CrumpArt » Jewellery

“somehow, somewhere, sometimes sunlight seems to come my way”

February 12th, 2008 by Crumpet

Today I nearly lost my teacups. And my marbles. It was the last day of two weeks worth of stocktaking at work*. I had no energy left and missed several trams. I ended up getting to work 20 minutes late. During the day, I found out that one of my coworkers had to flee Bosnia when she was five, with her mother and two week old brother. Not many people I know can, or would want to, claim that their luckiest moment in life was when the sniper didn’t shoot them.

After work I had plans to go to a yarn night — meeting with Australian Country Spinners (Patons, Cleckheaton, etc.) advertising agency to clue them in on the whole knitting thing. I left work at 5. The information man at the tram stop stuffed me around and I ended up not getting off the tram where I was supposed to in order to catch a connecting tram. I wasted half an hour. Then when I finally did get to Carlisle St in St Kilda, I realised it was the wrong end and I’d have to walk for about a kilometre to get where I was going. I was half an hour late that time.

Then, I intended to head back into the city for a coworkers going away drinks. I got off the train at Flinders St Station, walked up the steps, and realised that I didn’t have one of my bags. I went back down to the train, jumped back on for a minute, realised the train was not taking passengers and couldn’t find my bag. And just as I went to get off, the doors shut. And wouldn’t open again. I was stuck, alone on a train that was retiring for the evening.

The train started to move. I hoped it would stop at Southern Cross Station, but it didn’t. I panicked. And realised my phone was in the missing bag. I panicked some more. I contemplated pulling the big red emergency door release button, but the thought of dying while trying to cross the surrounding train tracks was a little too terrifying, and around that point in time I realised there was an emergency intercom. It didn’t seem to work at first, but I finally got in contact with the driver and did a fairly convincing job at sounding calm. Thankfully he was going to the North Melbourne train depot, and not the one at Werribee… He helped me off the train when we pulled up, and let me search all the carriages for my bag. I found it on the last pass through. I thought it had only had my current knitting and my phone in it, but when I searched inside, I found the bag of knitted teacups that I’d taken along to the knitting night. I hadn’t realised quite how much they mean to me until that moment. I almost cried with relief… although the tears could have been for other reasons. Did I mention that I’d been busting to go to the toilet for about half an hour? The ten minute walk with the driver back to the train station platforms from the depot was tough.

I finally made it to the city. My friends had waited for me and I had a couple of beers while being reminded exactly how funny and awesome they really are. I cried laughing at one point.

I finally walked through my back door while listening to Lithuania by Dan Bern. I found a package on my chair.

My Pay It Forward gift** from Lesley at Bird Ahoy.

As I was taking the photos for this blog post, another song started. One I downloaded for my now extinct podcast way back when. Sunlight, from thesquarerootofeleven. “Somehow, somewhere, sometimes sunlight seems to come my way” seemed like the perfect title. I cried again.

All the shit that happened to me today? Not even worth worrying about. I’m loved. I have wonderful friends, a beautiful partner, a family who would do anything for me. I get incredible packages in the post from people I’ve never met. I’ve never had to flee from war. I’m not the junkie whose blood had dripped over the floor and sharps disposal in the odd public toilet I had to use on Collins St. I’m alive.

And I have my teacups.

*Although I now have to go in for a few hours tomorrow to finish up some stuff.

**The Pay it Forward thing works like this: I was one of the first three commenters on Lesley’s Pay it Forward blog post, so she sent me a handmade gift on the proviso that I would do the same thing with my blog. I’m not going to make it the first three commenters though — I’m gonna take advantage of this to do some comment fishing. The names of anybody who comments on this blog post until the 20th of February (Melbourne time) will be put into a hat, and I’ll draw out three names at random for my Pay it Forward gifts — remember that you’ll have to follow through on the paying forward too. So get commenting!

Posted in Swaps, Universe, Jewellery, Art, Knitting, Random | | 10 Comments

Wedding jewellery.

July 4th, 2007 by Crumpet

I gots it done! We took this photo in front of a tiny piece of paper outside my parent’s caravan. Gotta love that kind of fancy-pants setup.

Posted in ZOMG! We're on holiday!, photography, Jewellery | | 0 Comments

pink moon’s gonna get you all

April 4th, 2007 by Crumpet

Just uploaded another pair of earrings to Etsy.

Posted in Etsy, Jewellery | | 1 Comments

Crafting a Madonna reference.

April 3rd, 2007 by Crumpet

Does this count, Alex?

Material Girl With A Pearl Earring, now on Etsy.

Posted in Etsy, Jewellery | | 2 Comments

Small Pleasures

April 2nd, 2007 by Crumpet

Whenever I have a dodgy week, I turn to the instant gratification crafts. It works a treat every time.

Those earrings are for my nieces. Of course, they both celebrated their birthdays about a month ago, but better late than never, right. This does mean that those of you who are in line to receive a gift from me have been bumped up the list.

I also made a little present for myself. I had a few sales from my Etsy store, so my Paypal account was built up a little. I’m making the jewellery for myself and the other bridesmaid in my sister’s wedding, and bought some pearl-happy headpins from my fellow Etsyans. One of the sellers sent me some copper rings along with my package, and I couldn’t resist making these. I’ve worn them every day since.

On top of all that, my lithograph prints worked out much better tonight, I took some excellent photos, my parents paid me a visit today and as a result I could afford to buy some paper to print on (Magnani and BFK, for any whackos like me who’re into in paper porn), and I’m in a better state of mind all around. Also, I love that I can chew properly on the right side of my mouth now.

Posted in General crafts, Jewellery | | 2 Comments

Like a Tiger

December 15th, 2006 by Crumpet

Like a Tiger 1

Originally uploaded by crumpart.

I’m loving Mr C’s new camera, and I also love that I found a use for the big tiger eye nuggets I bought a while back. They’re too large for earrings, and even for necklaces I think, but just perfect for these bracelets. The small round stones are agate. There are more photos on Flickr, and, of course, Etsy.

Posted in Etsy, Jewellery | | 0 Comments

It’s a GIRL BOY!

July 31st, 2006 by Crumpet

Harvey ~~Krumpet~~ Gosling was born this week, the third and final of the Andrew babies.

He’s extraordinarily cute and lovely, and the first baby ever to happily fall asleep in my arms.

harvey gosling

I made things for Harvey Gosling. Well, the red cardigan was for my nephew Tom, but I accidentally got really busy, and by the time I was able to see him again, he was just getting too big for it. So Tom will get a special summer cotton cardigan instead. And maybe a hat to match.

First up, Trellis from Knitty. I knew I had to make this for the Gosling as soon as I saw the pattern. Six months ago. It was my training for the Knitting Olympics, and I learned how to cable without a cable needle on this one.

(more…)

Posted in Jewellery, Art, Knitting, Random | | 3 Comments

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