Twelve Months In The Making

It's been a year since we moved out of suburbia to a more quiet area and can I admit I've never felt better.  Moving houses every year or two since I left my maternal nest has been physically and emotionally taxing, so much so the residual feeling of being displaced and not belonging has been a hard one to shift.  It's almost like we're waiting for that moment we'll need to move again making only very short-term plans.  Knowing that I don't need to start the process of planning the next move just as we're settling in has been one that is hard to put into words, but I'm so excited to continue with our plans as we head towards Spring.  I feel my own roots are settling and I can exhale.  

As I said in my last post, I've been enjoying weaving by the fire in my down time and I find it so poignant that this piece of fabric is my last project completed in my first year living here.  

See, I started weaving these straps whilst we waited for settlement, sitting in our lounge room surrounded by boxes.  It kept my mind balanced through the mountain of to dos.  And once we settled in, I made a conscious decision to make a note of my completed projects, at the same time giving a voice to my pieces by writing about them here.  This has enabled me to track my progress as an artist whilst remembering each piece's inspiration whilst the project is fresh.

Here's a small collage I made for myself of the last 12 months of creating.  

I'm so thrilled with what I've achieved and learnt during this time and proud of myself that I've let go and created freely.  I'm almost through my WIP pile and have new ideas flowing for the next 12 months of projects.  There's so much I would like to learn and projects I'd like to do, but half the fun is the planning and stealing snippets of time just for me.  

Hope you have a great weekend!

The Essence of Handmade - Update

Late last year I blogged about the essence of handmade (see here) where I shared a WIP project towards the end of the post.  Here's a quick reminder:

Well ... over Christmas, whilst I spent a day slothing watching back-to-back Star Wars movies with hubby, I finished the straps and handsewed it together.  Since then, I've made a pattern, painstakingly machined it together and wove a shoulder bag.  Talk about sweating!  I was hoping like crazy when machining I hadn't ruined two months' work when the bobbin jammed a couple of times.

This baby is lined with quilting padding and chocolate brown cotton lining and it is so squee material.  I must admit, when I showed Heath, I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland.  I was so chuffed with myself.  My machining skills need much work but I feel I'm improving with practice, especially being self taught (mostly through cursing <grin>) and hazy memories from high school home economics.

As I'm reluctant to throw craft bits out (they'll have a purpose some day!), I wondered what I could do with the offcuts.  First, I made a swatch for my patterns and then played around on the sewing machine.  As the offcuts were cut horizontally and inkle weaving being warp-based, I needed to stabilise the threads.  Machining each piece a few times, then washing, drying, ironing, trimming off ends and fray stopping the ends, here's what I came up with:

 I machined a length to a larger block coloured woven strap to tie in the patterns of the bag.  Plus I plan to use this as inkle woven ribbon for jewellery making as I was able to make two long lengths.  Im looking forward to designing a piece around this ribbon.  I love the colours and texture and again, its "out of the box"-ness.  Anyhow, back to the finished bag ....

(Drumroll please ....) Tah-dahhhhh:-

I just love how this slight bell-shaped bag sits to the back.  And it feels so smooth and comfortable to wear.  So, so, so, so pleased :)

Would love to hear what you think!

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!