Kool-aid and mohair yarn

Well I decided to try some Kool-aid on my mohair and I'm really quite pleased with the result and these are the steps I took:
1. Weigh out around 50 grams of mohair tops.
2. Soak in cold water until thoroughly wet through being careful not to handle the mohair too
much as you don't want to accidentally felt it.
3. Empty your Kool-aid drink ( the sugar free one) into a microwave dish with enough water
to cover your mohair.
4. Add the wet mohair and microwave on high for 2 minutes.
5. Allow to stand for around 5 minutes and then microwave on high for 2 minutes.
6. Do this three or four times and then allow the mohair to cool overnight in the water.
7. Gently rinse and then lay out to air dry.

My next project is to do this using ordinary supermarket food dye and vinegar. I will post the results of my experiment on Saturday.

New for 2009

As you may have gathered I like llamas. So I have decided to make a range of llama jewellery. Mainly working in silver and having them all hallmarked at Goldsmiths Hall London with my own hallmark.

The largest pendant is 1 and a half inches long and 1 and a half inches wide.

I also do custom orders for 22ct gold. You can contact me through by commenting on this post with your email and I will get back to you or you can contact me through my website link on my profile.

Llama news and WIP

It's about time I gave an update on what we are doing with the llamas after their long winter break. With the dry weather we have had just recently llama grooming is now becoming a serious pastime here.
Seth a lovely gelded male who will be four at the end of this year has a seriously thick fleece and will have to be groomed not just to harvest all his lovely fibre for me to work with but also so that the training harness we have for him will fit. In fact we might well be giving him a full shear this year. We are aiming to get Seth pulling a cart ready for the summer shows.
Loki our young stud to be is coming back into work to ensure he is fit ready for a summer with the girls.
Our young ladies are all haltering well.

On the craft front I may soon have another dragon to show you. Details soon....

How about an easter game?

Max's creations is running an easter game. Why not enter and see if you win?

A new dragon

Just thought I would post up a new dragon in the 'Dragons of Tollykit' range. His name is Lancelot. I hope you like him.

The image quality is not a as high as I would normally post but I was warned at a recent craft fair to put up poorer quality images to try and go some way towards protecting my work and all the effort that goes into coming up with a new design. It is sad that such things have to be taken into consideration.

I am however still planning to post up the story behind the Tollykit Dragons at a later date.

Inverted roundmaille

I have decided to be brave and put up the instructions for how I do my inverted roundmaille. I hope it helps and if you like it let me know and I will try and put up some other tutorial type things.

Ingredients: rings, chainnose pliers, washing up sponge and sewing pins

1 Make a 1-1 chain using 6 rings.

2 Join to form a circle and lay out on your sponge pad by pinning flat every other ring so that you have 3 horizontal rings and 3 vertical rings.

3 Add 3 new rings to the vertical rings. Each new ring passes through 2 of the existing vertical rings. Don’t worry if the vertical rings fall back as the pins will keep the horizontal rings out of the way.

4 The new rings have now become the vertical rings ready for the next layer. Repeat step 3. If you find your rings fall back simply ensure that the chain is fixed firmly to the sponge then pick up and turn the sponge upside down. The rings you have just added will hang down.

5 Keeping building up your layers repeating step 3 until you have the length of chain you require.

Once you have about an inch of chain you can remove it from the sponge and continue to weave it in your hands as normal. The finished chain will look like this:

Another llama

This week has been quite busy and I am hoping to put up a chainmaille tutorial in the next couple of weeks once I am finally happy with the drawings, pictures and text. But in the meantime I have finally finished my second llama creation - Loki.

Needlefelted from 100% mohair fibre. He too will be making his debut at the Easter Craft and Food Fair on 10/11/12th April 2009 at Oriel Parc Glynllifon, Caernarfon.

And of course there is a real life llama inspiration behind this furry fellow.

This is the real Loki.