Failed at making cookies

OK, I'm sure that this is due to the fact that I accidently was wearing my shirt backwards today.
In normal circumstances, this would not happen to me...
I'll give more detailed instructions on how to make these some other day but for now I thought I would treat you with a chuckle... :)

BEFORE

AFTER

This happens if you don't leave enough room in between!
And I was so proud I got 'em all on one tray - how blond can you be? Right! :)
But hey: I have ONE BIG COOKIE now! :) :)

How to do plaster carving?

I love sharing things that I love doing myself, so I made another how-to.
This time about plaster carving. It's such a simple way to reach wonderful results. It's especially a very fun activity to do with kids.

Here is what you need: wine corks, nails, a piece of plaster, a piece of tracing paper, a pencil, a nice drawing and if you have 'em, all kinds of cutting tools like lino cutters, knife,...
I'm terrible at drawing, honestly, if I would draw a pig, you probably would think it's a monkey.
So, I often use other people's art to help making what I want. This time I'm using AnnaRubyKing's printable colour in pages. I chose to trace the branch with a pencil onto tracing paper.
Then I turn around the tracing paper and I rub with a pencil the drawing onto the piece of plaster.
This is the result:
There are several tools that you can buy especially for plaster carving but if you are only going to do this once in a while, why don't make your own tools?
You need some nails, wine corks and a hard surface for this. Put the nail with the sharp side into the cork and press firmly. Now you have a hole.
Then take out the nail and press the head of the nail into the hole. This is a bit hard but if you press it onto the hard surface it's easier. Now you have a handy grip to carve into the plaster.
It's much safer too if you work with children. You can also put a needle into it, this makes very fine lines.
These are some of the tools I use. The branch like tools are handmade too from nails and hazelnutbranches. They are very handy but a bit more tricky to make.
Outline the lines of the drawing with a sharp knif or needle. You will have to blow lightly to remove the excess plaster so you can still see your drawing.
Then create some depth into the plaster. I used a lino cutter to do this.
OK, my branch looks slighty different then Anna's drawing but I like it!
With a pencil, I added some lines into the plaster and with a handmade cork-tool, I'm going to carve the lines slightly deeper into the plaster.
Then I'm going to press a piece of clay into the carved plaster and see if I'm satisfied with what I just made.
I take the clay away...
Jip, I like it! If not, you do some more carving and repeat these last two steps.
I tear away the sides to get rough edges and make a hole into the pendant with the lino cutter.
Tada! Let it dry and fire it in the kiln. If you don't have a kiln, you can do this also with polymer clay, papier mache or air drying paperclay.
Have fun carving your own plaster!

Crochet attempt 4: I did it!

A miracle has happened or perhaps Tara from mamachee just mentioned the magic word in crocheting world: stitch markers. As I kept getting the start of the heel on the back of my work instead of on the side, she said I might be using the slipstitches as actual stitches and told me that I couldn't do that. She suggested to put a safety pin ('cause I don't have any stitch markers yet) in the slipstitches so that I wouldn't put an actual stitch in there.
It worked! It really worked! :)
Tara has been so patient with me and promptly answered all my crocheting questions with so much detail that I just couldn't give up. I knew that we would be able to do it! :) Now I'm off to buy some more yarn as I used more then I thought because of the 4 strands crocheting... and soon I'll be wearing my Oma House Slippers with pride and joy.
Thank you Tara for all your patience and perseverance to get me through this!
You're the best! :) Oh, and the size is simply perfect!

How to make a single mould?

As I have been making moulds the last couple of days, I'd thought I'd share with you how to make them. Moulds are very useful for repetitive tasks for example if you work with polymer, paperclay, ceramic clay, papier maché,...
Making a mould is not difficult, it's just a bit messy so you better have everything you need prepared beforehand.

This is what you need: plaster, empty icecream containers, liquid beeswax, clay, scissors, knife, doublesided tape, tape, modelling materials (only if you mould claywork), paintbrush, water, towel. Be sure to protect your surface with a plastic tablecloth and wear an appron if you're messy.
I'm going to mould an existing bowl. A bowl is an easy thing to mould. That way I can make loads of bowls like this...
Put some doubleside tape on the edges.
Press the bowl onto the placemat so that it sits firmly. Now no plaster can go on the inside of the bowl.
Since you'll be putting plaster on the bowl, it will need to come loose afterwards. That's why you need to put some beeswax onto the entire bowl. If you use clay, you don't need to do that as clay is cellular and will come off easy.
I always safe empty ice cream containers as they come in very handy for moulding. Besides, it's a good excuse to eat icecream. :) Cut off the upper part of the container and place it over the bowl.
Take some clay and press the clay firmly around the container. This way, no plaster can escape.
Make the plaster ready to pour in the mould. The plaster is good if it has the same viscosity then yoghurt.
Place your hand above the bowl and pour the plaster via your hand into the container.
Let it set until it's hard.
Take away the clay and try to get the real bowl out of the mould. If this is hard, you can hold it underneath running water so that it's easier to get it out. Let the mould dry before using it.
If you have left over plaster, don't throw it away but poor it into a container and let it set. You can do fun mouldcarving like this.

Next time I'm going to show you how to make a double mould so stay tuned! :)

Third attempt... right but wrong

This is getting slightly embarrassing... My third attempt at the slippers failed again but I'm SO learning from my mistakes so it's good to hang in there and give it another try. This time, Tara from Mamachee, advised me to use four strands of yarn and hook number 7. It worked on the size: it's finally an adult size and I suppose the yarn I'm using is too thin to use as a single or double strand for these slippers.It looks OK though, but it's not and I know I'm probably messing up on the sole already as the heel doesn't seem to be in the right place. And since the heel isn't in the right place, the rest of the slipper is neither. By now, I must have done the sole five times and I really don't know what I'm doing wrong there. Its quite easy to follow the pattern but somehow I don't seem to end in the right place for the heel to start so all the stitches move a little bit and I get a crooked slipper.
I think I might need Tara's advise once more. She really should be charging more for her patterns with pupils like me! :)

Second attempt failed

After I posted the picture of my first crocheting attempt, I also send Tara from Mamachee a bit more info so she could probably figure out where I went wrong. She told me that I didn't do the soles right as I didn't have enough stitches to follow the pattern.
So, I unraveled the whole thing and started again... This is the result:As for me, the first attempt looked like I crocheted too loose, I used hook number 7 for that as the pattern states but somehow it seemed too floppy to me. So this time I used hook number 5 and it's much tighter but also much smaller - LOL - this is for a four year old I think! I did follow the pattern for size 9/10 though so either my yarn is too thin and I will definately need to change the hook back to number 7.
I did mess up again somewhere on the last row but I'm really happy that now it actually looks like a slipper! :)

First attempt at the slippers...

OK, don't laugh, this is my first attempt at the slippers. I bought this lovely pattern but my slippers don't look like 'em at all. However, Tara from Mamachee, has been so helpful giving me advise and explaining more crochet abbreviations. It's a weird language, I tell you. Actually, I typed all the abbreviations out in the pattern because otherwise I wouldn't be able to read it. I messed up tremendously but I won't give up. Tommorrow is a new day and I'll try again.
It's nice to have a little change from claying for a while. I hope to finish them sometime this week though... :)Excuse me for the bad quality of the picture but it's hard to photograph at night without lightbox...