New work on Flirckr

Whilst cleaning up my studio, I also photographed some work I had hanging around. Its work I made at the end of last year but had never got around to photographing before.

This piece is hand stitched paper (the bottom right corner) onto a black fabric backing. It is stretched around canvas frame.

The 3 pieces above are part of a set. They are all hand stitched paper stretched over canvas frames. I need to photograph them all hanging together so it makes sense how they work together. I think that will have to wait for another day.

Studio cleanup

Well its certainly been a busy day cleaning up my studio today. It was an absolute mess when I started and had been needing a clean for a long time. 

My book shelves are now sorted. The few gaps are reserved for folders and boxes of work that are at school for the moment.

Sewing tables finally cleaned off. One sewing machine is still missing as it is being serviced.

The view in from the door of my studio. Millie of course features at the bottom.

Under this rug is my set of map drawers that I finished sorting out. I finally got my TV wall mounted and made a temporary shelf for some of my ornaments.

A busy Easter

Well unfortunately the Easter break finishes in about 4 hours. I've had a great break and have achieved lots of things.

House work was one of my big achievements, very sad I know. Below is my bed in the process of having its sheets changed. Charlie was so sure that she was helping me.

I also came up with a new theory over the easter break in regards to chocolate. If you buy someone easter eggs and they don't know you purchased them, is it really such a crime if you then eat them? I'd bought eggs for a friend who I then couldn't catch up with, so therefore I ate them and it didn't seem so bad because she didn't know I'd even bought them.

My husband and I spent 3 days in a little town called Cape Jaffa over on the Limestone Coast in South Australia. Its a great little place and we spent most of the time out fishing. Unfortunately the fish seemed to have gone away on holidays as well.

Fabric Chair

Here is yet another sample for my next teaching unit. I made this chair out of newspaper as you can see below and then covered it with strips of flannelette fabric. The stitching you can see, I used in places to hold the fabric strips in place and then also as decoration.  Oh yes, you can also see my little helper Millie in one of the photos.

Wire armatures

The next lot of armatures I'm making as samples for my class are out of wire. I decided first up to start making a lizard. Below is the photo of the base structure.

I then added on some more structure to the body.

My lizard then started looking more like an echidna so I chopped its long tail off.

I had no idea what this next wire animal was going to be when I started it. 

I then added some more body strength. Still not sure what on earth it is, I cut its tail off though.

I then started winding masking tape around the body shape and it started to look a bit beetle like. Therefore I added on an extra set of legs and some antenna's to try and get it actually looking like something.

I have no idea what I'll do with it now, but its good enough just for a sample for my class.

Newspaper Lizard

After the holidays I'm going to be teaching a unit on armatures in textiles. One of the easiest ways for me to make an armature is to use newspaper and masking tape. Below is the process I used for making my lizard. 

I started by rolling up the main body shape.

I then rolled up the legs and bent them so that he will stand up. I used masking tape to tape the legs on.

This is what the lizard looks like from upside down with his legs on. 

Next I folded up some newspaper to make his feet. This is them before they are attached. I also added a thin rolled up piece of newspaper to lengthen his tail.

He now has his feet attached.

In this photo you can see that I started packing out the body shape and around the top of the tail.

A closeup view of the main body area that I was building up.

I've started shaping the head in this photo. I basically put a ball of paper on the head area and taped it. 

This is finished head on the lizard.

My finished lizard at this point. I won't finish him any further until I show him to my students. Eventually he will wrapped in fabric and have spiky toes as well.

I just read back through what I wrote and realised that somehow my lizard has become a male. I'm not sure why I always name things or give them a gender. Cars, plants, etc. Hmmm.

Fabric Coil Pot

Here is my latest little vessel I made the other day. I made hand wrapped fabric cords first and then stitched them together to make this little vessel.

Twined Basket

I've been playing a bit more with making a few vessels. I made the ones below using a basket making technique called twining.

This one above, I started making using pipe cleaners and just some wool I found buried in my studio.

This one is made using banana fibres. The wire structure wasn't strong enough though to hold the shape of the vessel properly.

Over-dyeing indigo

This was just a small piece of left over indigo dyeing that didn't work overly well so I over-dyed it with red procion dye. I actually quite like the result.

Indigo dyeing yet again

I'm not sure what it is about indigo dyeing but it sure has an addictive quality for me. The pieces below were dyed using the same vat I made up a few weeks ago.

This is one of my pieces above while it was oxidising on the clothes line.

Here is a section of the piece above after finished oxidising and having been ironed.

Another piece oxidising above. 

The piece above has finished oxidising and has been ironed.

I clamped 2 pieces of wood on the fabric above after folding it into a tight rectangle. I was disappointed when I opened it up to find there were some little spots on the white area. When I looked back at my wooden blocks I realised one of them had a little hole on it so some dye creeped in.