All you need to spin your dreams
I would like to share with you something I have developed that I think is new and exciting, this is my super duper colour management system for use with the Hackle – one of my favourite Majacraft tools! I started developing this system in mid …
Did you guess which of our wheels these pretty pedals belong to? They DO look like Rose pedals, or Suzies, or even Aura’s, they could be Pioneer feet but these are Rimu not Ash, so whose can they be? Yes! Our updated Little Gem has …
A short time ago we released the new updated version of the Pioneer, our entry level spinning wheel. The update has quite a few changes, such as the super handy handle in the stem, the nicer shaped pedals, and the harder wood (moved from Pine to American Oak). This has resulted in a prettier wheel now known as the Pioneer X! One more change we have made, is to now also offer an ‘unfinished’ version (at a slightly lower price) that is ready for you to make your own! You can stain it, paint it, or do what I did and turn it into an artwork 🙂
I would like to share with you two wheels that I have painted up, perhaps this will inspire you! These are both older model Pioneers, but I am looking forward to a much easier job of preparing and painting with the new Pioneer X Creative!
The first wheel I painted was the Galaxy wheel, this is a very simple paint project and I also made a speed video of the entire process. I would encourage anyone to try this, just practice a bit first on some cardboard or scrap wood. I used acrylic paints, and started with a base layer of black. Onto the black I splurged a mix of blues, a touch of fuchsia, and blending in dabs of white. You need to do this while the paints are wet to get the blend. Then I splattered white for the stars.
The second wheel I did was a bit more complicated in the painting. I was very inspired to do something in rich deep greens and the ocean theme seemed perfect for that, and of course how could I resist adding in a mermaid? My Song of the Siren wheel was born! And I thought it was appropriate, how many of us hear the musical call of our spinning wheels even when we are far away? and then we get lost in the depths as the wheel swirls and turns and transports us to another realm 🙂
I again used acrylics for this wheel, which I choose for lightfastness (they don’t fade) and durability. Once completed I also spray varnished both these wheels, the Cosmic Wheel with satin finish and the Siren wheel with high gloss (to glisten like the ocean!). I also made a short video on the progress with this one, it was a much slower creation than the Cosmic wheel due to the amount of detail.
I hope you feel inspired to customise your own wheel! Or if you are looking for a new wheel to make your own (and not take to your beautiful Rose or Aura with sandpaper!) you can’t go past the Pioneer X Creative, you get all the smoothness and top quality spinning experience with this wheel as you do with any of the more expensive Majacraft wheels, plus you have the freedom to make it as unique as you are! Please feel free to ask me any questions about the process or the materials! I am always happy to help 🙂
Suzy Brown
Here we are with Majacraft camp news! We are all set for a new venue next year (Papamoa) with great space, excellent catering, and the beach too! Our tutors are ready for action and are bringing some wonderful and exciting classes for you to enjoy. …
We are excited to announce a new addition to our range of fibre preparation tools! We have been busy in the Majacraft workshop, and are happy to announce we have a new product to share with you and our customers! The new Majacraft Hand …
Have you heard the news yet?!At the end of April 2019 we launched a fresh new-look Pioneer, two in fact! The Pioneer X and the X-Creative! This is an update and makeover of our entry level wheel which has proven to be a wonderful workhorse and much loved by those who own them.
Please read on for information about the changes we have made, and we hope you will also enjoy the video that we have made to showcase the changes. We officially launched this wheel at the New Zealand Creative Fibre Festival in the 25th of April where we took it for its first public outing!
We have created a much prettier and more upmarket look to this wheel, which is now constructed of harder wearing American Ash. The pedals, base, and stem have been redesigned with a lovely curvey look that matches up with the rest of the Majacraft range of wheels, and the drive wheel is now a slightly heavier American Ash Veneer.
We have also added a Polymer bearing for the tension knob to give you more control over your spinning, and the conrods will also be made from wood for an overall classy finish!
Best of all is the addition of an inset folding handle that you can easily flip up to carry your wheel with ease!
The other awesome thing is that the Pioneer X will come with two options, the standard ‘X’ with our usual high quality wood finish, or the X-Creative,which is delivered complete but unvarnished, ready for you to customise with your own art, paint, stain, decals, or finish. We think this will be a great option for many creative Majacraft spinners!
Please do check out our video showing all the fab new details!
Please contact your nearest dealer for more information on this great new updated Pioneer! Even though this is our entry level wheel, it is one that will grow with you as a spinner, most Majacraft accessories will fit the Pioneer X so you can access our range of bobbin, flyer, and pulley sizes to best suit your spinning needs.
We hope you will love this wheel and that you will recommend us to your friends and spinning groups as a great option for new and experienced spinners looking to update their wheels!
This year we held two Majacraft camps, one in Australia and one here in New Zealand shortly after. Both were pretty awesome! Majacraft Camp Australia was organised by the very inspirational Janet Day of ‘My Spin on Things’ in Melbourne. We started out on a …
It is time to announce the winning colour, the one of four which received the most votes, and I am pleased to say there were over 500 votes counted! The competition was close, initially I thought we were going to be having Banana Split bobbins …
If you are a spinner who enjoys making anything you do ‘yours’, then I think you will enjoy this idea! Our wonderful wooden bobbins are just right for adding your own personal touch and turning them into something uniquely yours. I have played with this over the last months and created a few different designs for my own bobbins, I certainly always know which ones are mine when sharing them at workshops! Â I have found that the Mandala kind of design really lends itself well to the circular shape of a bobbin, and it can look great when spinning. I have also created some less symmetrical designs as well, just for fun.
What follows is a tutorial I have written to help you get started with your own bobbin decoration, mostly just an overview of equipment and techniques that I use and know work well, however there are so many ways you could do this, please consider this tutorial as just a starting place for your own art. I have also included a video to accompany this, the first part taken from a Livestream I did on our Majacraft Facebook page (click THIS LINK to visit there and you will also hear my expanded commentary for the first half of the design work). The rest of the video was completed after the livestream and shows more closeups on how I blend colours on the design.
If you have never worked on a wooden surface before you may want to find some wood to practice on first, as the best option, find a bamboo chopping board or similar and sand that back to give you the same kind of surface as the bobbins. Bamboo is smooth and not very porous and makes a lovely surface to decorate, but it does behave a little differently than paper does for creating your art on.Â
Give the surface of your bobbins a light sanding to remove the varnish and create a more porous surface. If you do not take enough of the finish off your pens (or paints) will not stick to it or dry well. You will see when it is ready as the surface will look smooth but not shiny, and it will be slightly lighter in colour. Make sure you work evenly across the bobbin.
Cut out your design, including the circle in the middle. Transfer your design onto the wood. In the video you can see how I do this using a very traditional method! Completely colour the back of your design with a soft leaded pencil, leaving a layer of lead on the paper. Make sure it is nice and thickly covered with no gaps.
Turn the paper template over and lay it down on top of the bobbin with the drawing facing upwards. It helps now if you stick your design down in a couple of places with a little tape onto the bobbin, just to prevent any movement as you transfer the drawing.
Take a pen with a hard tip and trace over the lines of your drawing, press hard enough that the pencil on the back is transferred onto your bobbin (you can lift the paper a little to check) but not so hard that you leave dents in the wood. Once you have worked your way all around the paper image your design outlines will be transferred onto the bobbin and you can remove the paper.
The template I have provided you with has only the main outlines on it, which is all you need for your colouring. When it comes to adding details and the white lines you can either make those similar to the ones on my bobbin example, or make up your own! Think of it as just ‘doodling’, its fun!
Now it is time to add your colour! This step really is literally colouring in! You could simply colour in each shape as a solid colour, choose the colours you love and work your way around the design. Or you could do what I do and blend colours together inside each shape.
I love to make graduated tones and layer colours to blend together. The video shows you how I do this. I usually start with the lightest colour first and lay that on in a larger area than I want it to end up in, because some of it will change colour. Then swap to your next colour and lay that on next to the first colour, and then overlap it slightly. Go back to your first colour pen and use that to mix the two colours together where they meet, I use very small circular motions to do this. Sometimes you need to swap back and forth a little between colours to get the mix right, just keep working into the area, dragging one colour into the other, until you are happy with the result.
Add your white gel pen details. I usually use this to put an outline around all the shapes, and then add details inside the shapes such as dots, lines, swirls, spirals, your imagination can take you anywhere with this!
When everything is dry you can finish your bobbin with a coat of varnish. I have used Mod Podge Hi Shine that gives a glass-like finish to the finished art. I love how it really lifts with the shine over it but you prefer you could instead use a matt or a semi gloss, it is entirely up to you! I use a piece of tape to cover the plastic centre of the bobbin and prevent any varnish from getting inside it.
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and that it has given you some ideas for your own bobbins! You can use these techniques on any kind of wooden tool or piece of equipment, the bobbins lend themselves to it very well of course but there is no reason to stop there if you wanted to really customise your tools yourself. I am also considering a themed set, ‘dragon bobbins’ are coming soon! I just need to stock up, but luckily as well all know, there is no such thing as ‘too many bobbins’ 😀 If you find you need more then of course any of our dealers will be happy to help you, follow THIS LINK to find one closest to you!
Now please enjoy the video, it shows each stage of the process and also some speed drawing to see the design grow 🙂
This time I thought I would share some spin stuff with you, something you could make on any of our range of wheels, but especially if you like spinning finer yarns, this will even work as a heavy lace and will fit perfectly with the …