So I wanted to do some needle work just so that all my time isn't consumed in making puppets and being constantly covered in latex! I met this lovely fellow over a year ago now at Westonburt Arboretum but he has become the subject for my needle to bring to life.

I'm stitching this freehand but traced the outline of the 'Wol' first and stitched over this to ensure the end result resembles some shape similar to my friend above!

As a fun little extra for this project, I'm creating a time lapse video as I stitch so that I'll be able to watch dear little Wol come to life before my eyes. Here's a sneak peek of where I'm up to so far:

I've been feeling crafty! I wanted to have a go at making my own paper; with the idea of my librarian character in mind I thought I'd have a go at making paper that included old book pages which I could then use in relation to that project.

Ironically you have to make paper out of paper so I started by ripping up different papers: white, brown paper bags, old books and finally I tore off strands of what I believe is some sort of brown and wirey insulation:

These had to then be left to soak in water overnight before mixing them all together in a washing up bowel and adding a small amount of liquid starch. Adding the starch meant that once I had made my paper, pen ink wouldn't bleed on it.

Using a flat wire mesh that I found in a charity shop I siphoned some of the paper mixture out from the bowel, then squeezed all the excess water out. I then left this to dry on a tea towel.

Here's my finished outcome! I had a go at making aesthetically different pieces of paper, changing the amount of different types of recycled paper in each batch. I'm sure you'll see these being used in part of my librarian project in the near future.