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Week 4: Handmade

This is my third and last presentation  this semester so let me present my hobbies. Today you will learn how to create something from nothing with minimal effort and skills.
You may ask why I chose it as a hobby, the answer is quite simple: for me the best presents are those which are handmade, because they show that a person which made them and then gave them to you made an effort and took time to do it. Besides, you are the only person in the world who has that handmade thing :)

Decoupage


Difficulty: easy.
This is a technique of decorating almost every surface (wood, metal, glass, fabric, ceramics or plastic ) with fragment of the pattern cut from the napkin or special rice paper. (to be honest normal paper is good to - you just have to use more glue :) ) Covered surface will look like a painted one. In my opinion it is quite easy and probably in every house you can find tools to decoupage. If you are interested in the topic here is a simple tutorial how to create a bookmark from things you probably have within your reach :)
You will need:
1. A piece of ‘hard/technical’ paper. A cover of a notebook is good enough, but a cloth tag is great for it, because in most cases it is in a good shape and you do not have to cut it.
2. Scissors.  If you do not have it you can tear up the pattern.
3. Glue for paper (if you do not have it look for an egg - the white of an egg is good glue!)
4. A napkin with the desired pattern - if you do not have a nice napkin you can print some pattern on normal paper.
5. Lacquer for preservation of the pattern. If you do not have such thing look for a colorless nail polish. If you do not have that either don’t worry it is not so much important.

How to:
1. Cut from piece of the technical paper your desired shape of bookmark or take your cloth tag and remove price tags - surface of it should be clean.
2. Cut or tear some pattern from the napkin or the piece of paper which you had printed.
3. Glue the pattern to the base!
4. If you have lacquer you can use it to preserve  the pattern. Usually you will have to put about 3-5 layers of it to your decoupage to make it completely waterproof - it is important if you are decoupaging glasses or any ceramic things  - because sooner or later probably you will want to  wash it and still have you pattern on it:)



Another decoupage examples:


Scrapbooking

Difficulty: normal
In my opinion this is a kind of decoupage but for different purposes - it is creating cards or photo albums from pieces of patterned fabric and a lot of imagination. Creating it is quite simple but I think it takes much more time and talent to make something nice. I love buying for my family cards created by scrapbookers! Please take a look at these little pieces of art:






Polymer clay

Difficulty: hard/nightmare
I know you could be surprised that I put “playing” with polymer clay on such high level of difficulty, but keep in mind that I’m not saying about creating suns and trees like in the kindergarten, but about real pieces of miniature art. So working with clay is really nightmare - you have to be really precise and know some tips and tricks to make your art realistic.
Please take a look at this: (I have chosen a picture which shows you how little these things are...)





You may ask what for? What for should I create this little inedible food? Some artists create jewelry from it:



Others are decorating phone boxes, headphone cases, etc…



Here is a tutorial how to make miniature bread and baguette.

1. Do you like handmade things? Or do you think they are only a waste of time?
2. Have you ever done anything by yourself? Did you enjoy it or was it a nightmare? (Things like "laurka" for your parent still count :) )
3. Do you know any other examples of handmade stuff?  
4. Maybe you can sew or knit? Share your experience!

Comments

This comment has been removed by the author.
Natalia said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
diana said…
I like the polymer clay things (didn't know it's called this way) the most, the final outcome is just great to look at and it certainly requires much patience and manual skills. And it's simply very, very cute :)
Basically I love the idea of handmaking anything, from bread to furniture. It gives you so much freedom and you can customize things as much as you need to. I can't say I have great manual skills, but I do like sewing - something which I discovered quite recently. It's so fun to make something just the way you imagined it. And it saves lots of money too ^^
Seisyll said…
I don't have so much will power to try this stuff, but I think that it is awesome. People can create so many amazing things and sometimes you just can't believe someone could make something like that.
Funny fact I heard from a friend, before medival people believed that every craftsman put part of their soul to make things they crafted unique.
Unknown said…
Handmade thing looks nice and give the person who got it feel thats special, because there is only one thing like this. Objects that are handmade are one of their kind. And it's better giftif you can make something like this with your own hands.
Ofcourse! I love giving a handmade gifts. Imho this is the best type of gifts, that are really personalized and you have an opportunity to get perfect gift for diffrent occassions.
Im am not really into backstage of handmade staff. I've got two left hands so... But i like thos tiny things :P
Natalia said…
@Diana I totally agree with You! Usually it is hard to get something which will be ideal at reasonable price ;) When you know basic of sewing you can always add or remove some parts of in example bag as you like.
Natalia said…
@Michał Wągrodzki Thank you for an interesting fact! It could be true, because things from factories looks all the same, but handmade things, even if created by same author, always looks different :) Like someone realy put her/his part of their soul in it.
Natalia said…
@Konrad Sosnowski not everyone have to create things by their own hands, in my opinion it is also okay if you "outsource" this and help the author to personalize it :)
armandstanczak said…
Well, really hard topic since it’s so extensive. You present so miniature food, jewelry some beautifications. But it is so much more than that. Like origami? I love ‘em. But, there is one thing we need to remember. We live in XXI century and 3D printing patents end next year. This opens the doors for so much more than we can imagine (then we will need more women in IT ;) ). I really hope this technology will become something we use every day.
armandstanczak said…
I've seen Your handmade stuff, it's "amazing" ;)
Personally I like homemade things, since I do think that when something is homemade it's much more meaningful. At any rate I don't think it's a waste of time. Myself I am rather clumsy, which makes me even more appreciative of people who do such trinkets and similar things. I admire people who can do things like those showed on the pictures of the presentation, my greatest achievement was exactly a gift card for my parents which I made when I was a kid xD. So yeah, I don't really do anything like this, so I am not one that has any experience to share. I still think it's a great hobby though, because it requires skill and imagination!
Yes, sorry my mistake xD. Deleted that one and posted another!
I’m not a big fan of handmade things like folk art of something like that. I don’t have that artistic part of my soul.
I hated those lessons in elementary school when they told us to do some useless stuff ourselves. But on the other side when you give something you made yourself as a present, that’s a great thing. In such occasions it doesn’t matter how pretty (or ugly in my case) it is. It just shows how much you care about that person.
Unknown said…
I agree that handmade presents are the best but only if you can use them in practical way for example handmade clock is great idea (tested).
Definitely it is not waste of time for people who have passion and simply love it.
I did laurka or even two long, long time ago but recently I had no opportunity to show my creativity to the world… :) but my girlfriend is doing decoupage stuff every day.
Here simple example: click (is there any way to put images in comments?)
So if somebody need a pair of strange shoes or earings I will deliver :D

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