Holiday Craft Fair

 

 

My first craft fair by myself (with my husband helping, he was my tech support). It went really well so I think I will do it again. This is what my display looked like. I even made hand painted wooden jewelry and ornaments. (If you are interested in these email me at ilgattoselvatico at gmail dot com I'm thinking about making more wooden jewelry this year and adding it to my shop. The fair I did was the Richmond Handmade Holiday. Let me know if you know of any other good fairs in the Richmond area  (VA, NC, DC, MD or Philly) that I should do.

Now that the holidays are over I have time to relax and clean...maybe I'll even start baking (moustache) cookies and canning fruit. I also have time to start working toward my 2012 goals of expanding my business both virtually and in the brick and mortar realm. I have plans to make more art and sculptures. Like these cat sculptures... Dilly and Tiger, mother and daughter cats who past away in the past years. They were a gift for my mother.
These are orders that I completed this past holiday season. You can order them at my shop. Many of them were custom made, you can order custom made portraits and  necklaces (or art) of your favorite places personalized with a heart for Valentine's Day.

Belts and Bracelets

 

Well there's only one bracelet but I have plans to make lots more using the snaps that I have used on this one and leather and some kind of embroidery or yarn.

1. Old belt that I found but that had no buckle so I attached some snaps to it so I could change the buckle. The buckle here is a vintage racoon buckle that I got in a trade with Emma Beans and More.
2. I made this belt to use up some conchos I had left over from some jewelry. It's also made of deer skin and of a silver plated buckle.
3. I made this belt to go with this dress and another black and white dress I have. I used what looks like a mother of pearl buckle that I found in my stash of stuff from my Great Aunt Mildred. I used the same deer skin as I use for the belt above.
4. Once again I needed a super cool belt for this dress so I took a piece of ribbon from my Great Aunt Mildred and bought the leather buckle and glued it to the ribbon (yes the fabric glue was the best thing).
5. This bracelet is made with the same deer skin as I used to make the belts plus some nail heads that I had left over from a previous project (shoe decoration) and snaps from my mom.

Good Things Come in Threes

Three is a very powerful and spiritual number and here are some new necklaces featuring "Three" > the 1st is Trinity Necklace -Three Brass Cubes and the 2nd is Honey Comb Necklace -Three Brass Octagons.

 This Coral Bullet and Blue Stone Necklace is very special because of the properties of coral-one of which is to reduce debt!

This is the Embroidered Map of USA Wall Hanging I love the colors and the way it turned out!
All of these treasures can be found in my Etsy shop.

Vintage Suitcase Cat Bed

 As my husband said, "it's fitting for a traveling cat to sleep in a suitcase" when we first brought the vintage suitcase home from the thrift store and Ranita, our cat, immediately started sleeping in it (even before it was finished. Our cat certainly is a traveling cat, the poor thing has been dragged from Rome to Philly to New York to Richmond in just this past year, and all last year, in New York, she was sleeping on top of one of our suitcases.
 I first saw this vintage suitcase turned animal bed on Etsy and then again on Pinterest and then decided as soon as I could find an affordable suitcase I would make one for Ranita. How I did it-first I cut the fabric inside that covered the hinges then I took off the hinges, using a power drill and a flat head screw driver. I drilled a hole from the inside where the pins were and then I pried them off with the screw driver. After that I folded the fabric over and glued it in place. Then I made the pillow, I measured the inside of the suitcase and then cut and sewed some old fabric together, there are two different sides (which you can see above), then stuffed it with shredded foam. I left the side pouches in, and they make a great place to store toys (see above). The whole thing cost about 7.50 but would cost more if I had bought fabric for it and could end up costing more if I add wooden feet to it which I'm thinking of doing.

New Chevron Neckaces and NYC Trains

 

This black chevron necklace and these other two chevron necklaces have been inspired by the gate of the New York subway trains that is placed at the front and back of each train in front of the the doors (see the photo above of the 7 train) and in between the cars. Next time you are in New York take a look and see if you see it.

As you can see, the black chevron necklace looks most similar to the train gate and the other two are more loosely inspired by it.

 I need a name for these two chevron necklaces, any ideas? I will be adding them to the il gatto selvatico etsy shop this week.

Red Houndstooth Gig Bag

I recently made a gig bag for my husbands baritone ukelele for his birthday. It has a red leather handle with velcro and two straps in the back so that it can be worn on the back like a back pack. It is lined with quilting batting and another layer of the houndstooth to give it some extra padding. It has a zipper on the side and a pocket the closes with velcro on the front.

Newest Brass Jewels

The Octagon Ring and the Gemini Necklace you can find them in the IL GATTO SELVATICO shop.

DIY Making Alterations-Turning a Dress Into a Cropped Top

 

 This was a ridiculously unflattering shapeless dress but I loved the ikat pattern and cowl neck so I cut that part out and turned it into a top. The ikat bit was just in the front of the dress so the first thing I did was cut that part in half and put the bottom half on the back. Then I took some natural colored cotton muslin and cut two long strips of it to add to the sides and two rectangles of it to add to the sides under the arms. In the photo above I have not yet attached the part to go under the arms.

 

 Finished product!