Melbourne Craft Cartel helps patch up economic woes - Call to action! Craft-in demonstration to be held in Bourke St Mall, Melbourne CBD, Monday December 8th

The Craft Cartel will be supplying craft materials at the Craft In and encouraging passers-by to make a crafty gift or card themselves. The Craft Cartel will also be handing out an alternative gift buying guide, with plenty of ideas for Christmas gifts that don’t cost the planet or our communities.

On Monday December the 8th the Rudd Government is giving big cash bonuses to pensioners, parents, low income families and first home buyers. The objective of this handout is to boost peoples spending in order to keep the economy pumping. What the Government isn’t talking about is the most effective way to spend this handout to truly support the economy.

As crafters we understand the importance of buying handmade.
We want to give the community the message that if they really want to contribute positively to the Australian economy, they should forget the plasma tv and Buy Handmade and Buy Local this festive season.

Did you know?

• For every $100 spent at a locally owned business $45 goes back into the community and our tax base. For every $100 spent at a chain store only $14 comes back.
• Local business are more likely to purchase goods and services from other local businesses which dramatically reduces transport costs, one of the biggest causes of climate change.
• Handmade goods are unique, high quality and set trends rather than following them!

The Craft Cartel will be supplying craft materials at the Craft In and encouraging passers-by to make a crafty gift or card themselves. The Craft Cartel will also be handing out an alternative gift buying guide, with plenty of ideas for Christmas gifts that don’t cost the planet or our communities.

We are looking for more crafters, designers, makers and handmade retailers to join us on the street to spread the message of buying handmade. We encourage people to bring examples of your work and promotional material to spread to people on the streets. We want people to come talk to passers-by about the pressures they face trying to earn a living making and selling handmade goods.

So come join us on the street and spread the word amongst your communities about buying handmade!

RSVP on Facebook and spread the word!

Posted on December 1st, 2008 by LoungeKat
Filed under: News, She's Crafty, Shopping | 3 Comments »

Here’s a peek at the first run of LoungeKat textile prints.

The designs are digitally printed onto quilting grade cotton ( by Spoonflower ) - the fabric is thin but very easy to work with.

Overall I’m really happy with the result and I’m planning more designs for production in the next month or so. The process of getting a design printed is fairly easy and the turn-around was quick, especially since the printing was done in the US.

One thing I did find was that the red in my designs came back orange, this was a problem with the settings of the printer versus the settings in Photoshop. The problem can be fixed using a colour chart that’s available from the Spoonflower blog (which I’ll be using for my next run).

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with my fabric other than covering a cushion (with Late) and making a lampshade (With Blimey Skulls). The leftovers will be sent to my sister who is a bazillion times more crafty than I am and whatever she makes will look brilliant. I promise to post pictures when the time comes.

While we wait, does anyone have any suggestions on what to make?

Posted on November 19th, 2008 by LoungeKat
Filed under: She's Crafty | 2 Comments »

Hey everyone, I’m back!
For those who don’t know I spent a week of my holiday leave working on personal projects.

I was somewhat unsuccessful and ended up cleaning my room from top to bottom but I’m feeling much better now - Just in time for work tomorrow

One of my completed projects was an embroidery pattern made with the help of Sean. I was thinking of using one of my own illustrations but the cute and creepy nature of Sean’s bunnies proved more appropriate.

So here it is, the first of what I hope is a series of (free!) Bucket’o'Thought embroidery patterns.

Enjoy and be sure to email me photos if you make something with it!

I used a water erasable pen to mark the pattern onto the fabric.
I was able to do this using a window and some tape as a lightbox.

The finished product. (I’d have more photos if I remembered to take any)

I trimmed and stitched the corners under and it’s hanging on my bedroom door.

Download the Free PDF Embroidery Pattern Here.
Personal use only please!

Posted on November 10th, 2008 by LoungeKat
Filed under: She's Crafty | No Comments »

In my previous ‘ Munny Development’ post I showed you all photos of how I dyed it, now here is how to thread hair.

so…

Step one: Get all your equipment together…
I found that a long embroidery needle, a pair of pliers and a thimble were extremely useful. I also suggest that you sit by a heater or in a warm place so the vinyl stays soft.

I used black hair extensions from the discount beauty store for the hair, but you can also order hair on-line from DollyHair.com

I also suggest that you have something to tie the hair up with, like a hair band, and a comb as the hair gets tangled up fairly easily.

Step Two: In order to achieve different hairstyles the hair has to be sewn in with an appropriate pattern, I chose to sew the front section of hair in flat like a parted fringe area and the back will be long and tied back into a braid.

The style I’m trying to achieve is Indian Bride/Princess/Bollywood. (I know, not completely culturally accurate, but it will look good - I promise!

Step Three: Using the thimble to push the needle through the ’skin’ and the pliers to pull it through, thread the hair into the Munny. Once the hair is through, tie a knot in it and pull lightly on the strand of hair so that it secures in place.

As you can see I also had to cut the plastic ‘dint’ out from inside the head so I had enough room to manoeuvre the needle and pliers.

Step Four: Repeat (Thread twice for each hole) so the hair is nice and thick.

For this section and the look I was after, I re-threaded the hair into the head (Just above the ear.) then smoothed it down with a little bit of hairspray. (That I sprayed onto my finger and smoothed over the hair.)

So There you go! Phase one of hair threading, I don’t recommend this if you don’t have much time as it took me 2 hours just to do that small section (and that section is only half finished too.)

Here’s some pictures of the finished product.

Posted on October 8th, 2008 by LoungeKat
Filed under: How To, She's Crafty, Toys | No Comments »

How to dye a Munny.

Some of you may have an eerie sense of déjà vu - it’s Ok - I’m gradually reposting all the interesting articles from my old Vox account.  Pretty soon this will be my only blog so bookmark, RSS or subscribe for Email updates now.

So, How do you dye a Munny?

I’m working on a custom Munny Mobile for a show that’s coming up soon and I decided that I wanted my Munny to be purple.
I would usually use paint for this - but I hate the paint strokes and all the cracking and drying time involved so I thought I would try my hand at dyeing my Munny!

After a little bit of research I found a thread on the Kid Robot forum that had all the instructions on how to do this - and although it was really useful, it didn’t have any of the technical details I was looking for, this meant I had to wing it and pray that I didn’t completely ruin my exhibition piece!

The following is the process I used/made up. Enjoy! (And forgive the mess on my stove - it’s not mine, I’m rarely home- seriously!)

OK- before I started I gave my Munny a clean with sugar soap to get any marks and grease off - even though it looked clean I could feel the difference in the texture afterwoods. I then dried him off with an old towel - ( it’s better than paper towel as it tends to leave little bits of paper and fluff behind.)

I then plugged the holes in the head and the neck with Blu Tack (apparently it’s called Fun Tack in the US) so that none of the dye would get sucked into the parts and run out later and cause streaks.
Blu Tack can withstand high temperatures, but I don’t recommend boiling it as it will melt a bit and become hard to remove.

After I did this I rejoined the parts half way so that the dye didn’t pool in the joints but so I could also dye all the parts at the same time and get a uniform colour.

I used Rit liquid dye so I didn’t have to worry about any gritty bits that would ruin my finish - it’s more expensive but I find it’s also worth the piece of mind.

Rit liquid dye has to be added to hot/boiling water, the instructions will tell you how to measure the water to dye ratio and for us poor Australians it’s in gallons, so I just guessed - the water ratio is only really for cloth as it sucks the liquid in like a sponge.

Ok- this is the part where you turn a blind eye on my stove (yuck!)…

I don’t know how much this pot holds but it’s big! I think there was about 3 liters+ of water in there and half a bottle of dye… approximately. I brought the water to the boil and then added the dye and turned off the heat.

I put my munny into a sieve as the dye was impossible to see through and I was worried about losing parts in there and over dyeing them.
The flat spoon was used to pin down the munny (it floats because of the air in his body and head) it fit quite nicely in the neck join so it didn’t leave any marks on the body or head.

I dipped the Munny in the dye a few times until I got the depth of colour I was after - each time was for about 5 seconds. After each dip in the dye I rinsed him off in warm water so that I could check the colour and reduce the risk of streaking and blotching.

When I was finished dyeing my Munny I then transfered him into a bucket of clean cold water and scrubbed him with a toothbrush to make sure all traces of the dye was washed away. I did this in a bucket for two reasons.
One- we have water restrictions here in Australia and Two- I was watching TV

Then one final dry off and he is finished!
There was a few tiny little streaks, but nothing noticeable just subtle changes in the tone over the back of the head.

(Note: The pin mark on the front of his head is from an actual pin hole- this is for the next phase - Nylon hair like the kind on My Little Pony! ALSO note that dyed Munnys can fade if left in direct sunlight.)

Related Post: How to Thread Hair into a Munny.

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Posted on September 26th, 2008 by LoungeKat
Filed under: How To, She's Crafty, Toys | 9 Comments »