Interview with Underground Crafter…

Being selected for an interview is always such an honour  & I’m particularly pleased that Marie Segares has chosen me to be her 100th interview on her blog Underground Crafter. To celebrate her milestone she is having a  givaways kick off so go check it out…

Marie has generously interviewed  various talented crafters… her questions are always interesting & thoughtful & her many  book reviews are objective & constructive.  I’d like to thank you, Marie, for giving me the opportunity – it’s been a real pleasure!

You will find the interview & book review for ‘Bring Colour to Crochet’ here – I hope you enjoy it…

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.

Textures… a gift from all the rain…

OK, I acknowledge I’m no photographer so please be kind, no critiques on composition or photo quality but I just couldn’t resist taking these shots of the beautiful textured Lichens & Mosses that have sprung up in my garden after a woefully wet summer…

No one can do it better than nature itself… an absolute delight for a freeformer like me…

Inspirational or what?…

Click each thumbnail to enlarge image

Ideas & Inspirations No7 ~ Spirals

this will be my last post of the Ideas & Inspiration Series & therefore appropriate that I say something about the spiral – the symbol I have used, over & over again, in all of my work. Some time ago, someone commented about this but, all I could say at the time was that, ‘I just simply like it’… nevertheless, it starting me thinking… Why do I use it so often? And, what does it mean?

Since spirals are found everywhere in nature, I think it’s only natural that artists will be influenced by them no matter what walk of life we are from. I believe the spiral is intrinsic & embedded in everything we know & understand about ourselves, our world, the universe… be it: organic, mineral or abstract… perhaps this is the reason why it’s been so revered & used as a sacred symbol by humans since time began.

Spirals are simply beautiful to behold: centered, balanced & harmonious, yet, at the same time complex, wondrous & awe-inspiring. For me, personally, they represents life’s forces: since everything in life goes round & round in circles, to my mind, because we are always learning & experiencing, therefore adding to the progressive directions of our lives, these circles will never quite meet.

 

So… I guess in a nutshell, the Spiral illustrated my personal expanding journey for awareness… I just haven’t been conscious of it most of the time… but having that said… in the end….  I still just simply like them…

For those of you who are interested & would like to learn more about the spiral just google it… that should keep you busy for a few hours or so…

Ideas & Inspirations No6 – Crayon Garden

Perhaps you can remember back to when you were young & the excitement you felt on receiving a lovely box of  new crayons & crisp sheets of butcher’s paper… the joy, when stroking the rich waxy colours over the page & creating those vibrant treasures that your family plastered all over the fridge because they were so proud of their little artist?

Well, that’s exactly how I felt when I came across these shamelessly, super brilliant yarns… I just had to have them, even though at the time, I had no idea how I would use them…

And, I have to say, they did linger in my stash for quite a while (though never forgotten) before I decided to have a play & create this vibrant handbag – I think it tuned out to be a real happiness piece… I hope you like it..

Crayon Garden is available for sale in my Etsy Shop