Leaves of Lorien - Awesome Artist.

I've got a new necklace, and I'm seriously in LOVE!

I bought this gorgeous necklace from the awesome german artist Muriel Leland from "Die Perlenzwerge".
To have a look through her stuff just visit her gallery and shop.
Check out her shop, she's beading a lot of really great stuff there.

When she showed some pics of this very LOTR and goth at the same time I just new that this was destined to be _my_ precious *gollum*

The tiny leaves, the roses, the old clock (not functional although), and the earrings are leaves and roses too.

courtesy of "Die Perlenzwerge"

 courtesy of "Die Perlenzwerge"

 I'm in looove :)


denocte

Heaven can wait, but not for its capsules.

Nespresso chic is in, I know.
And jewellery made from Nespresso capsules isn't really a new thing too.

BUT.

I really really have to post this, because my grandpa made them for me!

One day my 76yrs old grandpa thought "what a pity to throw all those colourful Nespresso capsules away. Maybe I should use them for some crafty project."
Then he started collecting the capsules, cut the silver foil and peeled it off, threw the left over coffee away.
With two wooden trays he then squeezed them just using his hands, than he added some super-craft-wood-whatever he found in his workshop-glue and put two capsules together and squeezed them again, this time using the trays AND a bench vice too.

Then he had funny tiny little capsule beads.
With a hole punch he borrowed from me he made two holes into the beads.
Then he searched for a chain and added the capsules to the chain by bending the chain links open.

I also sent him some earring hooks, which he instantly used to create simple nespresso earrings.

My grandpa is 76yrs old, his eye sight is really bad now. In earlier years he used to be in his workshop all day making all kinds of funny things. But never ever something this tiny.
Actually, my grandma is involved a lot too: She always has to tell him, which colour the capsules are he uses. Because he can't really differ from red to brown or blue to grey and so on.


Enough said, here are the first pictures of his first creation.
Many more to follow, I packed a parcel full of beading stuff (all made for big hands and much bigger than the ones that I would use, but he wouldn't be happy with tiny girly jewellery stuff ;) ) and he is busy drinking coffee and collecting the capsules.

Love you, grandpa!

denocte

I won ;)

Look what I've got!

Those who know me are aware of my situation and know that I had six quite rough months.

But somehow everything seems to, well, get better and my life is getting more and more „ordinary“ every day – the good kind of ordinary ;) that keeps you healthy and friendly and prevents you from doing stupid things.

Furthermore I'm so lucky these days!

Last week I didn't only win a pair of Esprit Jeans and got a job, I also won the great giveaway from talented Steampunk artist „LadyLamb“, who was featured in Marysews Blog.

I entered the contest and really won!

The price was a 13$ voucher for LadyLambs etsy shop. Although I couldn't really decide, all her stuff is just so cool, in the end I chose this beautiful and funny Airship gear necklace.

I loooove the idea!

Thank you so much, both of you!

I wore it yesterday and everyone was looking at the necklace.

I heard „where did you buy this?“ about 4 times ;) (Always proudly referring to you!)

Keep on doing what you're doing, you're doing great ;)

denocte

Look what I've got!

Since I don't have any finished projects at the moment (but I'm eagerly working!), I thought I could show you some of the beautiful things I've got.

Felted Handwarmers with Jersey Lining
My mother got me those for St. Nicholas' Day. She bought them at this sweet shop here. "Colino".
They are soo cute, and warm and cozy *heart*


Button Necklace
My Grandma (she's the best) got me this really cool necklace. She bought it at a crafts-christmas-market-thingy, and, as always, she picked out something for me exactly my taste. It's both old and traditional and new and funky ;)
The necklace is crocheted, and every other loop a button is sewed in. It looks gorgeous, but is really heavy, I have to practice wearing it *g*



Buttons
And since my grandma noticed, that she actually owns some buttons that were also used in the necklace, she gave some of her old traditional buttons to me :)
aaah, I think they will find some really nice new homes on my clothes!



Secret Santa Bags
The sweet FragileDreams made two wonderful toiletry-bags for me. Both really cute, goth and black and white *love*
The smaller one is made of plain black fabric and the white-black ikea twine fabric as lining. And it has a ribbon with a clef on it!
The big one is made of jacquard-like fabric and blackandwhite stripes fabric :) And she made a beautiful kitschy flower brooche, I think I will wear it, it's too cute to be seen "only" on a bag.
Thanks again!

Hatpin

I managed to claim this beautiful hat pin giveaway made by ParaNoire. The detailed pics are to be seen in her Blogentry.
I'm very happy with it, and I already made some pics to proof it *g* Denocte au naturel, without makeup and everything *g* (and feeling very funny. haha)

Thanks for those great gifts!

Time to scarf!

Best Friend's Birthday Scarf


In the end of December is my very best friend's 2-something birthday. She is really important to me, so every year, I try to make something special for her. But there are some traditions.
Though we don't see each other that often, I will always remember her as a person who's addicted to the colour violet :)
Last year I made a tiny bag thingy for her beauty products big enough for everything you need for a long night out, and small enough to fit in a lady's handbag.

This year (as I'm totally fixed on those beautiful yarns ParaNoire spins) I knitted a scarf for her.
ParaNoire made a bunch of lilac/violet/black yarn for me, mostly cotton, so it feels really good on your skin, and then I started.
See her Blogentry for detailed pics of the wonderful colour- and fabric-changing yarn!

Knitting with normal knitting needles doesn't really look good (my opinion). So I tried another concept: (Don't laugh!) I used one knitting needle, and my fingers.

Sounds weird? It is, at least if you try it first.
I didn't need more than 10 stitches (loops?), because they are reeeeally big. Instead of the right knitting needle (the one you knit with) I did use my index finger and the middle finger. When I was done with one row, I put the loops back on the needle: turn around, same story all over again.

Really simple, and I love the look.
Since I think that the yarn is special enough (It has little beads in it... so great!), I didn't use any extraordinary knitting techniques but knitted just a really simple plain scarf. Any complicated pattern would have been too much :)

I put it on for a try-out shopping day, and it's perfect. Although the loops are very big, it's really warm, doesn't itch and looks great to a black coat.

You can wear it "normal", just dangling cool round your neck:



I like the way it somehow "shrinks" together, but if you want to, you can wear it like this too (look how big the loops are!) I actually really like that the ends of the fabric scraps were somehow a bit loose in this yarn, they look a bit like ribbons added on purpose to the scarf :)



Or you can give it a little spin and wear it like this:



Something funny: My boyfriend didn't really grasp the concept of "wait till I'm ready, then take the pics..."

The inaugural stitches

Hello there,
Denocte proudly presents the first entry in her new blog.

Inspired from the wonderful project of ParaNoire, who helps fabric and yarn leftovers finding a new destiny and spins them into wonderful and really unique yarn!
We swapped materials and so now I'm the proud owner of those two crocheted projects:

The cool indie wraparound necklace
The yarn simply was _made_ to be a necklace. Seriously. It was not very long, so it was clear that you should make some accessory out of it. First I tried knitting the yarn, but since it was not really long and knitting was somehow too "stiff" I decided to do a bit of crocheting. After some time I found out, that it looks best if you just make a really loose chain. I used some black feathers and a ring with black stone beads too, I just stuck them into the chain while crocheting.
I really like it, my boyfriend doesn't - but well, I'm the one who will wear it ;)






And the kitschy sweet hairband/necklace
Since the yarn was muuuch pinker in reality than it looked on the pic, at first I wasn't really inspired. But then I just tried a bit and then I knew it: this will be my new hairband / necklace.
Again i crocheted the yarn, but then I spun (?) it with itself, so i got a thicker band of really pink and gloriously irregular thick garn. Exactly as I wanted :)
Finally I decorated it with a pink bow made of a leoprint net fabric and two buttons. Those are more than just decoration, I use them for adjusting the length:
Short: Wear it as a band thingy in your hair
longer: Weat it as a necklace again :)











Unfortunately I have brown hair now, this colour would have fitted perfectly to my black-pink hair. Now it's kind of strange *lol*

It was definitely not the last time working with this kind of yarn. But I still need some practise, I want to find a method how to knit this yarn and still have this loose look.
Ideas?

denocte