As those of you who have a hobby knows, there is no such thing as having one hobby. Most of us dabble in 2, 3 or more creative pursuits.
In addition to creating jewelry, I like to crochet/knit, make greeting cards/invitations with rubber stamps, ribbon & decorative papers, sew, cake decorating and making “chocolate” candy. It always starts with the intention of “making things to sell.”
We hobbyists continually accumulate the necessary “tools of the trade” whether or not we have a particular project in mind. As a friend of mine justifies this by saying, “if you don’t have it, you can’t use it.”
In my case, last weekend I attended Vogue Knitting Live, an annual 2-day smorgasbord for those addicted to the needle. Knitting needles and crochet hooks that is.
There were close to 100 vendors selling everything one needs (or not) to satisfy their craving and classes to learn new techniques including a relatively new obsession called arm knitting.
arm knitting
It makes me happy that this art form has gained so much popularity since the beginning of this century. Sadly, when I was a kid and was interested in this, it was considered very uncool. I didn’t know anyone who knew how to knit/crochet or was interested in learning how.
The coolest thing I saw was “knitted” glass objects by Carol Milne. I found this particularly interesting because she uses a jewelry making technique called “lost wax casting” to make these objects. I love that she was able to combine techniques from completely different disciplines to create unique art. Please visit her website and see her process.
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