A Parliament of Owls

This Parliament (I am told this is the correct collective name for owls!) of owls have left Coccuveda in Rothbury to their new home south of the Tyne to take up their important position of gracing a Christmas Tree!

This was a special commission for a lover of both owls and Tartan so mixing the two these little characters were created. Each one lovingly hand sewn, which did take some time.They maybe small but there is quite a bit of work involved in their production, from cutting out all the separate pieces, searching through many button jars to make sure there was enough buttons the same,hand sewing all the various elements together, then the stuffing and embellishing. Eventually commission complete and they are heading to a home where they will be adored!
It may be a while before I am ready to sew another owl!



 These cute reindeer are quicker to produce!

New Arrivals.

 Some of Coccuveda's clever crafters have been working hard and have delivered some new pieces that are creating a comfy cosy space in the shop. The lady behind Ragbags has beautifully re-upholstered some nice vintage chairs and she has also brought an old Singer Sewing machine from 1935, with its original instruction booklet, all are now for sale in Coccuveda.

This Lloyd loom style set would look lovely in a bedroom the fabric is just bright and colourful.

Perfect for country cottage style decor this 1960s seat could be comfy fireside chair

     

I am having to excerise a lot of self disipline as I could quite easily find house room for any of these vintage pieces, that is not the purpose of the shop though, I have to remember that I am there to sell not too buy!!!! I repeat that to myself quite regularly!

That Christmas Mullarky!

Well, my scheduled crafting activity that I had worked out recently, to give equal time to sewing, jewellery,  wire etc and Saturday my Christmas making day.......... it all went a bit haywire as Christmas seemed to take over my crafting brain cells. Trees, hearts and peg doll angels, more icicles etc were adding to the collection at the expense of everything else.



Well today I redressed the balance and out came beads, wire and seaglass and  I topped up my Seaglass jewellery range as I have been really pleased with how well it has been selling. It is also a nice reminder of warm sunny times, beach combing to find  all the beauty from the beach that goes into making this collection.

Christmas Trees and Stuff!

Saturday's Christmas day resulted, after a while, in these fabric Christmas Tree decorations. With a good old rummage in my fabric stash I found these lovely green fabrics that just instantly said trees! I had hoped to make more of the Christmas bead and wire icicles but Coccuveda had many happy shoppers on Saturday so time only allowed for three trees.
Well there is still plenty of time until Christmas!!!!! Isn't there????



I have been busy with other things over the past few days, a matching set of  earrings, bracelet and a long lariat necklace made with blue howlite gemstones with a bit of crystal sparkle in shades of purple.
 Seemingly Blue Howlite is supposed to
have a calming soothing energy which helps to still the mind and relieve anger and anxiety, should be perfect to wear while Christmas shopping!

Blue Howlite and purple lariat necklace

Dingle Dangle!

No, I am not one for taking the easy option in things that I make.  Today, for instance, I had set myself the task of making earrings. I realised that Coccuveda was lacking in earrings and they always make such a nice personal little gift so Tuesday was earmarked for lobe accessories day.!!!
I could have taken the easy way got out the headpins, earwires and beads, sat and threaded and no doubt could have produced a canny few pairs, in the time it took me to get 5 pairs made.
The trouble is I am not a fan of creating the same thing twice, i like individual unique things, which is also the essence of Coccuveda.
So wire and pliers were Merrily twisting, hammer and steel were smoothing and hardening, beads were matched and threaded, then unthreaded and matched again, many swarowski crystals were broken and lovely pearls dropped and instantly swallowed into oblivion on the floor. Eventually I had some unique, sparkly dangly earrings ready to put out for sale............ just not as many as I had thought, but I do have to assist lovely customers in the shop at the same time as making and also answer the telephone to all the cold calling utillity/telecom/ppi calls!!!!!

Beauty from the Beach comes in many Colours

It has been a very busy creative week here in my Coccuveda world, I have now tried to organise my days so that seaglass jewellery, beads and wire and fabric and felt get equal amounts of my attention. That is the theory anyway.
Monday was my Roving Rothbury Reporter day  http://coccuvedarothburydaily.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/roving-rothbury-reporter-does-afternoon.html

Tuesday was a sorting out and organising beach finds day followed by a bit of sea glass jewellery making.
Wednesday and Thursday were sewing felt and fabric creatures..... more owls and some more little Tweeters brooches.(pic will come soon) had no time left to package and photograph them.

Friday was a jewellery day, I just love making the Beauty from the Beach Mosaic pendants as the colours you get are so different from what you would really expect from the beach. There are the shades of green and blue but the surprising colours are the mauves, pinks and reds,

Dream Catcher pendants have been proving popular so I managed to get another couple made.

According to my work schedule tomorrow, being Saturday is a Christmas day, so will have to get cracking with Christmas Crackers!!!!

Cute red squirrel!

I heard on BBC news the other day that the rate of decline of our red squirrel population here in Northumberland has slowed down, that is good news for Tufty here and all her friends ,that might appear here soon if i can speed my hand sewing up a bit!!!