoo! TalkCraftyToMe.com has been shortlisted for “favourite blog with a handmaking focus” at RikRak Studio’s Handmade Olympics. There are 9 other fantastic blogs shortlisted in this category so we need all the help we can get! Please head on over here and vote for Talk Crafty To me! (no registering required, just a simple click)

Once you’ve voted be sure to check out all the other great events.

{ event 1 } :: our favourite handmade goodie with an innovative design
{ event 2 } :: our favourite handmade goodie for kids
{ event 3 } :: our favourite handmade eco friendly goodie
{ event 4 } :: our favourite handmade item that inspires lovelieness + wellness (in our homes, for ourselves, etc.)
{ event 5 } :: our favourite handmade personality/group forwarding kindness thru handmaking
{ event 6 } :: our favourite thrifty-forward, sustainable-minded blog, shop or site.
{ event 7 } :: our favourite FUN-FILLED handmade OR vintage goodie
{ event 8 } :: our favourite handmaking-focus blog <— this is our event!

Groundhog Day!

kelly — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:11:55 +0000

Buy this cute little guy from moonscreations on Etsy.

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