Kate came up to London yesterday, so we went to the Bead Shop in Covent Garden and I bought some beads and Alice bands, wire and snout-nosed pliers and got very excited about the idea of making something. I like making things. My Kevin goes for walks in mountains to clear his head; I make things.
So I got home and had about half an hour before Kev and I had to go out, within which I managed to knock up most of this:
We got back relatively early, so I finished it off, and started a second one, which I finished today:
I have to go to the Covent Garden area tomorrow, so I'm going to pick up some more Alice bands and beads and make a few more. It's surprisingly easy, and it means I can play with different styles and designs until I find one that I really love. I'm using glass beads for these, but the real thing will probably be Swarovski crystal and garnet.
I've also spent quite a bit of time over the last month or so making lace. I learnt how to when I was at middle school, and over the years I'd pick it back up again, just to make sure I still could. About 5 or so years ago, I bought a some new bobbins and a cushion, and I dug those out from storage in my parent's attic last time I was home. I've spent quite a few evenings since making samplers to firstly get my old 'chops' back, and secondly see what sort of lace I might like on, say, oh, a wedding dress.
Yes, the plan is for me to make the lace to trim my wedding dress, although I am still short of an affordable dress-maker, so still in a bit of a stress about that. Need to make more phone calls.
I'm also going to make my own veil. Frankly, it looks like a pretty simple job, and I'll have fun decorating it and making it all look pretty. But given that a nice tiara can easily cost around £100, a veil £100 - £150, and I hate to think how much it would cost to buy hand-made lace, I think I'm better off spending a bit of time making stuff.
Besides, I'd forgotten how nice it is to make things, rather than obsessively refresh Twitter every 30 seconds.
