Monthly Challenge

I'm thinking about starting up a monthly challenge on Autonomous Artisans. It would involve us picking a topic for the month and all you talented people can make something in the theme of that topic and upload a photo of it on out Flickr group. I think if I design a kudos picture that viewers can award the photos they like best in the comments section under the photo we can easily add up all the awards each item gets. At the end of the month the items posted on Flickr that get the most kudos awards from other viewers would be featured over here on the blog. This would be open to all readers here and group members on Flickr to enter.

We are hoping that this will inspire people to try new crafts or take an existing craft they already do in a different direction. Every item would have to be handmade/created by person submitting it and would need to be titled with "Autonomous Artisan challenge (insert month here)".

Would any of you be interested in doing this?

Written by Lynne of PiratePixieCrew and Hyperloop Hoops

Weekly Challenge Round Up.

This week has been very tiring and annoying, with many things going wrong. I still haven't managed to finish my challenge item for this week. I need to go and get some more wood before I can. I'll post a picture of it when I have.

Some people that did manage to take up the challenge, and succeeded most admirably, were PrincessTigerMouse with a lovely gouache and watercolour painting and as she explained she has always preferred to work in thicker textured paints and watercolour type paints are a bit of a change for her. I think she did a fantastic job and I adore the colours she used.

This pretty painting by FireFly is also a watercolour. I love the way it is broken down into panels. The photo is a little small for you people to be able to read the writing but I'm told that top left it says "Do you remember before blue was a flavour" and the letter left of centre says "Dear you I am sorry Love me." My personal favourite panel is the washing line with the non matching pairs of socks. That's how my socks always end up. Fabulous painting!

This necklace was made and modelled by the most talented Fleassy. She sews, makes silver wrap jewellery, crochets, hand crafts masks, makes woollen hair falls... well pretty much she masters any craft she tries. This was her first attempt at mixed soldering and Celtic knot work. I think she succeeded!

These pretty earrings were made by High Desert Diva. It was her first pair. The green, gold and pink focal bead are so pretty. HDD has such good taste!

We also had a haiku entry from the lovely Lion for the Hands Challenge.

Wintered hands reveal
your fine autumn morning breasts
for my loving touch

Thank you everyone that joining in with the challenges. Remember no challenge is ever closed. If you see a challenge that inspires you from past weeks feel free to go with the flow and send me it to be included on the blog.

New Media Challenge

This week I thought we could all try using a new medium to create with. Mostly I work with wool, fabric, paper, tubing, tape and pens, but I feel the need to branch out a little. So why don't we all pick something new to try this week. You never know, you might find a new talent that you never knew you had.

As usual you can either send me your item via Etsy conversations or put a link in the comments on this blog post to what you have made/written/photographed/seen. For all the UKHippy crew that want to enter you can put yours on the thread in the Creative Forum and I'll stop by and pick them up. All entries will get full credit with a link back to any website/shop you might have.

Round up Time

Wow, it's already Friday. I swear someone is fast forwarding the clock. This weeks Challenge word was 'self' and it seems to have got people thinking. I've had a fair few people say they are working on it and quite a few people show me their entries already. So here are the entries I already have...

This first entry is from Beth. I met Beth through being a poi spinner. She is a really talented lady and has a heart of gold. A nicer person you couldn't hope to meet. For the last 300 days she has been participating in the Flickr 365 challenge and this is a collage of all the self portraits she has taken over that time. I find it amazing just how much Beth has changed in that time. She always has been stunningly beautiful but in the later photos she appears to have a radiant glow about her.


Both the above pictures were drawn by PrincessTigerMouse to represent herself. Both pictures, to me, have a serenity about them, a calmness and feeling of worth . The first one also shows openness in the pose, so although I do not know PrincessTigerMouse all that well I get the impression from her pictures that she is at ease with herself and a fairly happy person.

Nutty Jo (as she titles herself) looked at the challenge in a different way and took the challenge word and used the letters of it to describe herself. This is what she came up with.

S seldomly sensible, slightly silly, sometimes serious, sociable,sentimental & sorrowful
E easily excitable, endlessly embarrassed, earthy, eccentric, efficient,
emotional & eclectic
L largely likeable, loving, listless, lost, liberal & lavish
F forever fearful, facetious, forgetful, folksy, free-thinking, fun-loving
& fair-minded

If you have any entries that you wish to share with the readers please let me know and I'll add them. Thanks to everyone that has already shared their view of self with us and to all those still working on them just let me know when they are done and I'll add them to the blog. You people constantly amaze me with your talents!

Oooooooo some late runners and racers!

We have a couple of late entries to the sunshine challenge from Nutty Jo and Princesstigermouse.

Nutty Jo penned this haiku...

Sunlight on my skin
Makes me feel alive again
Wakes me from my sleep


Which led PTM to write...

Golden orb dripping
Tiny sparks of life and hope
Into my dark palm.

Sunshine challenge round up.

We have had fewer entries than normal this week and I'm guessing that's due to the lovely sunshine making people want to go outside and have fun, which is fabulous. I do have a few photo entries to share with you that show off the effects of sunshine.

Princesstigermouse dyed her hair with henna this week and took this photo of the sunlight shining on her new rich red coloured locks. You've made me want to dye my hair red now PTM.



The 2 pictures above are from Sarah, showing her day trip to the beach with her son. I love the colours of the sky in the beach photo. That son of yours has the most innocent face and sweet smile. I bet he gets up to mischief. The innocent looking ones are always the ones secretly putting worms in your shoes.

I'd like to share this song with you. Now I have no idea why or what it is about this song that makes me feel warm and smiley inside but it does. When The Polyphonic Spree's first album came out and people kept raving about it, I thought they were crazy, a large choir of people in white robes wasn't really my idea of good music, but then I decided to sit and listen to it and see what they were all raving about and I have to admit it has some strange feel good quality to it and you just can't help but smile when you hear the songs. I quite often put the CD in the player when I'm feeling a bit washed out and low. It gives me the same kind of buzz that African tribal music gives me. I guess it just speaks to my inner rhythm.

Have a fabulous weekend all!

Sunshine Challenge

Due to all the lovely weather we have been having here in South Wales this weeks word for the challenge is 'Sunshine'. It's been so fantastic being able to just potter about outside in the sun. Yesterday I even managed to hula hoop for 15 mins. The first time in ages. I did have to come indoors afterwards and have a lay down, but hey it's better than nothing, right?

One of my beautiful nieces hooping in the sunshine last summer.

If you want to join in the challenge this week all you have to do is share with us something inspired by the word sunshine. You can either send me you item via Etsy conversations or put a link in the comments on this blog post to what you have made/written/photographed/seen. All entries will get full credit with a link back to any website/shop you might have. It's all just for fun so let your imagination run wild.

Stars, wizards and hand warmers

So it's Friday and a good day to put up some of the entries to the weeks challenge. So Hands was the topic and we have had a lot of people join in this week. Thanks to everyone that put effort and time into joining in! I know how busy your lives get so it really makes me smile lots to think that you are inspired enough to take time out of your schedules to join in.

I actually made time this week between making hoops (pictured in the background) to make my wizard Frank the finger puppet. I'll be honest, he isn't entirely finished. If I take his hat off he is bald and in need of some hair. He also needs a wand and maybe a cape.

Errol the Velociraptor seems to think Frank is dinner, but I'm sure with all his magic powers Frank will be able to get away! So, now onto some of the infinitely better entries than mine.


The lovely PrincessTigerMouse entered these pictures of her hand with her impressions of what her hand means to her written on it.
She also created these recycled fabric hand and arm warmers. A very talented lady, I'm sure you will agree.

This picture was taken by StarPixie who I have known for sometime. She is someone I much admire and love. For such a petite lady she is packed full of talent and beauty. You can see more of her gorgeous photos on her flickr account.

This is a picture of a mothers hand on an unborn child. The mother in question is the lovely Sarah. She already has one son, so this will be her second child. Hello little belly bump!Grow strong and healthy little one.

Rosebud has also posted on her blog 3 gorgeous photos that speak volumes about the things that are most important in her life. Rosebud, thank you for joining in each week! I appreciate your support.

We also have another blog entry from the most fabulous Mithi. I met Mithi through going to Home of Poi gatherings. Again she is a petite lady packed full of talent and beauty. Take a look at her blog and see just how talented she is. My personal favourite item on her blog of late is the pirate ship. Although it's hard to choose with so many fabulous artworks to pick from.

Thank you all so much for joining in!

Hands Challenge

This week we have chosen 'hands' as the word of the week. Why hands? Well in the last week both Jon and I have cut, bashed and bruised our hands in one way or another and it reminded me just how important to me my hands are. Without them life would be very difficult.

If you want to join in the challenge this week all you have to do is share with us something inspired by the word hands. You can either send me you item via Etsy conversations or put a link in the comments on this blog post to what you have made/written/photographed/seen. All entries will get full credit with a link back to any website/shop you might have. It's all just for fun so let your imagination run wild.

Tree Challenge

This weeks Challenge word is Tree. I picked it because Jon had gone to stay with our friend Nick for 2 days to help him plant an orchard of apple tree saplings. Nick is starting up a Cider making business, Ceri Valley Orchards Ltd, and is planting the new orchard so that in years to come he has new trees full of yummy apples. The business is in its infancy so you won't be able to buy the cider yet, but I'll let you know when it's on sale.

Add to this that yesterday I found the gorgeous shop Hi Tree and you can see why I picked the word.

Again it's all for fun and as a bit of inspiration for people to try something new and share it with the rest of us. So all you need to do is create /write /document /photograph something that is related to trees. Either send me a convo on etsy with a picture of your item or a copy of what you have written or comment on this blog entry with a link to your blog article with the tree related item/prose.

This morning I received another entry for the Spider challenge from Buttons 'N Such. What a pretty little leather cuff! Thanks you for joining in Buttons!

I love them because they make me smile!

So this week's challenge is all about smiles, and because of that I want to share a shop with you that never fails to make me smile. Mixed Species is made up of a group of friends that design amazing, fun, silly, sometimes irreverent, wonderful creations. I've featured items of theirs before on this blog, but I think it needs to be said, all of you people that have never had the good fortune to stumble upon their shop or website, go take a look. Something, if not everything, will make you smile!

This has to be one of my all time favourites of theirs. The colon plushy! Sheer genius!

Congratulations on hitting the big 700 sales mark guys! Your designs are brilliant and you deserve every last one of those sales. Thank you for making me smile and laugh so many times. Oh and you do know I'm only being nice about you so you don't send Elephant power saw man after me don't you...

... hehehe

Naughty me!

Well Jon didn't get around to making one, so I South Parked him.

I guess I should add a photo of him to prove he doesn't look like that. Ermmmm... thats not so helpful either is it. the strange thing it I can't remember why he is dressed like that or what I have in my cheek (I'm the one walking through the back of the shot).

Now if this one of him spinning flags doesn't make you smile nothing will... well it makes me smile. He's just sooooo buff! Phwoar!

Smile some more!

So I've not slept too well, and I get up at 6 am, after hours of staring at the ceiling, I make myself a pot of tea and some toast and sign into my blog. Who should be waiting there for me to see?

This gorgeous smiley lion from Rachel of Red Thread Plushies and

This smiley South Park picture of the ever so fabulous Baldylocks

So life's not so bad after all, even though I'm running on 3 1/2 hours sleep, you fabulous online buddies can still get me to raise a smile. Thank you!

Ok so here is me as a South Park pirate. I'm very sleepy now, hence the eyes. I couldn't find the old one I had of me so I made this one. Jon says he will make one later to post. He didn't like the one I made... hehehehe I wonder why? *evil grin*

The Smile Challenge

So last week I was very slack and only managed a doodle for the spider challenge. I promise this week I will try harder. The topic is "Smile". So all you need to do is create /write /document /photograph something that will make the readers smile. Either put it on your blog and put a link in the comments in this post or send it to me via the etsy mail to user name Skully and I will post it up here on this blog for you. It's all just for fun, so join in if you feel able.

For starters I'd like to share a recipe with you that should, once made and eaten, make you smile a lot.

Chocolate Truffles

1 lb (450g) Good dark chocolate.
6 fl oz (175ml) Double cream.
1 oz (28.35g) Ground almonds.
1 oz (28.35g) Cocoa powder.
Small amount of flavourings of your choice. eg 2 tablespoons of rum/brandy or 3-4 drops of vanilla /lemon/orange flavouring.


1. Break chocolate into small pieces.
2. Gently heat Dbl Cream in a saucepan until it begins to come to the boil. (DO NOT BOIL)
3. Remove pan from the heat and stir in chocolate pieces until melted and smooth.
4. Now its time to flavour the mix. Split the mix into smaller amounts and flavour. Examples of flavourings, vanilla, rum, brandy, lemon, orange, mint, chopped nuts. Don't over do it when you add the flavour especially with the citrus as they can cause the mix to curdle.
5. Add the ground almonds and stir in.
6. chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
7. remove from the fridge and using a teaspoon scoop out a small amount of the mix. Dust your palms with the cocoa powder and roll the truffle into a ball. place in a paper truffle case or onto a tray.
8. Decorate the tops of the truffles with curls of chocolate , chopped nuts or citrus zest.
9. Store the truffles in the refrigerator and eat within 7 days.

If they last 7 days you and yours must have more will power than me and mine :)


Parallaxphotography has added a beautiful picture to her blog that defiantly made me smile as did Debs, such a pretty smile! High Desert Diva has written a great blog entry for the smile challenge. MissFire has also added some really lovely photos to her blog today that made me smile a lot. Thank you for joining in!

The Spider Challenge

So last week we had Robots, lets have spiders this week. This is all just for fun, but if you want to join in you will be more than welcome. The challenge is to create something spider related in the week and either send pictures or the written word (if it's a story or poem) to me so I can post it here on the blog or post it on your own blog and add a comment on this one with a link to it. Any that you enter will be linked back to your site/shop and full credit given. So get creating! I can't wait to see what you all come up with this week.

Out of the Pink Sky has just sent me the link to these spiders to share with us all. Cute earrings!