Goldfish in a Lightbulb - At Last!

Finally, thanks to the half term break, a goldfish in a lightbulb is ready for sale!

He has been knitted in an orange and lime-green varigated crochet yarn, with tiny orange sequins sewn on to his body.

His eyes are safety back glass.

The two different kinds of weeds have been crocheted and knitted from green crochet cotton.

It took me over an hour and a half to get him satisfactorily arranged and secured inside the bulb - stuffing him into it was the easy part, getting the wires of the three components sorted and stable was another matter.  However, just before I was ready to chuck it across the room, it all came together and by this morning the clay was dry and hard and the whole thing ready to be mounted into the wooden base.

This will be in my Etsy shop later today - first come, first served!

I knitted this little Angel Fish last night, the varigations in the crochet cotton making exactly the right stripes - more by luck than judgement!  He's a bit big to go inside a lightbulb, but a few of them might look good on a mobile....

Clearing The Way......

Just finished the portrait of Brian - awaiting approval now.  This was a pure watercolour, nice to work in a traditional way.  Seeing it on the screen, I have just noticed something that needs to be done - argh!  At least it has been completed before the half term break, which means I am free for a week to pursue other projects.

One such project is putting this little fishy into a lightbulb.  He is just over an inch long - I do like making these! 

Seahorse in a Lightbulb

Finally got a lightbulb filled and ready for sale!  It's taken a while due to other commissioned commitments and also the time it takes to get all the bits and pieces ready for assembly when making one of these.  The base had to be varnished, the weed had to be knitted and stiffened, then the seahorse and weed had to be put on to wire and arranged within the bulb to look pleasing.  This is the hardest part of making these, as you not only have to control 3 pieces of wire, you also have to somehow wedge them into a piece of clay and get the angles right while jamming the clay into the base of the lightbulb.  It took me over an hour......

This will be in my Etsy shop tomorrow when I have taken some better photographs in daylight.

Still Looking For a Home....

As it has been two weeks since I pulled Caren's name out of the bowl and unfortunately she hasn't been in touch to claim her prize, I thought it only fair to hold a re-drawing to let someone else have a chance at winning this.  The name picked out this time was Marissa Brenton - let's hope she comes forward!*

Amongst the miles of garter stitch scarving I have been knitting, I am still slogging away with a tiny tea set, which is proving to be very time consuming due to the thin baby yarn and the 2mm dpns.  I need some elves to come in the night and help me out!  So I took a break to use thicker yarn and sensible sized needles to make the tray upon which to serve the tea - felt very good to be able to finish something in only a couple of hours!

*Hooray!  Marrisa got in touch very fast indeed and the goldfish will be on his way to the USA very shortly!

All Present And Correct......

One of the great advantages of living with a fellow craftsperson is being able to get them to make the stuff you can't! My DH restores vintage racing cars and is highly skilled when it comes to metal and woodwork.  So when I said I needed wooden bases for the fish-in-bulbs, all I had to do was give a rough description of what I wanted and shazzam, two weeks later I have a bunch of perfect bases ready to be used.  He is a clever chap!

Yesterday I also managed to find the perfect wood varnish, and with an unexpected trip to Hobbycraft (heaven for the crafter...) I also got some terracotta air drying clay for fixing everything in place at the base of the bulbs - we are now good to go!

It's been a week since I held the draw for the prototype goldfish in a bulb and the winner, Caren, still has not been in touch.  I shall give her a few more days but if I still haven't heard by the 10th May, I shall pick another name - I need to know how these guys travel!
Update - new winner has been picked - Marrisa, who has been in touch.

I'm still plugging away at knitting these scarves.....it's not very creative knitting yards and yards of stripes, but it has to be done. I'm past the half-way mark at least.

I have a new painting commission...a portrait of Dangerous Brian!  He's a horse and doesn't look very dangerous to me, but then I don't ride him!

What's On The Needles This Week....

A tiny seahorse - an experiment to see how small I can make one and whether or not he will fit in a lightbulb.  Yes he does, but he has yet to make the final cut as I want to see the colours available in my pack of crochet cotton that's on it's way, although it has probably floated off down one of the rivers that have taken over our roads at the moment....

After much experimentation and wrestling with 2mm dpns and baby yarn, the final pattern for the mini teacups is sorted and the tea set is on it's way.  I can't wait to find out how to make a teapot!

What college would choose these colours to represent them? Beats me!  I have to knit about 5 metres of this colour scheme - at least it keeps you awake!  That's not true actually - I was drifting off fairly early on yesterday evening and have made a serious mistake in the centre of this scarf - I'm hoping that by some careful cutting and grafting I can sort it out as I cannot face unpicking and re-knitting half a scarf!

We Have A Winner!

The draw for the goldfish in the lightbulb has just taken place, using the ultimate in high-tech equipment. Paper and pen.....

.....scissors, followed by.......

....folding!  Placing in a handmade papier mache bowl!

The superbly crafted random generator....Stacie!  (She's my daughter and believe me, nothing could be more random than a ticket picked by her!)

The winning name is CAREN - if you could get in touch with me at the e-mail address at the top of the page, I will get the goldfish wrapped up and sent to you asap - let's all cross our fingers that it makes the journey to wherever it is going in one piece!

Unfortunately, two weeks on and Caren never got in touch,so I had a re-draw and the winner is Marrisa Brenton...who sent me her address very fast and will be getting a fish in the post!

I have just ordered lots of different coloured crochet cotton with a view to making more mini sea creatures for stuffing into lightbulbs.  I have taken on board the suggestions for different little critters and will be definitely attempting (note *attempting*) octopi and seahorses - the seahorse was on my list anyway, who can resist a seahorse!  Give me some time though as I still have a mountain of commissions that I am slowly working my way through - is there a medical condition called Knitter's Strain, 'cos I think I'm developing it...

A Sort Of Tutorial...

Quite a few people have asked me how I managed to hollow out the lightbulb - if you want a sensible tutorial, have a look here. This is where I learnt to do it.

However, if you want to see how I did it, here we go.  First assemble your tools on a tray - it gets messy. Also, do wear some kind of safety glasses - there will be all kinds of crap flying about.

Make a cup of tea.  See sense and remove cup of tea from work area.

Pry up the little metal disk on the bottom of the bulb using a kitchen knife.  Stab finger.  Go more carefully.

Remove little metal disc with pliers - sometimes the wire from inside will come with it - not today.

There will be a tiny hole where the wire poked through.  Embiggen this hole...I started with a screwdriver....failed...tried the kitchen knife - stupid.....tried a skewer - nearly....found a set of mini tools that I got free in a cracker at Christmas and the tiny thing with a screw on the end was perfect.  Once the hole was big enough, I used the big screwdriver to start breaking up the purple chunk of glass. And a hammer.  Carefully.

Have a swig of tea.

To get the purple glass pieces out, enlarge the hole by bending back the metal edging with your pliers.  Tip out purple glass and then pull out the remaining wire filament.

There will be a long thin piece of glass inside the bulb - this needs to be carefully broken with the screwdriver and tipped out.  I cannot emphasise the word carefully enough - first time I tried this the screwdriver poked straight through the lightbulb and I had to start again.

See how close the screwdriver is to the bulb?  This is not good.

Tip out all the bits of glass that remain in the bulb. 

There will be a rim of glass in the metal section.  This has to be carefully broken to englarge the aperture.  I used my pliers and carefully snapped it piece by piece.  Notice how often I am using the word carefully?

Drink some tea.

Using your industrial strength kitchen scissors, carefully snip the jagged metal round the top of the hole and make it even.  Retrieve pieces of rogue metal that pinged across the room into the dishcloth.

After making sure there are not bits of glass left in the bulb, fill with soapy water and gently wash using a soft toothbrush.  Not your own toothbrush, one that you keep downstairs especially for this kind of thing.  This one I got free on our flight to Boston last year.

 Twist a piece of kitchen paper into a point and gently insert into the bulb.  Use the handle of the toothbrush to swab around the inside the bulb and dry it as best you can.

Compare actual amount of tools used with the optimistic two gathered at the start.

Finish tea.

Scrape glass and wire debris off tray into a  paper towel.  Remove shard of glass from finger. Carefully. Wrap up glass bits and throw away.

 Inspect hands for damage.  No blood here....

...or here.  Yay.

Take gratuitous photograph of dog who has been whining for his dinner for the past half hour and really getting on your nerves.

Feed dog.

Put bulb back in it's box, hole upwards, and balance on the top of a radiator for any residual dampness to dry off. 

And that's how I did it.  Unfortunately, I cannot fill the bulbs yet until my partner comes home from Belgium with the wooden bases he has made for them - no point in putting fish inside until there is something to anchor them to.

There are still a couple of days left for you to enter the draw for my original fish in a bulb.  Good luck!

Oh My Goodness! Time for a Giveaway!

Every day I have a quick look at the stats for my blog and website just to check that anyone is popping in to visit.  Yesterday I got an almighty shock as the figures suddenly sky-rocketed into the hundreds - surely this had to be a mistake?

But no - the lovely Jen over at Cake Wrecks had featured my little goldfish in a lightbulb on her other blog, EPBOT, and out of the blue I was swamped with visitors.  It feels a bit like having a mass of people turning up at your house for tea unannounced when you haven't tidied or vacuumed the carpet for three days and you are still in pyjamas with unbrushed hair.....you are very welcome, but please excuse the mess!

So, as the general opinion is that I should make more of these little gems, I'm holding a giveaway for the prototype on the condition that you accept the state it reaches you in!  My main concern about making and selling these in my Etsy shop is that they might get broken or the contents of the bulb move about in transit. So, just leave your name and a comment here and in a week I will draw a name randomly and send the bulb wrapped as best I can to the winner.  You just have to let me know if it reaches you in one piece and if possible send me a photo if the fish has moved inside. 

As to commissioning one of these, please get in touch - I will be making more with different sea-creatures in at a later date*, but will make time in my horrendously busy schedule for a custom order.  Anything that involves a break from knitting scarves is most welcome at the moment - I love having the work, but boy, garter stitch has to be one of the dullest activities on the planet....

*Please bear in mind that this kind of lightbulb is getting increasingly difficult to find in the UK as they are being phased out in favour of horrible curly-wurly energy saving ones, so the amount of fishes-in-bulbs that can be made may be very limited.

Update   The draw is now over - a winner has been chosen.  Please see the latest post to find out who!

40 Watt Goldfish

The hollowed-out lightbulb has successfuly been filled!  Hollowing out the bulb wasn't too difficult; knitting the fish was easy; crocheting the weed was a breeze.  Putting the latter inside the former was enough to turn the air blue however!

The fish has a concealed wire up his middle, which works just fine outside the lighbulb.  Stuff him inside the bulb and the wire gets bent and so do his fins...it involved a great deal of poking and prodding with a pair of forceps and a crochet hook, as well as his removal and re-insertion a couple of times.  Then you have to get the arrangement of the weed and fish to your liking, followed by carefully pushing the wires through a piece of plasticene which then has to be wedged into the base of the bulb.

Then you carefully place it in a rough-hewn wooden base which used to be a candlestick made by your daughter at school, go upstairs to show it off to your son...who promptly drops it.  Run downstairs, bit of re-arranging, followed by super-glueing the thing into it's base (should have done that the first time...) and it's done!

I think it's cute - do you?  I'd like to sell these but goodness knows how I would transport them by post, I don't think it would be possible. But if you live locally you can order one!  I'd like to do more of these with various types of fish inside, the possibilities are endless.