Sharon Golding Designs

 Life for me is about staying alive, keeping active and learning new things. Latest thing to catch my attention is sewing.  Never really a sewer (or should it be “sewist”?) in my younger days, I find recently a strange draw to the sewing machine and fabrics.  Well, to be perfectly honest the fabric came first, became a bit of an obsession even, so once I had a fair stash I really needed to use it.  Enter the self learning of how to sew. I’m starting with simple things first, a pillowcase.  What can be more simple? Straight stitching.  Not a problem… I thought! My dolls are all laying around waiting for a new wardrobe of clothes, grumbling about their lot, but tackling a pattern is not yet on my agenda.  I’ve had to talk them into being patient. ;). First things first, straight things… simple makes that will be completed fast to keep my interest alive! Choosing the fabric for my new pillowcase is my first task.  Out comes the stash. Several hours l...

 So I was given this poor little lady to restore as she had fallen apart, literally!  She is a Denys Fisher Jennie doll, a tiny little lady at 7 1/2 inches. After cleaning off the sticky stuff (seems she was glued at some point), I then set about restringing her. Removing the old elastic which had perished proved to be easier than I expected.  There was a tiny holed plastic pieces inside a tiny cup which the elastic was threaded through.  Could have used a finer gauge elastic cord to replace the original, but I went with what I had at hand and it seemed to work pretty well. Very pleased with the outcome!  Dressed in her original brownies uniform, Jennie is looking a lot more put together!  I’m busy now sewing some new clothes for this dear little doll. Feel free to comment or contact me if you need advice on restringing dolls.  I really enjoyed this little challenge. Until next time! Love Shari 💕

 Hello everyone! When I’m stuck or in need of motivation I always look for a challenge.  It gets me off my butt and making.  It’s great fun too. So with this in mind I signed up to take part in the Find Your Joy challenge this year. So far I’ve only done assignment 1, but my goodness, it’s such fun! Take a large piece of paper.  Using masking tape divide it up into either 4 or 6 sections.  Then using just 3 colours plus black and white, play, make marks, mix colours, have fun.  Paint over the tape disregarding it.  The only limit is to keep within 30 minutes. When finished, peel off the masking tape and magic happens! I enjoyed it so much it became almost addictive and I now have lots of little paintings to use in my journal or as collage or book covers, whatever. I decided to use yellow ochre, ultramarine blue and magenta as my 3 colours plus mars black and titanium white. First try:- Old masking tape gripped paper so hard and ripped it when removed! ...

This was such fun to make and I changed things as I went along.  Using a glass bottle (this one is a gin bottle as I rather liked the blue glass) and some air drying clay, I left gaps for windows as I wanted to add lights inside.  An egg box was used to create one wall as it was my intention to make it look like stonework (kind of like crazy paving). Originally I intended to make the roof with strips of card stuck to the bottle stopper, but then I realised this would not be practical as I couldn’t easily open the bottle to add the lights or replace them if necessary (when the battery fails).  So I scrapped that idea and chose to make the roof slightly lower down. I used little strips of wood for the panelled door. Will get some updated pics of the progress shortly. Happy creating!  See you soon. Best wishes Shari 😊  

 Hello everyone! Thought I would have a play with mosaics once again.  I’m self taught and have only made a few projects with mosaic, but it’s a very satisfying craft and quite easy to do. I have an old wooden cabinet in my bathroom that I wanted to brighten up and to mosaic seemed a really good option.  I cleaned up the top and proceeded to design the mosaic.  I wanted to keep with my nautical theme in the bathroom and designed a fish for the centre of my mosaic.   Before grouting Grouting done!   You can’t tell from this photo but I added a little pale blue acrylic paint to the grouting which really seems to harmonise the whole piece.  Just got to clean up and give it a rub up.  I’m very happy with the finished piece and it’s so much brighter and cleaner than just plain wood. I hope I’ve inspired you to have a go with mosaic. I’d love to see what you make, if you’d like to share.   It’s really satisfying and quite addictive! See you soon. ...

 Sorry for my recent absence from the blog, I have been incredibly busy with my painting and other creative works that I will post on the blog shortly.  But first, I just wanted to talk about painting fantasy paintings.  This is really outside my comfort zone but always eager to get to grips with a challenge, I decided to have a go with some moon paintings. Firstly, “Harvest Moon” painted in acrylics on canvas. “Harvest Moon” acrylics on canvas I began by a simple drawing of the pathway, tree area and moon on black canvas. Using a limited palette, I set about blocking in the main shapes - And then I began to refine: Adding in more detail: I hope you enjoy the pictures of my process.  The second fantasy painting was “Lovers’ Moon” again painted in acrylics.  I’m really starting to enjoy using acrylics, even though I normally  use oils.  Not sure this one was as successful as Harvest Moon, but I enjoyed painting it.  The only thing with this one was...

 Hi All This week has been busy on the craft front.  Mostly little experiments and ideas at the moment, oh yes, I’m full to bursting of ideas!  Just not enough hours in the day. This post will be about the bits and pieces I’ve been working on this week. Firstly, an update on my sewing themed linocut.  I’ve refined the design, made the needle look better and had a general tidy up. Still in need of a little more work but it’s getting there. Sewing Linocut Next I worked on the little flower rubber stamp.  It needed more definition, so I outlined the centre and marked out the petal separations.  What do you think, better? Flower stamp The sewing box is still a work in progress, but here’s the original box with a new lid cut out as the old one was rotten and beyond repair.  I have the hinges, etc to reattach.   Sewing Box Project Will bring you updates on this as they happen. Finally, some pieces from my art course:- Ink & Wash   Ink line draw...

 Hello everyone, sorry I’m a little late with this post. Well this week has definitely been a printing week.  I have once again succumbed to the lure of linocut printing! I wanted a design centred around another of my hobbies, sewing.  I am upcycling a sewing box (which I will publish here later) and am considering using a linocut print to decorate. Having arranged some sewing elements - scissors, thimble, button and needle - I drew the design directly on to the Lino. Then I used my Lino gouger to cut away the area that was not part of the print - the part I cut away is the negative space around the design elements. As I am completely self taught in the art of linocutting I am not sure if my technique is correct, but it works for me.  At this stage I am reasonably happy with the result.  I had finished cutting and was happy with the linocut, so I tried a trial print to identify areas that needed more work. At this stage I felt either too much ink was used or I n...

Linocut Printing What a joy to discover something new, unique and beautiful in my craft skills.  Only a beginner at present but I'm loving what I have discovered so far.  Linocut printing.  Draw the design onto the Lino block, then cut away the negative space with the special tool, a sharp gouger which has different heads for different thicknesses. I enjoyed designing this bee and was delighted when it printed out so beautifully.  I must admit it took a couple of sessions to complete as it can be tiring on the hand and this was quite a large design.  But it was well worth it and I was very pleased with the result. I hope you like it too.  If you’re considering trying it out for yourself, go ahead, you won’t regret it! Best wishes Shari

 Hi Everyone, Shari is back in the room!  Well, in the blog anyway, 😂. I have been trying my skills again at the handmade rubber stamps.  I have designed a flower stamp and a logo for Sharon Golding Designs… just the initials. Having bought a supply of rubbers, I got out the gouger again and set to work.  After drawing my design and transferring it to the rubber (back to front so that it comes out correct when inked), I started removing the negative space around the design with the gouger.  Care must be taken especially close to the design as one false move could destroy the whole piece.  So if you do try this yourself, remember to take your time and remove just a little at a time. Using the gouger to remove the negative space around the flower design Taking care not to remove any petals from the design. After a while I used my trusty penknife to remove more rubber enabling the design to stand out. The penknife used with care flattened out the cutaway sect...

 It has long been my desire to make a lampshade for a lamp that was gifted to me and I have at last accomplished this. With no real idea of how to go about it, I ordered some lampshade backing which is stiff kind of polythene stuff on which to mount your fabric. The fabric was an easy choice as I have mountains of the stuff from my sewing obsession period!  Having chosen a pretty blue-ish country pattern, I set about making templates of the wire sections to be covered. I used stiff card and simply pressed it against a section of the wire skeleton shade.  As there are two distinct sizes on my shade, I had to make two templates. Here are the two completed templates.  I used these to draw around to make both the fabric sections and also the backing mounts.  After drawing four of each template on to my backing mounts and four of each on to the fabric, I cut out the sections.  I think cut out the pieces. The polythene backing came with a sticky side so I was abl...

 So I have been working the silver again and so far managed to make two pairs of earrings, two silver rings, and a silver pendant. My favourite the silver twist earrings, they’re just so beautiful. Thanks for dropping by. Best wishes Shari

 Now here’s something interesting.  I was playing around with polymer clay with my grandchildren, just showing them how you can make things like jewellery and Christmas decorations then bake them in the oven and hey presto! You have something that lasts. I then started getting out some scraps of sterling silver and here’s what I came up with.  To make it even more resilient and hopefully long lasting I coated the clay with clear resin.  I’m quite pleased with this and will make it into a pendant. This is the front with the diamond cut into the silver And here is the back with the polymer clay coated in clear resin. What do you think?  Any ideas that could help?

  Recently I have got back into my jewellery making.  I love silver work and have made a number of sterling silver rings (see pic) and am now trying to get to grips with something a little different, kinetic jewellery.  There must be a way of making small items that move and I am starting experiments to do just that.  What are your thoughts?  Any ideas are welcome. I’m going to try something using copper first as it’s cheaper so if all goes pear shaped I won’t lose any precious silver.  If it works with copper then I will try it with silver. I will upload some pics of the ideas I’ve been playing around with.  When I get time I would like to upload a video or even some step by step photos of how I make my jewellery if you are interested. Stay safe.  All the best, Shari x