The Essence of Handmade

My love of art and craft all started from Mum's love of craft.  Growing up, my sisters and I used to spend weekends doing all sorts of craft or creation whether it be drawing or painting, taking in turns writing stories and then reading them out to Mum and Dad after a Sunday roast or building things with homemade play doh.  Instead of going out and buying ready-made toys, one of my favourite hobbies as a child was when Mum would hand-draw paper dolls using the cardboard from the inserts of pantyhose and us girls would draw outfits for the paper dolls, fold the tabs over and play fashion parades.  Mum would always encourage us to do as much creation as possible to let our imaginations run free.  

As I grew older, I loved doing cross-stitch with Mum, spending Sunday afternoons surrounded by embroidery cottons and wool.  Mum, my sister Deb and I would drive around to garage sales to find the best bargains and bring home armloads of pre-loved wool and cottons and giggle with glee as we planned on what we were going to make next.  No matter what was made, it was made with love and laughter, but most importantly by hand.

As times began to change and availability of mass-produced gift items became more and more affordable, handmade gifts such as hand sewn quilts or woven table runners which would take weeks, if not months or years to make, started to fade out.  Maybe this is just my observation, but over the last 15/20 years, I've noticed less and less people I know are hand crafting, parents aren't handing down crocheting or knitting or sewing skills, community handcrafting groups are harder to find and it's much cheaper to buy the item as the cost of the craft supplies and the time required sometimes seems pointless.

About 2 years ago, I came across weaving as a new hobby interest.  I was aware of, and loved, the old ways but was completely blown away to see the amount of current online presence of people weaving these amazing inkle bands and woven pieces of fabric, all made with looms.  After doing a surmountable amount of research, and finally making a decision of which loom to start with first, I settled with babysteps and bought an "Inklette" by Ashford (www.ashfordaustralia.com).

This particular type of loom is designed for plain weave but you can design some amazing patterns.  I haven't ventured yet into pick up as I really wanted to start off slow after getting completely tangled trying to set up a backstrap loom!  One thing about weaving is it's important to get your pattern correct in the warping stage but the actual rhythm of weaving is so meditative that it leaves you with a sense of a time long past.  Here is an example of a piece of fabric that is made up of smaller inkle woven lengths.

I had chosen five colours of unmercerised cotton and freestyled different patterns and different widths.  Once I was happy with the number of pieces, I then handsewed them altogether with the hope to turn the fabric into a boho bag.  The whole process took six weeks to complete, working on it for a small time each night.

Here are a couple of smaller pieces of fabric, this time using mercerised cotton:

Most recently I decided to do another piece but making each length much longer.  Again, I decided to use mercerised cotton for its gorgeous sheen and chose a five colour palette.  To show how the overall piece comes together, here's a pic of the individual lengths.

Just a dozen or so to go and they'll be ready to wash, iron and then sew together.  Stay tuned for the finished piece - but it'll be awhile ;)

Have a wonderful week ahead!