Most unusual craft?

When DH and I were first married we stuck googly eyes on pebbles and made 'licorice allsorts' out of wood and threaded them onto cord for necklaces as gifts which turned out to be quite popular. I enjoyed rug making and dabbling with paint but I'm no artist. I currently knit items that don't take too long! A visit to Hobbycraft is a real treat - it's good that we don't have one nearby though

Over the years I have done so many different crafts. In the past I have done basket making, dough modelling, upholstery, jewellery making and making porcelain dolls, just to mention some. More recently I have made dream makers, felt toys, fabric dolls and now painting.
What do I do with my completed work!! Each of my granddaughters has a porcelain doll to remember me by. My gr-granddaughters have fabric dolls which I love to make. Surprisingly I have very little myself. When someone really likes something that I have made I make a pressie of it, intending to make myself another one. I never do as I am on to something else.
The only things that I ever sold were cane items which were made to order. Arthritis in my hands restricts me now but I still make for my own pleasure.

I do pyrography, mainly on boxes which I hope to sell to fund my hobby. I didn't realise how much I'd enjoy it but I love working with the wood and I want to learn to make my own boxes and also to do wood carving

I have always loved knitting & crochet, also tatting, but the trouble with tatting is finishing up with lots of pretty lace mats, lace edged hankies etc. and not knowing what to do with them. In the old days a tatted mat was useful to protect wood surfaces, but these days with melamine, granite, marble and other stone & plastic finishes a mat serves no purpose. Tatting is also hard on the eyes!
Crochet is more practical, if only because mistakes can be undone, unlike tatting. Crochet is easier than knitting (only one stitch to drop accidentally!) and I love it.

Never ventured beyond knitting, and being a Charity knitter there is always plenty to do, just finished knitting by request a balaclava which was challenging to say the least!

Suedonim

I seem to vaguely recall hearing something about making your own chain mail. I can think of a couple of uses for it, actually. There are people who engage in live-action role play (aka LARP) as a hobby. They act out characters from fantasy and/or history and dress in costumes. A knight might need chain mail. There's also the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). This is an organized group that engage in LARP related to history. One of their common activities is to hold mock battles. You have to wear certain pieces of armour to prevent injury (e.g. gorget to cover the neck, codpiece or something similar, etc.) and someone might decide to make chain mail to look more authentic.

Ooooo I have just read this old thread, GREYDUSTER, can you tell me how to do the old fashioned way to make a rug (I once bought a kit but it was very complicated). I thought rag rugs were supposed to be easy and it might be that you know how and I need a hobby, many thanks x

I've dabbled in quite a few crafts over the years although nothing that unusual. However, I was recently Googling for a crochet pattern and was amazed when a couple of sites for making your own chain mail came up! That's not one I've come across before, and I can't think of anyone who would want to be the recipient of such a gift!

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.

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.

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.

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+

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.

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 .

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.

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. 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.

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.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201801/medium-690903-004.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201801/medium-623060-table-runner-in-progress-004.jpg

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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?

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