Christmas Decorations

Its hard to take pictures at night. :/ But here are some of the beautiful handmade decorations we have warming up our household! My roomie Tabitha found this fun snowflake material at JoAnn's, so she had to create some stockings. When I hung them up, they were a bit lonely, so I used construction paper and cardboard to make us a fireplace! It's pretty warm-feeling, especially when I leave my scrap rug in front of it.  Tonight, I finished making snowflakes and hung them throughout our two main rooms. All that's lacking is the tree. And there are plans to get it next weekend! ^_^

Oh, the snowflakes on the front window are Tabitha's as well. She was keeping me company while I made the fireplace.

Basketry: Update I

So, I've been working on the basket-making. I decided to make one for my mother for Mother's Day. Didn't quite get it finished, though. :/ I decided to try and put a turtle and wave design on it. Whew! Switching between that many colors is kinda hard. I'm using two colors together to make the blue water--one fluffy to give it some fun texture and the other a plain yarn so it's not teeny tiny. I'm also using two different colors together for the shell--the green I'm using for the turtle skin, plus some bright green floss (I hope I don't run out of it!). As you can see, I'm about halfway done. Interrupted by papers and finals....

Here's the almost complete first basket. I didn't know how to finish the top, so I made up a weaving method to make long straps. Perhaps they'll go together to make a loop? I haven't quite decided. You can see the wave pattern I decided on. It made a good intro to switching colors. 

Also, this type of basket weaving technique is called "twining."

Basketry

So in my Native American Art History class, we learned how to make baskets! I opted to learn to make.....this kind, I don't remember what it's called, instead of a coil basket. You don't really need anything but the string and your fingers. Well, scissors to cut the strings, but that's it. I'm just learning, but this is what I have so far! It'll end up pretty small, but I'm okay with that. I wonder if it will stay that closed? Maybe I should weave it looser? *shrug* She explained basically how to do a pattern and add colors, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to try and make a wave pattern around the middle. The process is very nicely repetitive. It would be fun to make a bunch of little ones as presents!