A Patch of Eco

I have now finally completed a round of eco dyeing and finished putting my patchwork scarves together. I'm quite happy with the results, although I had no idea it would take so long to finish these. Their first viewing will be this weekend at the Wollongong Artisans market, Wollongong City Art Gallery. Unfortunately the web photos dont show the true colors of the completed pieces however you can still get an idea of the end result. I have used mainly kimono silk linings provided by the lovely Jill of Kimoyes. Jill, is based in Canberra but travels all over Australia selling her beautiful, fabrics and silk creations. She has a regular store at the Old Bus Depot Markets , Canberra where we first met.

The most challenging aspect of assembling these scarfs was sewing into the kimono silk. I discovered it is quite a dense silk and that my sewing machine was at first struggling with its tension. It took me a little while to adjust the tension and find the right needle which did not puncture the material and was able to glide through the silk. I am very happy with the end results even though these scarves too way longer to create than I had first anticipated. Guess that is so often the case with anything creative!

On the right are may dyed pieces drying. Below is fabric soaking in a dyepot of osage orange. This is a dried plant I bought over the net. I dont think we get this plant in Australia.
The picture below the osage orange dyepot is another piece of fabric that has been clamped also known as the Shibori Itijame technique. The clamps are placed in a way that creates resists in the fabric preventing dye from penetrating those areas which leaves gorgeous patterns as the end result. I have used this technique along with folding and tying in this range of scarves.

I will be teaching a natural dyeing workshop in February. See my website: www.studioamara.com.au
for further information.

What a Weekend!

The serene surrounds where the retreat was held

The heavens had opened up on Friday morning down in Berrima with snowflakes as large as 50 cent pieces followed by torrential rain.

Of course, I had not packed my car yet, to make the drive down the highway to Canberra where the contemporary craft retreat was being held. Many of the other delegates had also experienced similar challenges with the weather however later that afternoon there was a complete 360 turn and the sun shined down for the rest of
the weekend.



Although the weather would not have stopped any of us from missing these three days!

Over the next 72 hours, the group of creative obsessives  that had arrived from all over Australia, consumed a smorgasbord of crafts which ranged from precious metal clay jewellery making, nuno felting, polymer clay, sculpture and doll making. There was so much on offer and only a limited number of hours to learn and play in this 2nd annual retreat. We were all determined to eat, create and be merry.

We all had a ball, meeting up with faces from last year's retreat while making new friends too. I taught two classes, nuno felting and polymer transfers with wire wrapping. In between teaching, I was very fortunate to participate in Pam Annesley's doodling on polymer clay class where I was introduced to zentangles. It involves using repetition of shapes to make interesting drawings. Oh no... I now have a new obsession. They are all the rage in the States at the moment.        

All students attended 3 - 4 different classes. At night, after dinner, there were many opportunities to keep learning and working or just kick back. There were many show and tells not to mention the endless array of raffle prizes. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Before we knew it, we were saying goodbye and packing up our cars to return home again.

It will be another year to wait for the next retreat. Until then, here are some pictures from the weekend. 

Some zentangle tiles

Teapots made by Lara and a student

Students pieces from yours truly's polymer transfer, wire wrapping class

Lex's dragon class

Lara's precious metal clay class

Pam's class doodling on clay

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A new range of jewellery using polymer and silk yarn

 This week has been hectic with the passing away of my good friend John and having my parents 
stay. Not to mention getting ready for the contemporary craft retreat I'm teaching at this weekend in Canberra. I think it will be very cold down there as it was snowing this morning out of my window. It was stunning to see a white covered landscape though. In between all of these activities, I managed to complete my new range of polymer jewellery. These are mostly necklaces where I have crocheted silk yarn on a tunisian hook. For those of you who know how to crotchet, a tunisian hook is a very long hook and creates an effect that looks like knitting and crochet combined. I also put together some earrings and some more rings. Hope you enjoy the pics. I will report on the retreat when I return. Also stay tuned as I will be announcing soon a giveaway on Facebook to win a unique Studio Amara creation.

The Quirky English

Its been a busy week as I prepare for the Contemporary Craft Retreat where Im again teaching this year in Canberra. Amongst this I'm still working on my patchwork eco printed scarves and a new range of polymer jewellery which I will share with you soon.

In the meantime, heres another instalment from my big trip. This one comes from London, in the beautiful suburb of Nottinghill, made famous by Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in a film of the same name. For those familiar with Paddington, Sydney, the two areas are similar in feel, interesting hip shops and lots of great eateries. Nottinghill adjoins the famous Portobello Road where one can shop endlessly for antiques.

The story begins with Anthony, my gourmet traveller brother and I walking through Nottinghill and doing our usual slow crawl as we both keep clicking away on iphones, immersed in our photographic sessions. I have looked up to see a bright, orange bambini sitting in a shop window.

This was not your usual Italian bambini. Inside the car was a very long piece of pizza extending from one end of the car to the other. I called Anthony over, and unable to resist this wonderful window display, five minutes later, we found ourselves woofing down the best pizza we had ever eaten. It was only 10am in the morning!

The store was filled with lovely visuals from the colorful food trays of English bus images to the cute story of how arancini made its way from Sicily to London through simple black line illustrations as shown here.

With our tummies full, we moved on only to find another example of interesting visual merchandising. The business is known in London as Bubble Tea and is owned by a Taiwanese business man. In Australia, we have the same product however it is not marketed in this creative way. Bubble tea are tea based drinks that come in many different forms and flavours. We loved the shop window with its test tubes creating a science lab feel, its quirky illustrations and most of all the staff dressed in their bubbleologists lab coats. How could we resist trying a drink or two? By the way, Ive never tried these drinks in Australia as I did not know what they were, nor did the merchandising attract me in any way.