Category: hand dyed

Dreamcatchers ~ something new for me…

dreamcatchers

Dreamcatchers… something new & different from me that I’ve wanted to try for some time. I’ve created these Dreamcatchers, not as authentic representations but as my own personal artistic interpretations.

I’m an Aussie, so my interest in dreamcatchers isn’t cultural… I simply love them & more over, I love the idea of them.

Dreamcatchers originate in Native American tradition, believing both positive & negative dreams flow through the night & that a Dreamcatcher, hanging freely over or near a sleeping person, will allow the good dreams to pass through while capturing the bad dreams, which will perish & vanish with the rising sun…

I used patterns from this collection of 16 Crochet Motifs & embellished with wooden, glass & plastic beads & attached swivel cams so the dreamcatcher can rotate freely…

Dreamcatcher 1Dreamcatcher 7Dreamcatcher 6Dreamcatcher 2Dreamcatcher 3Dreamcatcher 4Dreamcatcher 5

Alice Springs Beanie Festival 2011

My goodness… the Alice Springs Beanie Festival came around quickly this year – with not enough hours in the day & other commitments I selected not to enter this time but once I saw the categories…. celebrating the Elements: Earth, Wind, Fire & Water… I thought, ‘What the heck…’ changed my mind & decided to have a go….

With very little time in hand I set to work – the crowns for both beanies were crocheted, machine felted &  then hand-dyed – next I crocheted the bands to the crowns.

They looked very plain & ordinary at this stage – what to do??

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Flame: off to the kitchen & Nuno felted some freeform patches using bright, fiery wool & silk rovings which I attached to the band & then set to beading the crown. Yes, you guessed it, this took ages but I’m super pleased with how it turned out….

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Landscape Exposed: I made a freeform crochet coronet which was attached to the band & I then needle felted the crown using only silk rovings – still not satisfied… I decided to attach some felted dread lock tassels… yep, that did the trick.

So, there you go… my 2 entries for the 2011 Alice Springs Beanie Festival – Good luck to all the entrants & my sincere thanks to the organisers, for all their hard work putting together this fabulous event – may 2011 be a huge success for all who participate.

Freestyle Crochet made easy….

I had this gorgeous hand-dyed, 100% pure wool 3 ply fingering yarn in my stash… what to do with it? It was far too precious to just incorporate bits & pieces of it into my freeform work.. it would simply get lost in amongst the flurry & bustle that freeform can be…

but I wasn’t up to painstakingly following a pattern to create something worthy of this beautiful yarn either… so what to do?…

with a large hook (10 mm (N/P) I made a long length of chain (I didn’t even count how many) & just started… one row of dc (US sc) so I knew where I was at &, from then on, I used a different pattern for each row improvising with plain stitches at the ends where the pattern didn’t quite fit…. I worked in this way until the yarn ran out – What a joy… true, no stress crochet….

This piece is available for sale in my Etsy Shop

I felted some crochet flowers, now what?

Some months ago I had a big spurt of making crochet flowers, felting & then hand-dying them at my kitchen sink. Heaps of fun & I ending up making quite a few, well.. actually, I made a lot.

But, since then they have been languishing in the cupboard with all the other ‘gonna do something with these one day’ items that we crafters seem to collect over time.

The light bulb moment came some weeks back when I was invited to do a local market/display/demonstration… out came the felted flowers, my collection of beads, needle & tread & I set to work beading these little beauties & turning them into pretty brooches that can be worn any-which-way – I’m rather pleased with the results…

A collection of these Beaded felted brooches are available in My Zibbet Shop

Happiness for your Hair…..

I made a few of these cute little hair combs as custom orders & thought I’d share the happiness  – the flowers were crochet then felted & hand dyed – a bit of fun….