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Arts & crafts

Most unusual craft?

(59 Posts)
bella2 Mon 11-Dec-17 17:40:31

I was just wondering what is the most unusual craft that anyone does or has seen? Over the years I have tried several different crafts, with different mediums, but I always go back to crochet and have always done it alongside other crafts. But I like to try new ones, even if only once, cost permitting of course!

grannyactivist Tue 12-Dec-17 23:06:17

I don't have an artistic bone in my body , so where my son gets it from I have no idea, but he is amazing. He is a design engineer by profession and he knits (often his own designs), crochets, does different kinds of pottery, and his origami is more like paper engineering. The zebra head is lifesize and the pottery dog he made as a gift for his sister.
Would others like to put photo's up too please, so that us non-crafty people can enjoy seeing the fruits of others' labour? I love to get hand-made things and think that something was made just for me.

Feelingmyage55 Tue 12-Dec-17 23:20:14

Grey duster, you have inspired me I think. Have a box of my DS's outdated clothing he wants kept. He is big on up cycling as he calls it. Could I use tshirts ie knitted cotton or must it be woven. What size of rug have you made? Thank you.

Grannyknot Wed 13-Dec-17 07:52:52

grannyactivist - wow.

Baggs Wed 13-Dec-17 07:55:37

Yep. Wow, ga. Well done that son smile

Here's a photo of some of my temari:

suzied Wed 13-Dec-17 08:02:16

I know patchwork isn’t an unusual craft but here’s a quilt I made out of my OHs old work shirts, the plain colours were white shirts I dyed.

suzied Wed 13-Dec-17 08:02:53

I love the temari balls!

Greyduster Wed 13-Dec-17 08:26:37

Ok, now I am seriously sick with envy ?!

NotTooOld Wed 13-Dec-17 09:05:52

Double wow! The zebra! The balls! The quilt! All fantastic. Well done all you crafty crafters.

Bathsheba Wed 13-Dec-17 10:15:05

Wow, those temari balls! I would love to try these, but I don't think I would ever be able to compete with your gorgeous creations Baggs. They are stunning shock

bella2 Wed 13-Dec-17 12:18:01

Flipping WOW! What great creations. I am so envious of them all. The zebra is inspirational and the quilt, well I would love to make something like that but previous attempts have been 'not quite right'.I have always fancied making a rag rug, but have been too scared to try.

The temari balls would be great in Christmas colours and hung on the tree, don't you think?

Kittye Wed 13-Dec-17 17:18:48

That Zebra is stunning.?Love the quilt and temari balls too. Wish I was as creative! I'm going to google the temari, wouldn't mind having a go at those. Quite fancy trying to make a rag rug too. I think the quilt would be too much of a challenge. Love that it's made from OH shirts!

Greyduster Wed 13-Dec-17 18:51:08

bella making a rag rug is a cakewalk compared to the beautiful things photographed above! I keep going back to look at them again! I am embarrassed to let you see my miserable effort, but it is really easy. Have a go. Start small.

Chewbacca Wed 13-Dec-17 19:11:43

Im so impressed with thequilting and zebra, theyre both gorgeous. I agree with Greyduster that rag rug making is easy peasy. Back in the 70s I made a huge Scandinavian rug with wool called Ryagarn which was like a long shag pile. Does anyone remember this type of wool? I've tried to find it again bit it doesn't seem to be available any more.

bella2 Thu 14-Dec-17 08:42:32

Greyduster, you have inspired me to have a go! Your rug is lovely, I love the shapes of the colours you have designed. How do you actually make one? What is the back of the rug made of?

Greyduster Thu 14-Dec-17 08:54:40

bella I’ll send you a pm, but there will be others on here who have made them who will have advice to offer too. I hadn’t thought of making them until we went to the National Mining Museum and I saw a very old one in a glass case that reminded me of the ones that I used to make with my mum. She had a proper pegging tool which I wish I had kept now. I just use a latch hook - they are widely available.

LongHaulGran Mon 01-Jan-18 11:50:29

I make NY resolutions - I write them onto 1 January page of my pocket diary every NYD, and I've just written my 2018 resolutions including 'Craft more'.

A friend in the USA has sent me a vintage latch hook canvas she stumbled across so I'll be getting back into LH this year (haven't touched a hooking tool since 1994, this should be 'entertaining').

I've just begun learning needle tatting. I've tried shuttle tatting but simply cannot force my hands to make the proper motions reliably enough to keep at it. Needle tatting so far is doable, I managed to make enough simple bookmarks for my dentist's entire staff for a small thank-you and Christmas gift.

I sew, I crochet, I knit. I use those little wooden shapes available at craft stores to paint and put on any Christmas tree I find. I take my 'excess' to a local car boot - HMRC isn't interested if you're simply selling crafted items to clear the clutter and cover craft supplies costs. I've thought (for a nano-second) about Folksy or even Etsy but in my book, retired means retired!

But my real love, and I do think it unusual in this day and age, is stamped-for-embroidery bed-bath-kitchen linens. I very rarely use the suggested stitches or colours and I don't hesitate to ignore the stampings if the shape is 'wrong' - the red bit on the one I'm working now was completely 'wrong' so I've changed the shape to simple satin stitched 'berries' - if you look closely you can see the original shape under the latch hook. The other photo shows a piece I finished this past autumn - you can see how I've used different stitches in that one as well.

Does anyone else do these stamped-for-embroidery pieces?

silverdarlings Sun 22-Apr-18 00:40:14

I joined "the shed" at Age Uk last year and made wooden "santa sleighs" about 18inches long--painted them red and put knitted Santa and choco coins inside.

Synonymous Sun 22-Apr-18 01:18:13

I am full of admiration for some of the lovely things shown here. Definitely WOW!

I have done all sorts of crafts in my time but the one I loved most was spinning. Haven't done any for a while since I became a bit arthritic but my first very uneven efforts went into woven wall hangings and small rugs and when I was more proficient I used it to knit. DH still has a very chunky sweater I made for him and wears it when the weather is very cold and he won't part with it even though it is a bit ancient now. When I was spinning regularly I never needed hand cream with all the lanolin in the fleece. It was interesting having a go with all the different types of fleece too. The most adventurous I got though was when I incorporated some retriever hair from my friends dog into some wool so that she could make a hat with it. I went to classes to do natural dying and used some pretty weird stuff which made even more weird colours. hmm I preferred the natural sheep colours though and the Jacob's fleece was my preferred one.
I still have a spinning wheel which lives in my hallway and while it looks nice, being a more unusual upright Shetland wheel, I actually preferred the horizontal wheel and absolutely above all my preference was for my hand whorl which is obviously the most portable and easy to take wherever and whenever. Don't have sufficient energy to do it nowadays sadly.

fiorentina51 Sun 22-Apr-18 03:50:21

I had a go at tablet weaving a few years ago. A bit of a faff to set it all up but I enjoyed making pretty patterns. Must see if I can find my bag of tablets and have another go.

Grannyknot Sun 22-Apr-18 07:36:57

LongHaulGran those "stamped for embroidery" pieces bring back fond memories - my gran taught me to embroider as a child. We did tray cloths by the dozen smile.

ginny Sun 22-Apr-18 07:59:38

Some great work being done by you all
I love crafting. Mainly patchwork and fabric crafts, knitting and crochet and scrapbooking. I have done some painting and I amexplori g that a bit more now. I have just signed up for a couple of glass fusing classes.
Items are scattered around our house and friends and family.

silverdarlings Sun 22-Apr-18 08:27:04

Hello there--I'm in South Cumbria--we have" Cumbria Cristal" near here--I'm interested in Glass fusion--must look into a class near me+

Katek Sun 22-Apr-18 11:35:15

I enjoy a number of crafts-crochet, cross stitch, card making, stained glass and am currently learning to do book folding. A lot of my crochet work is making hats for micro preemies/preemies so it all goes off to neonatal unit.

agnurse Sun 20-May-18 03:34:58

I love to craft and give away most of what I make. I love cross stitch and embroidery and I'm hoping to get into quilting.

I think there are two "unusual" crafts that I've done. One is plastic canvas. It's a sort of variant of embroidery or cross stitch but you can make 2D or 3D things. I've made some 2D wall hangings but have also made a doll (clothes attach with Velcro or with strings that wind around buttons on the back of the doll), a school, a fire station, a car, a camper van, and a Nativity set. The larger 3D sets are made with pieces that are sewn together and there are additional pieces that act as supports between the outer and inner pieces.

The other unusual ones I have made are something called Diamond Dotz. They are essentially a mosaic craft. You have have a sheet covered with a sticky gum and it's marked with individual symbols. Each symbol corresponds to a colour of small faceted gem. You pour the gems into a tray and pick them up with a stylus that you dip in a pot of cold wax (helps to pick up the gems). Then you place them on the sheet. I've made two so far - a red rose for my mom and a picture of the Virgin Mary for my grandmother.

Glitterknitbaby Sun 20-May-18 13:09:38

Over the years I’ve had a go at many things Xstitch, card making, soft toys, painting bits and pieces with the kids. But at the end of the day I always come back to knitting which I do enjoy, and can find many good homes for, cardigans for tiny GD’s, dolls clothes, prem baby items,Xmas gifts etc.