Dread Wig Fun

The other night for some random reason I decided to install a load of my old dreads into a normal black wig.
I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Here are some pics of me in the garden

The majority of the dreads are made by me but there are also a few black dreads made by Filthy's Synthetic dreads

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New Craft Room

We are now moved into our new place, after a stressful couple of weeks I am glad it is all over. But it was worth it, the new place is so much nicer :)

I couldn't wait to set up my new craft / dread room and it was one of the first rooms we finished.

Now I have had  a chance to a fresh start I plan on being much more organised. Which is much easier with all this extra storage space.

Now it is time for me to get back to work! My Etsy shop is now open again and as before, I will be adding new pre made dread sets to my shop everyweek :)

New hair do!

I have wanted to install my dreads again but to be honest its just to damn hot! So last night I decided to have my first attempt at doing a partial dread install.

I have installed about 10 double ended dreads in with my natural hair. I have braided them in mainly at the bottom of my hair and some throughout the middle and sides.

Sorry about the not so great photos, its difficult taking photos of the back of my own head :p

The black dreads are made by me and colourful dreads are made by Izzybeau.

Would anyone be interested in me posting a photo tutorial on how to get this style? If so, just let me know in the comments below :)

From Tangles to Dread!

When making dreads there is often quite a bit of loose hair left over from the kanekalon synthetic hair used. While I keep the bigger pieces of left overs to add as splashes on future sets of dreads there is still the odd loose bit, off cuts from tidying up the ends or knotty bits cut off from the tangled synth hair.
When I'm making the dreads I keep a bag next to me to put all these odds and ends in, which usually ends up in the bin.

Recently I have been looking at this pretty tangled mess of colours and thinking what a shame it is to throw it away. So last night I did a little experiment.

I grabbed little hand fulls of the hair and palm rolled ( alot!), I did that to three or pieces and then using a felting needle I attached them all together. Next was more palm rolling, more felting and then some crocheting.

This was the result

This dread has only been sealed once so far and I need to tidy up the end but I am pretty pleased with the result :) I love how all the colours mishmash together.

Has anyone else tried this? What do you think?

My ootd

An outfit of the day from me, well from last week actually.

Dress: Charity shop. Cat tights & legwarmers: eBay

 I love going clothes shopping in charity shops and have recently found some awesome things. I may be sharing some more of my finds here in the future if any one is interested?
On Saturday it must of been my lucky day as in 4 out of the 5 charity shops I went in I found some amazing clothes and accessories, all bargains! :)

 Do any of you enjoy clothes shopping in charity / thrift shops?

This week

Another busy work here at Black Sunshine HQ!
I have been working on a new dread kit which will be available on my shop tomorrow. In blends of black and grays with green splashes. Here they are drying out in the sunshine

I have also been dabbling in a bit of photography and got to do some experimenting with the band, The Shanklin Freak Show, at the weekend.

This was take at Fort Victoria in Freshwater (on the Isle of Wight). I know I have a lot of things to work on but I am quite proud of this shot.

Hair Supplies

My big parcel arrived in the post today from the awesome Diversity Hair.

36 packs of synthetic hair to play with, its like Christmas for me :)
Here are a couple of photos to show off the colours I ordered.

Expect to see lots of new pre made dread sets from me in some of these lovely colours over the coming weeks :)

Mask Making

As well as dread and jewellery making I also dabble in mask making. It's been a while since I have made any due to having kittens around. Tubs of latex and clumsy kittens do not mix lol. But now they are grown up and can go outside I have been able to start working on the masks again.

Here is my latest creation for my other half, Mr Strange.

This full head mask is made from liquid latex and the back fastening and mouth stitches are thin black elastic.

Creepy eh?

This is his new look for singing with the band The Shanklin Freak Show. 

If you would like to see more of my masks you can check out the Facebook page - Strange Makes :)

Dreads for me

I finally got a chance to do something with my own hair. I haven't installed any dreads since last year and I thought it was time to have a nice do! :)

So this this me and the dreads are by the wonderful Dollylox, you can check out her page on Facebook Here.

This week

It has been a busy week here at Black Sunshine! Unfortunately I am still battling with my internet provider to improve my service, I don't think I have ever called one number so much!

I've been working on a dread set in black, tropics and UV tropical blue. Such pretty colours all together and the finished accent set should be ready and for sale on my shop on Sunday.

The winner of my latest giveaway have been announced which you can see HERE, thank you to everyone who entered :)

It looks like it is going to be a lovely sunny Easter weekend. But today I am having to stay indoors to finish some course work. For those of you who don't know I am currently studying a course is business and administration. But I am off for a picnic tomorrow :)
Do you have any plans for this weekend?

My Psypuff!

Recently the lovely Psychara and I did a trade, an accent dread kit for one of her plushy Psypuff creations!

Here is Psychara in the dreads I made her. I used blends of several shades of blue with black and white splashes. Doesn't she look awesome!?

And here is my Psypuff! He is so cute and I have named him Clive (after Mr. Clive Barker )

You can check out the Psypuff page HERE.

My Dread Collection

Today I decided to go through my own synthetic dread collection and to be honest I did not realise I had so many sets!

Sets from Dollylox, Candy Floss Locks, Beautiful Mess dreads, Anouk dreadmaker, Izzybeau, Wicked Locks, Filthy's synthetic dreads, Psychotic Sweetheart designs and some made by friends.

I will spend the rest of the week sorting through them and will probably sell a few of the sets as I must remember I cannot wear all of the dreads at once :p

Do you have an epic dread collection? 

Cat Appreciation

Its no secret that I am a crazy cat lady so here is a post dedicated to the appreciation of fluffy cat friends. Recently I have started letting my two, Yoshi and Jim out in the garden to play.They do love it but I have been a nervous kitty parent letting them out into the big wide world.

So with cats on my mind I found some of my favourite feline items on etsy.com

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'Cats!' by blacksunshineiow

Because cats are amazing!

Clockwork Kitty Steampunk Ca... collageOrama $6.99	Cat Earrings HelloPushkin $4	Cat Jewelry, My Cats, Person... CharmAccents $28	Cat Art; Cat Rules for Cat l... Words2Art $3
Custom cat portrait pendant ... JasminBlancBou... $50	50% OFF - Cat art Tile Ceram... HeatherGallerA... $10	Black Cat Silhouette on Midn... DivineIguana $3.5	Cat Pendant Cat Necklace Personalizedsi... $9.99
Kawaii Cat Necklace, Happy C... XKawaiiCutieX $10	nirvana plus cat equals purr... jackalopecloth... $18.99	Cat Shoes - Embroidered Kitt... emandsprout $25	Cat Pocket Mirror - Happy Ki... miristudio $4

Sponsored by send bulk email from excel.

Do you have any favourite cat crafts? or plans to make some? Or are you a cat enthusiast like myself, I'd love to know about your kitties :)

Buttons Headband ( & new dress)

Last night I worked on a prototype button headband. I used lots of rainbow colours, which are my favourite.
I love it myself :) What do you think?

While I am here I shall show off my new dress. I rarely buy anything from high street shops as I can never find anything I like but I fell in love with this dress!

Dress: New Look. Tiara: Poundland. Necklace and Brooch: Black Sunshine. Shoes & cat tights: Ebay

This Week..

I know its only Wednesday, so really this post should be 'the last few days', but that doesn't sound right to me :p

Behind the scenes of Black Sunshine I have been a busy bee. Working on a new latex mask for Mr. Strange, which is looking suitably creepy so far!

Speaking of Mr. Strange, we took a walk up to Headen Warren (near Alum Bay) to take a look at the land slips that happened after the storms. A few of the paths where closed off to to massive cracks in the ground and some of the paths have narrowed considerably but its all still pretty. I can't wait to go blackberry picking there in the summer.

I have been  working on new accent dread kits for my shop. Most have been snapped up, but there are still some sets up for grabs and more are on there way! If there are any dread colour combo sets you would like to see just let me know in the comments. 

Everyday is Caturday

Yep, everyday is Catuday for me, living with my two ninja kittens, Yoshi & Jimothi.
Today I had a to take a day out of dread making to take them to the vets for their neutering ops. I know it is a routine operation but I was nervous (and also felt a bit guilty). But after a few hours at the vets they are home and acting like nothing has happened :)

I would like to say a huge thank you to the Isle of Wight branch of Feline Welfare for all of their help.

Now, after a big sigh of relief, I can get back to the dread making! 

So who else has this crazy cat lady fever? 

Current Projects

I came down with evil  flu last week so I have been a bit behind with my dread making and updating. But I am nearly all better now and have almost finished the current dread kit.
For this newest set I was going for an apocalyptic / rustic look so have used lots of browns and black in a variety of different textures.
I should be finished in a day or two so keep an eye out on my Facebook page / Etsy shop. Here is a preview photo

I have also been working on my dread wig from time to time, about 30 dreads done on it so far. It looks a bit crazy so far, but once I add more dreads I'm sure it will come together.

While I was out and about yesterday I checked out a new office / art supplies store on Newport Industrial Estate, WBS Everything. They had a great selection of art supplies, including some beautiful pens, which I will be adding to my collection when I go back there.

When I was leaving I spotted one of their delivery vans and had to take a photo for the slogan on the back. 'Only one biro kept in this van overnight' :) To keep us stationery addicts away haha

Also, Happy Valentines day! I would just like to thank you all for reading this blog, liking my Facebook page and shopping on my Etsy store. I couldn't do it without you guys! :)

Cameras & Cats

We now have a Cannon 600D camera! I say 'we' but it really belongs to my other for his music video ventures. But of course we have to share right ;)

So today we spent some time playing around with the settings and re-taking photos of some jewellery pieces from my shop.

Unfortunately the daylight disappeared fast today so we only managed to get a few pieces done. So some of my etsy listings have had photos updated.

It also did't help one of our fluffy friends, upon seeing the camera out, decided to come and take centre stage. Silly Yoshi :)

Weapons of Dread Creation

I thought I would show you guys what tools I use to make my synthetic dreads.

Latch hook, felting needles, crochet hook and of course, scissors.

I go through a lot of combs which always end up snapping and breaking, but these blue ones are the best I've used over the years and are from Boots.
Both the crochet hooks and latch hooks I purchased from Ebay. No shops here on the Isle of Wight sell such small crochet hooks. I use a 0.55 mm and a 1 mm.
I get the felting needles from Oliven, a local craft shop. And yep, the felting needles are pointy and sharp and I am always missing the dread and stabbing myself. If you follow me on Instagram, you would of seen my most recent mishap with them :p

For sealing the dreads I mostly use the boiling water method and occasionally my steamer. But since I stopped making smooth synthetic dreads my steamer has been a bit redundant.

And the most important ingredient to making dreads - kanekalon synthetic hair!
I buy the majority of the kanekalon I use from Diversity Hair. There is also Cyberlox Shop and I Kick Shins.