10 Cute Handmade Autumn Finds

Is it too early to declare that Fall is here? I don't see any leaves turning color yet.

I'm not sure that any small animals are storing up foods in their burrows. I haven't seen any fat, fluffy, winter-ready squirrels bumbling across the yard.

In fact, the tomatos haven't all ripened yet. The cucumbers are in the peak of their harvest. The grass is green as ever.

But I refuse to believe that it's too early to look at cute fall stuff! After all, in Maine, fall comes on quickly. (And if you like shopping online for perfect handmade items, now would be the perfect time to make your choices and put in an order.)

Here are 10 adorable, cozy, and autumnal finds!



 1. Foxy Bike Handwarmers

These Bike Fox Hand Warmers will make a perfect autumn/fall/winter accessory. They are soft and cozy and they are one of those items that you just don't want to ride a bike without.

The Etsy artisan, WarmYourself from Poland, makes them in kids' sizes too.











2. Beeswax candle collection shaped like antique jars and bottles.

This brilliant wax burns longer, brighter, and cleaner than any other wax on the planet, actually ionizing the atmosphere and pulling dust and allergens from your sweet home air as it burns.

Each collection is hand-poured to order.

These lovely candle sets come in various shapes and sizes, all based upon antique canning jars and bottles. Lovely.





3. Lemongrass Green Hand Knit Hat with Wood Button

This thick and chunky knit hat is the perfect little number for comfort, style, and warmth - jazz up your autumn/spring/winter wardrobe!

The yarn is a wool and acrylic blend, with zero itchiness! The button is genuine wood.

I love the big, big button! It's a great accent for a chunky knit. The color is awesome, too.

By UpNorthKnits.









4. Pumpkin Cheesecake Lip Balm

"Sweet scented Pumpkin Cheesecake Lip Balm! Such a fun flavor for adults and kids alike."

That sounds too good to pass up!










5. Fall Yarn and Felt Striped Wreath

Celebrate Fall and it's beautiful colors with this gorgeous wreath! Featuring striped yarn with coordinating handmade felt flowers in orange, warm yellow, tan and chocolate brown finished with cream pearls!

This wreath is unique and beautiful! Have the best wreath on the block!

One of a kind by Anita Rex Designs. Check it out!





6. Autumn Glass Acorn Decorations

Gorgeous faceted glass with real acorn bead caps. These beautiful little autumn gems come in a pack of six.

They would be perfect for accenting a fall centerpiece or keeping in a small, beautiful bowl. By WhysperFairy.











7. Artisan Collection Felted Soap

These lovely felted soaps are perfect for a hand soap in the bathroom or a personal soap and scrubbie in one.

The gorgeous green and gold variegated wool soap (middle) is a great fall color and is scented Pomegranate Pear. Made by TurtleWorksShop.

For silly autumn felted soaps, try Sapling Naturals' mini monsters, Halloween Owl in a Tree or the adorable Wise Owl by Englefelt.



 8. Crochet Knit Leg Warmers

These look so cozy! Perfect for early fall. By Designer Scarves World.

These soft leg warmers are a thin delicate light weight design, fitting just perfectly under boots. They show themselves off with hand detailed off white knit lace and off white faux buttons.

The Pointelle Openwork knit is on the height of fashion trends looking absolutely fabulous over skinny jeans, leggings or tights. Give your 'any-day look' the perfect bit of lacey flair!

And get ready for people to stop and ask you where you got them!




9. Mustard Yellow and Seafoam Green Leather Journal with Antique Skeleton Key

Wow! These journals by Binding Bee are very special. The journal is created from repurposed leather and handmade paper.

The leather is thick and heavy with a gorgeous oil-rubbed finish and a feel so soft that you will never want to put it down.

The journal closure uses a leather strap and antique skeleton key in a wonderful sea foam green color. The book is hand-bound using a 600 year old binding technique that is incredibly sturdy and long lasting and allows all of the pages to lay flat when the book is open.

Record some drawings and thoughts under falling leaves this fall. 





10. Autumn Tutu Dress

"This tutu dress features the warm colors of fall; scarlet, brown, gold, orange and yellow. Yards and yards of tulle is hand looped and tied around a brown crocheted bodice. Scarlet flowers and gold ribbon give the finishing touches."

Made by My Sugar Muffin. Aw! ❉

Inhuman Design: Strange and Beautiful Animal Homes

We love to decorate our homes and ourselves. As far as I know, we humans have been adorning ourselves ever since we became, well, human.

But if we thought we were the only animals to decorate, we would be mistaken. Creatures from insects to birds create beautiful homes, nests, and coverings for themselves.

Sometimes they do it by accident- the materials around them simply end up as part of their decor. Sometimes the beautiful design comes as part and parcel of building strong structures for living or storing food.

Other times, the decorative effect is painstakingly intentional, often directed at wooing a mate.

Here are some unusual, beautiful, or just unexpected animal homes.

These caddisfly larvae probably didn't set out to create beautiful jewelry, but their careful work arranging rocks and sticks can just as easily be put to work with precious metals and jewels. The provider of these precious stones is French artist Hubert Duprat, who calls himself a collaborator in the artworks. He has been working with caddisflies since the 1980s.



The bower bird, on the other hand, is an intentional decorator. The male creates elaborate nests, strewn with a beautiful array of found objects. The nestmaker on the left chose blue as a color scheme, but the color and design choices are up to the individual bird. White or blue collections are common, but multicolored designs are possible too.

Both natural and human artifacts find their way to these birds' nests. The female bower bird is extremely picky, so the style of the nest and the strength of the collection is extremely important. She may visit many nests before making her choice.

 Looking almost like a beast unto themselves, the nests of African social weaver birds are amazing to see. These are the largest bird nests in the world, and home to hundreds of birds-- entire extended families living together in complex structures.

The nests may endure for over a hundred years and generation upon generation. The structures retain heat, keeping the inner passageways warm throughout the night.

We often think of honeybees in human-created hives, pollinating gardens and crops. Sometimes the silo-like formation of their nests also becomes an unwanted presence in a shed or other human space. But in the wild, their nests are quite beautiful, with honeycombed lobes.

Harry the crab lives in the Discovery Area of the Atlantis Submarine Voyage exhibit at Legoland Windsor, Britain. Admittedly, he did not build his own shell (although that would be something of a feat, with pincers...) but he chose it above all others offered to him. I guess it might have been a bit embarrassing for Legoland if he hadn't. Perhaps there are a hundred other Harrys in a tank in the back, all of whom preferred regular shells and will live out their lives in obscurity.

A rare species of bee, Osmia avosetta,  make these delicate nests, constructed of mud and flower petals. The solitary bees use them to protect their offspring; once the eggs are laid and food stores provided for the little ones, the nest is sealed up. ❉

Pushing the Limits of Polymer: Cool, Weird Clay Creations

Polymer clay is an astonishingly limitless medium. It can be used to create the tiniest of picture-perfect objects. Miniature pies, with each berry glinting in the light, can be fashioned by expert artisans. Detailed animal figurines, looking just like the real thing, can emerge from blocks of polymer clay. Fine artists and playful worshippers of various television shows and comic genres can equally exploit the qualities of polymer clay to create objects to suit their fancy.

Here we check out a few unusual polymer clay creations. They might not be something you'd like to own personally, but then again, inspiration comes in all forms. These creations show off the possibilities of polymer clay.

Here's a mindblowing piece of artistry: A complex, twining set of octopus tentacle jewelry by Kaity O'Shea aka KTOctopus. Can you imagine wearing this? If so, what with? Something tells me that no matter what you wear with it, this jewelry's going to take center stage.

These Animal Cling Rings are by Japanese artist Jiro Miura, working under brand name Count Blue. Miura creates these exquisitely detailed animal rings as well as figurines; his designs have also been used to create mass produced phone plugs and rings. It's a lucky artist who sees his work become so popular.

Baby seal rings by Jiro Miura	An attention-getting ring for sure.

Low cost and ease of use make polymer clay an ideal choice for unorthodox one-of-a-kind creations. Above is My Little Batman and Robin by Jodi Moisan. Moisan's precision with these handcrafted My Little Pony-based superhero figurines is astonishing.The exact reasoning behind creating My Little Ponies dressed as various characters from comics and movies isn't quite clear, but they're nothing short of adorable.

Joe Fig is a man of many mediums, but this diorama comes from his series of table sculptures of artists' studios in their full splendor and disarray. This particular table sculpture shows the studio of April Gornik. These studio dioramas were gathered together into a book, Inside the Artist's Studio, which is introduced this way:

"Inside an art gallery, it is easy to forget that the paintings there are the end products of a process involving not only creative inspiration, but also plenty of physical and logistical details. It is these "cruder," more mundane aspects of a painter's daily routine that motivated Brooklyn artist Joe Fig to embark almost ten years ago on a highly unorthodox, multilayered exploration of the working life of the professional artist. Determined to ground his research in the physical world, Fig began constructing a series of diorama-like miniature reproductions of the studios of modern art's most legendary painters..."

Fig uses many materials to construct his unusual tributes to the artistic process, including polymer clay.

Another by Joe Fig, this one depicting the studio of Dana Schutz.

With its blendable, vibrant colors and translucent options, polymer clay works well for skin, even the delicate  rosy skin of weirdly tiny babies. Adorable? A little creepy? The talented Camille Adams creates these tiny polymer clay babies.

Some polymer clay artists test their skill-- and even make a living-- creating tiny lifelike foods in 1:12, 1:24, even 1:48 scale. The miniature polymer foods are purchased by collectors for well-appointed dollhouses. This fish spread was made by Stephanie Kilgast.

Last but not least, Afsaneh Tajvidi steals our hearts away with her beautiful polymer clay snails. ❉

What's On My Workbench

Fun, big ring parts to be assembled. The ring shanks are created from sterling silver. The polymer has a sterling bezel set and the sparkles are Swarovski crystals from Austria.

To be completed: (1) A jacquard peach and fuchsia disk bead necklace, (2) BoHo pendant and earrings set, and (3) flat dangles in mint and emerald. ❉

 

Beyond Zentangles! Extreme Doodling, my newest obsession

Early extreme doodle

Pieces from my work bench. You can see the fun
use of just black and white.

Oh boy, just what I need: another compulsive thing to do! I am newly infatuated with something I call extreme doodling. Extreme Doodles are sort of like "zentangles," but without the structure, specific steps or instructions (yuck!).


black & white
All of the possibilities of design can be explored within the limits of black and white. Black and white design is the foundation, the beginning of all design. It's also a very exciting place to play-- both with doodles and with polymer!

My creative obsession with lines and black and white patterns began when I started working with black and white "canes" in polymer clay. Polymer caning is where design with polymer often starts, just as a two-dimensional design might start with a doodle. In caning, sheets of clay and long pieces are combined into a single "cane," which can then be lengthened and sliced into thin sheets. Canes can also be combined with even more canes to create ever more complex and beautiful designs.

Polymer clay artists like myself have an almost infinite array of colors to choose from-- and as you know, I love color! Yet in black and white design, we find that the reversal of figure/ground, the black line in white background-- and then the reverse-- is so very fascinating. In extreme doodling, it's all about exploration.
Extreme doodling 

Try it yourself! There are no rules!

• All you need to start is a light sharp pencil, white paper and fine markers. Sometimes I start with a border. It can be wavy like the first example, or straight.
• I then let my mind wander a bit to shapes I like and that come naturally to me. Just like doodling. I then plan out a little bit to arrange what I think will be the most dynamic composition. Play a little with shape and size. Big verses little. Dark verses light. I tend to like things that are organic and sea-like. I also favor links, as in chain links. These are components in my jewelry making and come somewhat naturally to me.
• Think about what comes naturally to you or that you find appealing. Remember to let it flow -- there are no rules. The possibilities are endless.

Very ocean-inspired.

Plant life.

 

Floating pods.

  

After you give it a go, I would love to see what you have come up with. If you create an "extreme doodle" of your own, send it to suzanne@yikestudio.com and I'll put your doodle on the blog!

I am looking forward to adding a little watercolor to my drawings at some point, and maybe trying some colored fine tip markers.

 ❉