Making my Mask

Now that SALA is over I can concentrate on my pieces for our March Exhibition "A Touch of Venice". I am still trying not to buy anything and my mask filled that criteria. The mask was given to me by a friend and I used one of the old ties from my stash. I drew the pattern myself and the embroidery is stem stitch and fly stitch leaves stitched with perle 8 thread (from the stash). The little crystal flowers, hot fix jems and beads are leftovers from other projects and the ribbon is from the stash. For the bias binding I covered some piping cord with the ribbon and stitched it with gold thread. The ruffle at the top is a scrap of gold fabric and the milliners net is from my stash as well.
I have some other pieces in the works for this exhibition and I want to make another 2 masks. More photos to follow.

The Mad Hatter, the Dormouse and the Jabberwocky

I made this Jabberwocky, Mad Hatter and Dormouse for our SALA exhibition. The exhibition was a huge success.

Felt Berry Cake

I was inspired by this Chocolate Marscapone cake

from Call Me Cupcake when I needed to make a felt cake for The Embroiderers Guild of South Australia's SALA Exhibition.

Here it is my own 'Felt Berry Cake'

SALA is The South Australian Living Artists festival. This is a month long celebration of the original works of talented artists here in our South Australia.
Our members at the guild are keen to share with others that our work is "Anything But Old Hat".
We came up with that title after someone in the media said that "Craft work is Old Hat".
It is embarrassing some times how out of touch with reality some of the population is. In that eternal discussion of Art versus Craft people tend to forget the the term 'Masterpiece' is a craft term - this was the title guilds gave to the piece of work a 'craftsman' completed to make the transition from journeyman to master.
A craft was, and still is, not a hobby but a way of life for many who make their living with what they produce with their hands and heart. If not their primary source of income then the work we create with our hands is definitely a primary source of satisfaction that we are feeding our creative drive with the work of our hands. So wha tif I can go and buy a scarf for a few dollars, that won't give me the satisfaction of creating an original piece of art with my hands. If it also keeps my neck warm that is just a bonus.
I hope you'll join us in August at our SALA exhibition. You'll see a stitched version of a Mad Hatters Tea Party plus a lot more from the talented members of our guild.

Baby Mary Jane Booties

My darling granddaughter is a bit young for shoes. She is only 3 months old. Still every girl needs lots of footwear.
I've been laid up with the flu and it has worn off enough for me to want to do something easier than the lace vest I'm making. Favorite Daughter in Law mentioned to me the other day that Princess Sophie is growing out of her booties so like any good Nana I whipped out the laptop found a free pattern on Ravelry.com and made my first pair of booties in a long time.
The pattern is easy to follow and knits up quickly in 8 ply or DK for those non-aussies.
Ruthie's Mary Jane Shoes is a cute and easy pattern. I've started another pair in dark purple and then I might do a different pattern.

Leather Bags

Surely there is a legion of leather lovers out there, I am certainly one of them. There is something special about the smell of leather. In my world there is also something truly lucious about a new bag, especially a leather bag. Added to that is the satisfaction of making it myself.
I recently spent four fun filled days in a workshop with Rose-Anne Russell - a leather shoe and bag artist who lives in the Adelaide Hills. Rose-Anne lives in a converted stone building that used to be a carpenters workshop and now is a beautiful home and studio.
We learnt so much - designing our bag, how to make a pattern and then how to put it together.
The first  day we sewed some samples, drew up a pattern for and made a pencil case.

Then designed our tote bags and made the patterns.
On day 2 we selected the leather and started our bags. We learnt how to put in zipper pockets, line the bags with pigskin and by the end of day 4 we had our finished bags.

If you want to make your own bag or shoes contact Rosie - you can't go wrong.

Another Good Day to Dye

It was another hot hot hot day here in Southern Oz. Husband and I went out for breakfast and then home to put the studio to rights before I head into a marathon of book making for the exhibition I am having at the Leafy Sea Dragon Festival with Emanda Fretwell you can check out Re-Booked here.
Before that though there is our annual Easter Mix It Up - A collective of artists selling our work at the Yankalilla Show Ground little hall. It's never to early to stock up for Christmas. I have done skirts, fishermans pants and shirts both button up and t's again. They are so popular every year.

All I have to do now is iron and lable them.
The bigblack piece of fabric is for another exhibition later in the year. More info to come.

A Good Day to DYE

I have a whole collection of garbage  bags on the back lawn out of sight of the neighbours and people passing by.

Let me reassure you I haven't done anything illegal.

It's a good day to dye here in South Oz. High temperatures and, when I started out this morning, hardly any wind. Of course when I went and got everything out I didn't have any Urea and couldn't remember where I'd got the last lot from. A quick whiz through the Web and I had to go to the garden centre.
I then raced through the supermarket looking like a refugee from Walmart, OK not that bad but I was wearing an old pair of gym knee length shorts, a tank and my birkenstocks. None of those Walmartians wear birkenstocks so I am still a step above them Thank God.
So quick restock on rubber gloves, garbage bags, toilet paper and an eggplant to go in the curry tonight and I was off home without anyone recognizing me (I hope). I did wonder what the young man who served me thought cause he didn't ask me did I have any plans for today and our local supermarket makes all the checkout people ask that. I often want to say "Mind your Own Business" but my daughter works there and I didn't want to upset anyone more than my poor choice of clothing already had.
So back home groceries away and all set to dye. Big piece of plastic over the  folding table on the back verandah and of course the wind came up and I had to find some heavy stuff to stop every thing blowing away.
Now I have all those bags of stuff dyeing happily in the heat. I'll be doing the wash out tomorrow and I'll take another photo then to share with you. It's all stuff for Mix It Up Media and Art Show at Yankalilla at Easter.

Martina Celerin - Textile Artist Extraordinaire

It's always fun to find a textile artist whose work makes you think 'hang the expense I want some of that'. That was my immeadiate thought when I saw Martina Celerins beautiful 3D art work.
Her piece called Spring Treasures is so beautiful.

Priorities and Committments Part 2

In 2009 I wrote a blog post about Priorites and Commitments.
In that post I said that as the AGM's of the many committees I was on came around I would not stand for office again.
It's only taken me 4 years to get there but I am blessedly committee free at the moment. I only belong to the SA Cloth Doll Club and the Embroiderers Guild of SA now.
Despite my love of a myriad of crafts I still work full time, I'm still a wife, mother and grandmother and that takes priority.
In that old blog post I said "I will do the things I like. I will have to study for work and as I still have to work for about another 20 years I need to do this. I will stop being the fix it person and if anybody doesn't like it tough. I am sorry if that sounds harsh but I feel that for my own mental health I should do this." I haven't stopped being the fix it person and I doubt I ever will but now most of that is at work and they pay me to do it.
It's hard to not put my hand up and say I'll go on a lot of committees but I have and I will limit myself to one at a time. As I said above I am on none at the moment but there is the whisper of one in the pipeline that I've tentatively said I'll do so we shall see.
I am getting things ready for several exhibitions I am involved in this year and I'm gathering things for the basket making workshop I'm doing in Ballarat so it's all about me. And I'm not sorry about that.

Salley Mavor

Sally Mavor is an amazing artist. I admire anyone who can finish a piece and she does some amazing stuff which is shared on her site Wee Folk Studio



detail from the last illustration from Sally's 2001 picture book, In the Heart.

Even the logo for her Etsy shop is gorgeous.

She describes hereself thus
"Today, I sew different materials together to create fanciful scenes in relief, much like miniature, shallow stage sets, with figures imposed on embellished fabric backgrounds. My work is decorative and detailed, full of patterns from nature and  found objects, all  sewn together by hand with a needle and thread. The original fabric relief sculptures have been photographed and used to illustrate 10 children’s books, including the award-winning Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. Original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies are touring the country into 2014. My how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects is still being discovered, after almost 10 years in print."

Kumihimo

Alas I have discovered  new passion. I am overflowing with passions for textile works and this one is no exception. I undertook this workshop in kumihimo when the one I had signed up for was cancelled. The kit was only $3.50, perfect I thought. I didn't have to spend a fortune on anything as I have a plethora of threads.

Now I also have a beatiful sassafras maru dai like this one.

Several books, some of the hand held variety of disks - some of which are intended as gifts and a new passion.
Here are the samples I made in the class. Bev Bills from the SA Spinners and Weavers was an excellent teacher.

It's so good to be creating again.
Tomorrow I'll be creating a small stitched landscape with Glenys Leske.

Summer School and Mix it Up

The SA Embroiderers Guild Summer School starts tomorrow. Unfortunately the classes I really wanted to do didn't have enough sign ups and had to be cancelled which was very disappointing. Still I am going to learn a new skill - Kumihomo braiding. I chose this class because I only need to spend $3.50 on a disk and I had everything else.
I haven't done much on the embroidery front for some time cause I have to work for a living and I've had the chance to do lots of overtime. This is going to pay for my cruise in November.
I'll have more time for creating now though and I'll be starting on things for our Mix It Up exhibition and sale at Easter. More to come soon.