Showing posts with label craft supplies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craft supplies. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

favourites


Hello, whats your fave stuff? I have very wide ranging tastes but generally lean towards things which are old and worn, books that have soft corners and slightly yellowed pages, old printed rusty tins, driftwood...

I love green and blue colours, anodised kitchen ware, also grey-the kind you'd see on plated metals which have worn thin...

I love tiny little details and expanses of blank space...


my latest creations feature lots of my favourites- tiny stitches, green thread, blue felt, space(!)...and I am very pleased with them!

These new favourites are available in one of my fave places, Reverse garbage which is having a grand opening, Saturday Feb 26th at thier new location 20 Burke street,
Woolloongabba, 9 a.m -5.
And no, not telling what my new favourites are, you'll have to head in to see!
xKate

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Hello! I am feeling full and lazy because I have been enjoying some yummy pain du campagne bread today. I picked up a loaf from Sol bread which is my fave bakery chain in Brisbane, they have shops in West end and New farm, a stall at Northey streets Sunday market, and maybe even more places, not sure?
Anyway, they make all sorts of breads, but specialise in sourdough. By happy coincidence my taste buds specialise in sourdough :o)

I stopped in quickly after dropping off some brooches and toys to Echoes Giftshop, in West end. Echoes is inside the premises of Reverse garbage and to have your work stocked there you have to use at least 75% recycled or reused materials. They take work on consignment(yay-no upfront fees!) and proceeds go back into their organisation to fund their education programs.


These brooches are a good example of the kind of thing I am interested in; re-purposing high quality materials. These are discs of thick clean white felt, used in the transportation of glassware, afterwards instead of ending up in landfill, these are collected by Reverse garbage. I purchased them from their shop front, decorated them with embroidery, stitched a brooch backing onto them and now they have returned to the premises, in the gift shop for sale. The only thing I have not yet found are recycled brooch pins. If anyone has any leads on this I'd love to hear of them, as my aim is to use only recycled items.

I am happy to have been able to create this 100% recycled baby cloud toy. I filled it with ordinary polyester stuffing offcuts from an upholsterers, which are again, from reverse garbage- clean, fresh and totally usable.
The bird symbol was a fine red woollen jumper, felted, and the white material is again, reverse garbage offcuts, from clothing manufacturing. Even the sewing thread is from reverse garbage!
I love using stuff which was otherwise destined to become rubbish-it really feels great, and seems so useful. Why do we continue to buy new materials, and manufacture and import so much stuff when we have vast stores of things, overflowing, cluttering up homes and businesses?


There are some things we have to buy new of course, but lots of crafting supplies, I suggest we simply buy new, without really considering the impact, source, workers who've made them ,etc, etc...
Anyway, I feel so passionate about this but will stop now to hopefully avoid becoming a 'ranter' !
Before I sign off I thought I'd show you my new glasses, picked up just today-how strangely comfortable they are to wear! I thought they'd be heavy and hurt my nose as I have never worn glasses before, but they feel great...what do you think?
My goofball son is pulling a face to show what he thinks of them, he told me, "you look good in them" after a pause, he amended it to 'not
really good, but good."
Hope you're having a really good week,
xkate

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Did you go to the Christmas market ? Wasn't it sweet?
From my perspective, turning up and setting up, and not having any other responsibilities on the night when I have my kids with me is fantastic.
The spaces are allocated and the tables all set, I just have to put out my pieces.
And littlest one even helped stock my table by whipping up some quick paintings.
He sold this one last night and a few more today and was stoked to make enough to get a book ('Roll over pavlova' ) with the proceeds on the way home.



I created these new birds yesterday-lambswool felt from upcycled knit wear, red linen vintage fabric on the back, filling from reverse garbage and recycled yarn wings!
Even the floss embroidery thread (eyes) was scored from an op shop-so pleased to be able to get some great high quality materials, locally and give them a new use. They are sort of chick/partridge like and they are lovely to hold and to prop against each other. I am not too humble to admit I really love them!

Can you spot them amongst the spread of goodies here? This is the pop up shop Chrissy, Sam and I created today, outside lovely Michelle's nook shop. Along the front here is some apron decorating-it seems the love of old aprons goes hand in hand with crafting, between us we have quite the collection! It all looked very pretty!


We enjoyed ourselves and all left for home with some spending money and some swapped treasures- some dash robin bird brooches and a toy cat were exchanged for a gorgeous whale water painting print from Jettas nest (Sam)and fabbo necklace and ring from my nostaligic feeling (Chrissy)
I love swapsys' at markets!
hope you're enjoying your weekend,
xkate


Thursday, November 18, 2010

my creative space


With special christmas markets coming up and my love of birds 'tis only right that I am making some bird brooches.


And I am sneaking in some crochet despite the weather-here's a flowery little detail...



This yarn for the flower detail is from the delicious fauve fibres bundle which I added to my stash. It's the top ball in this picture but is going fast! So happy using these lovely yarns!

I'm off to see what you've all been doing :o)
xKate





Saturday, November 13, 2010

wood and wool

These are fingerless gloves, made with one of the Fauve fibre yarns-a suggestion was something lacy to show off the yarn...this was about the right level of lace for me and the yarn...I was so excited to share notice the needing to be woven in end!

They are really soft and light to wear. Here's another, a self timer shot which worked out a lot better than the one above!


Okay, so this is the least seasonally appropriate project I could possibly choose to make but there's never a bad time of year to finish things is there-this is something I knitted back in Autumn and all it needed was a button...and at the Brisstyle eco market I picked up a lovely button, made by Becs dad from scraps of wood.


I sanded down the edges and etched some holes into it, rubbed in some white paint and voila-a button fit for a shawl!

I also finished a few more nest brooches this morning...

I am off to take my youngest to his circus class but have a lovely weekend everyone and don't forget...

xKate

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

finding the right home...

I made this little doll a couple years ago and she faithfully came along to nearly every market I attended since. Last Sunday at the latest Northey street Village life market she was picked up, looked over and not put back down. She finally was matched to the right person...and what a sweet feeling it is to see something you've made go to someone who cherishes it.

I am completely cherishing my latest purchases too. In fact I was practically having a photographic love affair with these little babies today!
I always seem to bring home wool and feel a bit excessive and worry about having materials that are totally surplus to my needs, but in this instance of spontaneous shopping I have no regrets at all. Not-ta one!
These precious Fauve fibres have found the right place with me.
I don't really know what I'll make yet, but boy, it has to be sooooo special!


This green toned one is 10 ply and is amazing to touch...it's from a bluefaced Leicester Aran, which I was told is the 'poor mans cashmere'...I don't know much at all about the various sheep's and wools but, wow, I agree because it feels perfectly luxurious.

This amazing skein has silk spun through the wool too-I love looking at all those tiny flecks of light and dark, so rich and luscious....

The gorgeous smaller orange toned one is delightfully fine and is going to be perfect for making some new flowers. When I bought these yarns they presented to me were in this beautifully screen printed bag...sigh. Maybe I need to coin a new term for this-its not really retail therapy, maybe 'market therapy' ? Any other suggestions and importantly any ideas for projects with my new yarns!?
xkate
for more creative space outs go here

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

stitchery...

With all the stitching I have been doing, my thread stash is getting seriously reduced.
So many near empty cardboard thread holders. How sad it all looks. But there's still not enough needed to justify a proper shop for more.

I was ordering some necessary brooch backing pins on etsy supplies last night. One thing led to another and I *somehow* found myself in the waxed linen and hemp fibre thread section...
I held back but let me tell you, boy, my heart was racing!


To calm myself down I played about doing ink sketching/painting of ideas for new dash robin tree brooches.
This rough brown ink sketch on a piece of cardboard picture was loosely translated(?is that the right word) into this...you like?

I have been shockingly neglectful of visiting others blogs lately and tried to get about to my faves and lo and behold I stumbled upon this handmade xmas challenge today at Knicky knacks.
So I have made a
pledge this year...

(with exceptions, I have to get books for my kids!)
xKate



Monday, July 5, 2010

Meet me Monday -LiKim Chuah



Meet me Monday-mini interviews about creativity with my fave people!
This has been nothing short of fascinating and fun to work on, if you enjoy reading and looking at this half as much as I did you will be happy.

Viewing LiKims' photography and collage images bring me rapidly to a point to envy,but I can also find joy in sharing her sense of creative playfulness...

"I am primarily a photographer, exploring the streets of the city or new suburbs.

I am into geometric building lines, shapes, old abandoned buildings, decaying things, composition, awesome colours and textures like peeling paint or oil stains on the road.

I actually feel like I have run out of Melbourne places, which is scary.I need to know more cool places to visit...anyone with any ideas please let me know.
I use two digital cameras;my SLR EOS 450D and my crappy camera phone. Film cameras from op shops and a couple of special novelty ones like the Golden half which I bought online in a moment of weakness. I use normal film, cross process slide film, red scale film and on occasion I alter/cut/paste/ink onto negatives.

Some of my favourite creations are from a long time ago...my sister back in the day.

As an op shop addict I always come across heaps of old school cook books with garish, ugly and gross food photos.I never had any use from them, other than my buffet themed jacket costume last Halloween...

Recently due to cold cold weather and grey skies I have started using these cook book images in collage, along with old National Geographic mags, kids picture books, pet books and sports books.

I love the kitsch factor of the photos, sitting in front of the TV cutting out the pictures and covering the entire lounge room floor in peices of paper.
I don't have a table and work on the floor which is bad for my body and anyone else who is wanting to walk through the lounge. As relaxing as collage is- it's harder than it seems.
Sometimes I might sit for a hour or more trying to position a puppy in front of rioting protesters.

I use a very crappy cheap stanley knife, stolen scissors, borrowed cardboard glue and pens from work and some textas I bought in Japan.
Make something creative every week or every day, even if its crappy and lame...create don't consume! And also cheese and banana on toast is underrated. You can add in peanut butter to the mix(Don't knock it til you've tried it)'
Thanks so much LiKim,
I had such fun with this,

anyone else interested in being featured drop me a line,
Xkate
To see more of LiKims wonderful works of collage art and inspired photography go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/li-kimchuah/
and blog
http://angryaliceart.blogspot.com/


Thursday, June 24, 2010

my creative space


Regular readers might remember my up coming workshop induced knitting panic?
I was asked to work on a upcoming festival program teaching knitting-being a crochet/sewer this was a big exciting freaky challenge. So for a month or so I have been diligently and clumsily knitting most nights.

However in the first planning meeting I found out I can teach any kind of yarn work...I am glad for time of knitting though and found it much easier than remembered (maybe I just break rules with more confidence now??)

But anyway, since finding out the sticks have been "cast off"(pun! ark!)

here's my week long love affair with crochet...cue slow music and mood lighting...

custom dyed scarves drying over my curtain rod...

a mixed wool scarf stretched out on the hot pavers to dry...

such glorious weather for yarn dyeing this week...

Trip (short for Tripitaka) sneaks in everywhere so I may as well let him sneak into my blog...

Crochet scarf resting on a knitting book...irony? This book is amazing(the natural knitter)

large hat is made with Te Awa eco range and the small with woolganics.

Top of shot is another Te Awa eco yarn in a lovely pink colour and other shot is some hand dyed red yarn (lets call it "twilight red" ;o) it turned out much darker than planned...)


if interested in natural knitting the New Zealand Te Awa eco range is wonderful-
humanely farmed sheep, low or zero chemical residue in the wool then dyed with no heavy metal dyes...
also within Australia you can use woolganics organic yarns, which are incredibly soft and cozy.
happy creating everyone...
as always head along to...http://www.kootoyoo.com/ for more creative spaces
xkate

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

backing up

My computer screen was flashing like a disco light today, occasionally fading to white and basically looking like it was about to break down altogether! So I decided to back up all my photos, pronto, which meant I had a brief look through the last few years of images. And apart from oodles of photos of all kinds of lovely folk, family and friends and funny things there was a huge amount of images of my creative bits and bobs.


It was odd looking through the old craft images, sort of like looking at high school photos, embarrassing but sweet too. I wouldn't know exactly how much I have made, gifted, sold and traded, but LOTS!! There are photos of the first markets I ever went to and even before I went to a market. I started off truly when I exchanged this oven mitt, made from 2 old felted jumpers for art therapy classes.

I made things for years before this of course, but I began to see my work might have some possible financial value and worth. And I began to keep some kind of record...and here warts and all are some of my early things...




P.S-i hope no one tried to go to the wetlands festival...it truly was a wet-land here on Sunday, and it was rained out and cancelled, my apologies if anyone went along.
xkate