December is here!

December the 1st it here, which means Christmas has started :D I am a huge fan of Christmas and absolutely love this time of year. Are you guys excited?

Every purchase made via my Etsy shop throughout this December will receive a 10% off code to use with your next order from Black Sunshine. Which will be valid until the 1st of Febuary 2015.

The above two dread sets where for the giveaway winners of the Birthday giveaway held in October. I love the colour combos they chose!

November News

Thank you to everyone for celebrating the Black Sunshine 10th Birthday with me! I hope you all enjoyed the giveaways and special offers throughout October.

I will be starting work on the dreads for main giveaway winners soon. Both winners have chosen some unique colour combinations and I am looking forward to creating their colourful sets.

As usual I am working on pre made sets to fill my Etsy shop with also. 

A couple of weeks ago I set up my own personal blog for hair dye reviews, ootd's and my more random craft projects, you can visit it here. I will be still using this blog for all things Black Sunshine and dread related, so stay tuned! :)

More celebrations!

Here is another way to celebrate Black Sunshine's 10th Birthday, a lovely discount code to use on my Etsy shop www.blacksunshineiow.etsy.com

No minimum purchase necessary. Offer ends 19th October 2014

Plus don't forget you can enter the Birthday giveaway HERE

10 years of Black Sunshine

a Rafflecopter giveaway - Giveaway is open worldwide and includes first class postage.
- Custom made dreads will take up to 8 weeks to create and can include up to 6 colours of your choice.

To further celebrate the Black Sunshine Birthday I will be holding other flash giveaways and discount codes throughout October!

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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This week...

Since having my new and improved craft room I seem to be in constant work mode which can only be a good thing right? :)

I am currently working on two new pre made sets which will be making there way to my shop soon. One of which will be in these yummy pastel colours.

I have also been getting in the mood for Halloween and came up with some new jewellery using clay and jelly wax. You may have already seen the new 'Eyeballs in a jar' necklace but other designs will also be appearing for the spooky season :)

As well has as it being Halloween next month, October also marks 10 years of Black Sunshine! Wow time flies. I will be holding a big giveaway to celebrate so stay tuned!

Synthetic Dreads FAQ

I receive and see a lot of questions on the subject of synth dreads and although I have covered some subjects on my previous posts I thought it was time to put together a more complete FAQ going over some of the basics.

I will try to cover everything but if you have any other questions please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly.

• What are synthetic / fake dreads?

Synthetic dreads are exactly what they are called, fake dreadlocks. They are made from synthetic hair (or sometimes wool / roving)  and are a non permanent way to have a dreadlock hair style.

• Why have synthetic dreads when you can have real dreads?

Synthetic dreads are a great way to have a new hair style without the long term commitment. Synth dreads can be worn up to 3 months (this depends on person to person) and cause no damage to your natural hair.

For a lot of people work or school can dictate the hair style they have so being able to wear synthetic dreads during holidays or weekends allows them to have a new look for a short period of time.

Also some people with real locks also add synthetic dreads to them to add colour, volume or length. 

• How long do synthetic dreads last?

If your synthetic dreads are well made and taken care of they can last you forever. You will be able to re install them into your natural hair time and time again.

• What is the difference between single ended (SE) and double ended (DE) dreads?

I have covered this in full ( with photo examples) on my previous post which you can read HERE.

• How do I install synthetic dreads?

Synthetic dreads are braided into your natural hair. Here are a couple of links to some very good tutorials on how to do so.

• How to install double ended dreads - Link
• How to install single ended dreads - Link

It is possible to install dreads by yourself (I have always done my own), granted doing the back is tricky but once you get used to it its fine. Or you might want to get a friend to help you.

• How long does my hair have to be to install synthetic dreads?

Your natural hair needs to be at least 3 inches in length to be able to braid the synth dreads into your hair. Or if you are wanting to wear dread falls you need to be able to put your hair up into a pony tail or pigtails.

• Will wearing synthetic dreads damage my natural hair?

Nope :) Your hair is braided around the synthetic dread and secured with elastic bands or thread so all of your natural hair is out of the way (unless you leave your fringe/ bangs out). By having this hair style you will not be using any damaging heat to them from hair dryers or straighteners you may usually use.

When you take your dreads out it will seem like you will lose a lot of hair when you wash it, this is because your hair is braided the amount of hair you naturally lose per day has not  been able to shed so it all comes out at once. 

• Can I still wash my hair when I have synthetic dreads?

Yes you can! You can wash your scalp and roots of you hair using a watered down shampoo solution.

Be sure to rinse thoroughly.

If you do get your synth dreads don't panic! They will be fine :) Just squeeze them gently with a towel if very wet and let them dry naturally.

• Why are synthetic dreads so expensive?

Prices of synthetic dreads vary from seller to seller. Making dreads takes a lot of time and effort on the makers part. Personally each single dread I make takes anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to make dependent on the length and style of the dread. And does not include the time it takes to section hair, blend hair and the sealing of the dreads.

The materials for the dreads also has to be taken into account e.g how many packets of synthetic (kanekalon) hair is used to make the set. Also the tools such as combs, crochet hooks, felting needles etc. And not to forget the electricity that is used. 

Some dread makers, like myself, create synthetic dreads for a living so it is vital to cover all material, making and operating costs in order to support ourselves and continue to do the job we love.

For more information and links on synthetic dreads please check out my previous post 'Useful Synthetic Links'.

Jar Pendents

This weekend I added some new creations to my Etsy shop. Jar pendents!

These cute little jars contain bubbles of colour and glitter hearts and stars all encased in a clear jelly wax. Each one is unique! They look really magical when they catch the sunlight :)

I will be making more of these in the future with different colour combinations.

Photo Inspiration Dread Set

A while ago a came across a photo on Pinterest that I fell in love with. Sadly like a lot of images on Pinterest it didn't credit the artist, but using the handy Google image search I tracked her down.

The above painting is called 'Fog Carrier' and is by the very talented artist Lauren YS ( you can find her on Facebook HERE).

I really love the colours in this image and I created a dread set inspired them.

This set is available to buy on my Etsy shop

I had a lot of fun creating this set and I think I will be using more photos to inspire me for colour combos in the future. Do you have any images you think could be turned into a magical dread set? Let me know in the comments below!

Tell me what you want!

I have set up a short survey to get a feel of what kind of pre made dread sets you are looking for from Black Sunshine. It is important to me to create unique dread sets that my customers will love :)
I would appreciate it if you take a minute to complete the survey below. Many Thanks

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

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 :)

Store update

My Etsy shop is now closed for a little while. My house move starts this weekend and there will be no internet connection for a while. Hopefully this will only be for a week or two :)
I will reply to any comments or messages as soon as I can.

While I am here, here are a couple of photos of the latest dread set I created. These got snapped up before I even finished them (after the customer saw some progress photos) and went off to their new home in America today!
This was a real fun set to make :)

News

Moving day is not far away for me. I have been packing up most of our belongings slowly. Just my craft / dread room to go. I am going to need more boxes!

My Etsy shop is currently still open, this is just a heads up for when I will be closing temporarily for the move.

The last day will be Friday the 25th of July. Any orders made on the last day will be sent out on the Saturday.

As well as packing I have also been making and adding new dread sets to my shop. 

Here is one of the sets which sold super fast so you may not of seen it, it was fun to make! :)

As always if you have any suggestions for colour combos you would like to see in dread form just let me know in the comments :)

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 :)

July News

www.blacksunshineiow.etsy.com

I will very soon be moving house. We will not be moving address but our we are getting a new house. Well you see, I live in a caravan, and we will be getting a new one :) Hence the moving, not moving, confusing I know lol

I am very excited about this 'move' and can't wait to set up my new dread / craft room :) I will be posting updates along the way.

So while the move takes place I will be closing my shop down for a week or so while the move takes place and I can get set up again. I will probably be without internet connection for a while but at the moment I am unsure of the dates of when this will happen but I will keep you all updated here and on the Black Sunshine Facebook page.

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 :)

All of the colours!

The last two dread sets I have made for my shop have been bright ones! And they have been my favorites to make.
The first set was the Random Rainbow which included blends of 14 different colours!

The set I finished today used less colours but are still as bright. I used neon lime, UV tropical, UV purple and hot purple ( all from Diversity Hair ).

At the weekend I made a big order of hair supplies so I will posting photos of my haul when they arrive :D I can't wait!

This Week

This week at Black Sunshine dread making has been full steam ahead! I have added new accent dread kits to my shop and I am working on more.

I have a lot of odds and ends of synthetic hair left over from sets (I hardly throw anything away) so I started work on a random rainbow set, which has over 10 colours incorporated in it so far. Photos should be up soon :)

This weekend I will be doing a big order of synthetic hair, so if there are any colour dreads you would like to see available on my shop just let me know in the comments below.

Synth Dread Key ring offer

That's right, the next 5 orders will receive a free synth dread key ring! They look super cute adorning your handbag or back pack. Get them while you can :)

www.blacksunshineiow.etsy.com

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 :)

Shop Open!

My Etsy store is now open again! I have added a couple of new dread sets and will be adding some more over the week,
Hopefully the internet connection problems are a thing of the past. But while I was off of the grid for a while it was nice to catch up on some reading, drawing and of course, dread making. So it wasn't all bad  :)

www.blacksunshineiow.etsy.com 

I'll be back!

The broadband connection saga continues unfortunately, and I have very limited internet access at the moment.
So regrettably I have had to close my Etsy shop for a few days. Fingers crossed I can get this problem sorted quickly and my shop will re open again as soon as possible (hopefully Friday or Saturday).

Apologies for any inconvenience, and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Amz x

Lady Gaga Faking It

I just came across one of the photos from Lady Gaga's artRave tour and even though I am not a big fan of her music, I am loving her new do!

From the photos I have seen, I gather this is just one of the looks from her show but this one caught my eye. Why? Because of the dreads of course! :)

I'm pretty sure it is a wig, but can't quite tell if it is synthetic hair or wool. I would love to know who made it (if anyone knows please let me know).

So what do you think of this look? Do you think it will make fake dreads the next big thing?

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.

Dread Info: Accent Kits

As you may see on my shop and Facebook page I often post accent dread kits.

So what is an accent dread kit? Basically it is a small amount of dreads (not a full set) to accent an existing dread set, to add to your natural dreadlocks or for a partial install with your natural hair.

For example I have a full black dread set, which I often like to add a bit of colour too. So by adding an accent kit of 10-15 dreads I can do that easily.

It is often a good ( and less costly) way to try new styles of dreads or  new makers before spending out on a full set for yourself. 

For more info on wearing dreads and other dread info check out my 'Useful Synthetic Dread Links' post HERE.

Necklace Sale!

Up until the 30th of April you can purchase any of the handmade necklaces from my shop with 25% off!
No need for a discount code :)

Happy Shopping!
www.blacksunshineiow.etsy.com 

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?

#HappyHandmade My Picks

Its week 59 on this week #HappyHandmade link up on the Daft Crafts website, click here to see all the great crafty items.
From last weeks items one of my items (rainbow button headband) was lucky enough to be one of this weeks staff picks! :D

Here are my three favourites from this week linked items.

Crochet ice cream brooch from Rebel Skein

Rainbow Pattern Flower hair clip from Violet's Buds

Druzy Exquisite Bracelet from Pelhuaz

The Internet Says No

Over the last couple of months I have been having a lot of problems with my internet connection. After having a few engineers sent round the problem seems to be getting worse :( 

My internet provider is still trying to fix it but this post is just to let you know that if I am a little quiet on here and Facebook this is why.

I am hoping I do not have to close my Etsy shop because of this, so fingers crossed!

On the plus side, having limited internet means no procrastinating! Lots of dreads are being made and photographed for my shop while this problem is going on.

I will do my best to answer all messages and comments as quickly as I can.

Amz x

Sharing the Love: Efflorescent Dreams

This weeks 'Sharing the Love' post features dread maker Efflorescent Dreams.

"Hi, my name is Roisin (or Rosh if you like) and I am a 20 year old psychology student / dread maker / hobby hoarder from the UK.

Efflorescent Dreams started off  a year ago as a little craft page where I posted mostly hand made jewellery, crocheted accessories and hair wraps. I have always been creative and wanted my own little shop to run in my spare time.
I'm currently a full time University student, so time isn't
a thing I have much of these days but my Facebook page is one of my passions and I always try to fit at least one project into my day.

I have recently started selling my dreads and I generally make either crocheted accent kits or full wool sets. So far, wool being my favourite to make.
I started making dreads probably around 3 years ago. I fell in love with dreads but being a poor student at home with no job I have a limited amount of money. I would have loved to have splashed out on some awesome dreads, but my lack of money paired with my creative curiosity drove me to make my own set.

From then I made multiple sets for myself and friends until I took the plunge to get real dreads. I started practising with accent sets for myself until I felt like I was at a standard to finally start selling dreads and things have really took off from there!"

You can check out the awesome creations from Efflorescent Dreams on the following sites:

Facebook Page
Etsy Shop

#HappyHandmade My Picks

Its week 58 over on the Daft Crafts #HappyHandmade link up!
I never got a chance to share my last weeks favourites (although I did tweet them), the days seem to be going by so fast!
So here are my three faves from this weeks crafty goodness.

Nyan Cat Scarf from Tiger Knitty

Normal People Scare Me Necklace from Mizziexoxo Boutique

Nintendo DS XL Gadget Mon-Stor from Lu&Ed