Happy New Year!

 

 

 In the Celtic wheel of the year, Samhain, or Hallowe'en as most of us now know it, marks the start of the new year and the change from the light half of the year to the dark half.

 

The pre-christian Irish calendar revolved around the summer and winter solstices (known as litha and Yule) and the spring and autumn equinoxes (known as Ostara and Mabon) between them. Most of the chambered tombs in Ireland are aligned to one of these four dates so that the rising sun fills the interior chambers with light.

 

Between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice lies Samhain. It is the time of the year when the spirit underworld and human world are closest and so the spirits of our ancestors, as well as evil spirits are able to enter our world. 

 

 

 

 To ward off evil spirits we disguise ourselves in costumes like theirs, so that they will pass us by unnoticed, and we leave food and light candles for our ancestors.

 

In the past people in Ireland carved swedes or turnips and placed candles inside. Once the christianised festival of hallowe'en was brought to America by Irish immigrants in the 19th Century, people started carving the more readily available pumpkins and gourds. 

 

These are two that I carved as presents for friends hosting Hallowe'en parties last weekend. And this time of year always holds fond memories for me because my brother was born on Hallowe'en so we grew up having great parties with pumpkins, apple-bobbing, sparklers and ghoulish costumes, and going trick-or-treating.

 

 

When christianity came to Ireland, the festival of the goddess Bride was made into St.Brigid's day, yule became Christmas and Samhain became all hallow's eve, when people pray for their dead.

 

While I'm no pagan, I'm trying to teach myself about our pre-christian history and customs and to understand the movements of the year so that I can have a better connection to the earth.

 

Happy new year to you all. May light guide your way through the darkness ahead.

 

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day!

This year Belfast City Council pulled out all the stops and put on a four day festival for Saint Patrick's day and I was drafted in to do origami and papercraft workshops for three days.

 

We made shamrock badges, hairclips, necklaces and origami shamrocks and four-leaf clovers with kids from one to a hundred (more or less) and it was great craic, the only thing problem being that I was kept so busy that I hardly got a chance to take many photos or indeed to take part in some of the amazing other traditional crafts that were on offer.

 

I hope you all rose a glass for luck on Sunday, wherever you were in the world.

With this ring......

 

 

So you may have gathered that I like getting my craft on, but I've always been a bit useless when it comes to fabric crafts. My seamstress granny taught me to sew (ish) but to my shame I've never learned to crochet, knit or make clothes.

 

So I made my fabric crafts debut with this little ring cushion. My sister was recently bridesmaid for her lovely friend Angharad's winter wedding in Cambridge and I undertook to make this for her. The burgundy felt went with the colours of the wedding and as she was a Northern Irish girl marrying an American in England, we chose to use the vintage Irish lace doilies to reflect her roots.

It turned out quite cute I think, just don't look too closely at the stitiching!

 

(I took these photos before posting the ring cushion so that's my beautious engagement ring that Danny chose all on his own-io. Clever boy!)

Handmade map lampshade

 

Here's a little sneak peek of the lampshades I'm going to be making to (hopefully) sell in the Christmas markets this year.

 

a paper globe lampshade

+

circles of pretty paper

+

double sided tape

=

a really nice present for someone.

 

 

Lampshades are available to buy. To find out more just drop me a line at - maevep22@hotmail.com 

 

- small £10

- medium £15

- large £20

 

wedding brooch bouquet

 

This summer past was all about weddings for me - either attending them, photographing them or making things for them. And so here are some pictures of a brooch bouquet I made for a friend from my hometown who got married in very the same chapel that Danny and I did.

 

She gave me some brooches to include that had belonged to her mother and mother-in-law and some pendants that were hers from childhood including a celtic cross and a hurley stick. A really sweet touch was to put photos from the two parent's weddings into a little locket hanging from the handle of the bouquet. I think I'll steal that idea for again.

 

 

I also made the beaded headpiece you can see here which had three strands in front and three at the back. Again this was Jane's idea and she gave me the brooches to incorporate, but it's something I'd love to try again and was surprisingly easy to make, especially considering the exorbitant prices they charge for these things in bridal shops.

 

The only problem with working in the wedding industry though is that it always makes me wish I could get married all over again!

 

 

Wedding chandeliers

 

A few weeks back I photographed the wedding of an old school friend (more of which later) and I was also asked to make some decorations for the venue. We came up with these huge coloured tissue-paper-and-drinking-straw chandeliers, inspired by the ridiculously intricate polish 'pajaki' and in colours based on the crazy-amazing cake below.

 

 

 

Here they are in the Portstewart golf club on the big day. I tried to make them all slightly different, adding strings of pearls and tassels to some, and they hung above the dancefloor, narrowly avoiding being ripped to shreds when the nearby pinata was attacked with a broom at the end of the night.

 

 

 

If you would like me to make some of these for your own wedding or event just drop me a line at maevep22@hotmail.com

pretty garland goodness

I was racking my brains for a new papercraft activity to do at Sunday's class and then I remembered these streamer garlands that have popped up all over the blogosphere in recent months. And they really are the quickest, easiest and sweetest way to decorate a party. In fact I'd have this bit of girly fluffiness  up year-round.

(p.s. the picture is a charity shop find and is of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I love it because it goes the with beautiful wooden figurines of those two dudes that my mum brought back from her first trip to Spain in the 70s, and which I've now appropriated.)

All you need for the garlands is some string, some tissue paper and scissors. And that's it! Cut lengths of tissue paper, gather some together and twist a 3 inch section in the centre. Then fold it in half over the string and twist the two halves together. You can add a little glue if you want to keep it in place but I didn't bother.

Et voila! I'll be making this again for sure.

I brought it down to my sister in law's awesome salon where I have a little cabinet full of lost & found wares like wedding bouquets and record bowls. My 'shop' drastically needs a make-over so hanging the garlands in the cabinet is the start of the beautifying process. Now to drag myself off the sofa and make some signage and price tags. 

Once a carnie, always a carnie

I led one of my paper craft classes at the Crescent Arts Centre on Sunday and we did a couple of new crafts, including this big top made from an old book. I've been making book trees (below) for the past couple of christmases but never realised that by making just one fold instead of three, you end up with this circus tent design!

Wouldn't it be cute decorating a kid's room or birthday party? My lack of offspring won't stop me from displaying it in the house though. I like it because husband Danny and I met while working at a giant ferris wheel in Belfast so we're practically circus folk ourselves.

In Sunday's class we made the book trees/big tops, 3-D hanging stars, streamer garlands, giant paper pompoms and origami crane garlands. If you fancy learning some papercraft all of my classes will be repeated in the next term of the Crescent's jam-packed programme. 

  

Polish paper chandelier

Since my job at the university finished for the summer I've finally had some time to devote to attacking all the amazing craft ideas I've come across so here's what I've been working on recently - it's based on the Polish paper chandeliers, or 'pajaki' that I saw in Krakow back in January (below), though much simplified!

All you need to make these are drinking straws, some thickish wire, tissue paper and wool or cord of some type. They are pretty time-consuming but I reckon it's worth the effort and I'm looking forward to having another go at making a bigger and better one. Just let me know if you'd like a full tutorial.

Et voila! These would look amazing hung above tables at a wedding or party. Contact me if you'd like me to make one for you - prices from £20.

Googly eye bombing

My new favourite passtime. I recommend that you go out immediately and buy some googly eyes and afix them to anything and everything that even vaguely looks like a face. Bring a smile to someone else's day.

Magic

My mind is officially blown.

Ever heard of moss paint? Me neither. But today I came across this phenomenon via my current favourite website craftgawker and you can find the instructions here on instructables but essentially all you need to make a masterpiece like this is some buttermilk, sugar and a few lumps of moss. Put them into a blender, mix into a paste and then just paint it on to a wall to whatever design pleases your good self.

The hulking great concrete wall in our back yard is just screaming out for this treatment but I'm not sure what our landlady would make of it. If you own a house or business, please go out and do this immediately and let me see the results!

a bit of bees knees

Lost & Found workshop

The lost and found exhibition at PS2 will be finished this Saturday and after then I promise to blog about something, ANYTHING else, but for now, here is a post about the free papercraft workshop we had there on Saturday.

About 10 people squeezed into the space to learn how to make newspaper pompoms and some origami designs. It was great to actually get people using the space. Afterwards a few of us hung out for a drink and a natter. How I wish this were my permanent home in the city.

Thanks to all the lovely people who came down - to the old friends and the new friends I made.