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Tiles Gone Wild: New Directions In Mixed Media Mosaics by Chrissie Grace

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Tiles Gone Wild: New Directions In Mixed Media Mosaics by Chrissie Grace is such a fun exploration into using just about everything you can put your hands on and using it in a new way to make fabulous mosaic projects.

I made a mold for casting bricks out of aluminum flashing and I impressed words into them but as I was flipping though this book Chrissie has a fabulous project for adding mosaic work to the top of store bought bricks. I know it’s the simple things, but I just never thought of it! She has projects that include using broken dishes, bottle caps and broken glass. All of her projects include fabulous step by step instruction with great photos to guide you along your own creative trail. There are projects for indoors and out. There are also some great instructions for working with photos and computer designs in addition to working on flat surfaces and dimensional. If you are looking to recycle some broken stuff you have been keeping around, this book is packed full of way s you can make it into something new and fabulous.

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Another Great Shawl to Use Your Leftovers

I am always a fan of stash busting projects that allow you to use all the little bits and pieces left from other projects or the balls of yarn you just aren’t sure what to do with. And if you can use a fun technique along the way, so much the better.

ChiWei Ranck’s Natural Bridges Shawl is a pattern like that. It uses a bunch of bits of fingering/sock weight yarn melded together with garter stitch intarsia.

This is a variation of a pattern called Natural Formations, which is a scarf design by Ann-Marie Baker. This design makes a mini triangular shawl, and ChiWei’s design combines two of these little shawls into a bigger project, bridging them together.

You’ll need the original Natural Formations pattern to make this project. It’s available on Ravelry, and the instructions for making the bigger version are available as a free download.

It’s so fun to me to see people take a different spin on a project or technique and make a very different looking project. I love the bigger version but the mini scarf by itself is cute, too. You could make a small one to use in spring and summer and then make a bigger one for colder weather.

Either way, you’ll be able to use lots of leftovers or mini skeins. The original scarf used six minis, and Natural Bridges uses six for each scarf half and six more for the bridge, so 18 mini skeins or leftovers from other projects can be used, which sounds pretty great to me.

I love the scrappy look of this project, and even though the original was planned to use specific mini skeins, it’s a great way to use up bits of stash or those advent calendar minis you never know what to do with. A couple of bold colors thrown in with a more muted palette is a lot of fun, or you could even do it in tonal shades if you have lots of leftovers in similar colors.

[Photo: ChiWei Ranck]