Wednesday wishlist

It's been a few weeks since I wished for anything, but of course I have been adding to my favorites!

So here is a selection of the latest.

I love everything in this newly discovered artists shop -

blue period by stephanielevy

It's hard to go past a classic skirt - so useful!

long skirt by trapperjane

and this creative necklace would look great with the skirt!

ruffle necklace by frankieideas

What have you got in your favorites at the moment?

Mad about orange - new Monday madness post!

As part of revitalising my blog I'm now having a Monday Madness theme!

Treasury day will be Tuesday!

So the first of my Mad Monday posts is here - I'm just mad about orange!
Aren't you?

orange by kirsty2715

I'm not sure how this happened, but I was fatally attracted to orange beads when I went bead shopping at the Quilt and Craft show.



I love these smooth orange howlite beads so much i just wanted to make a big bunch of them into one huge necklace!


Intsead I managed to control myself and make just one simple strand.
These howlite beads are dyed, but I love the complexity of colours with some being quite green and others are brown.
A wonderful effect.

Of course orange is a wonderful companion to turquoise, because blue and orange are complementary colours.
They are on opposite sides of the colour wheel.


Here I have combined some dyed turquoise howlite rectangles with orange coral.

Also quite simple, but I am letting the colours do the talking.

Then it's time for a more thoughtful design.
I love assymetric and random designs and this is what I came up with.


The rhyolite and ceramic beads sit at the side of the necklace, and the orange beads take centre stage!
Pretty pleased with this so - one more for the road!


Similar design with green and yellow agate and an oval ceramic bead.

What would you wear these necklaces with?

This dress would be perfect -

zen dress by tasifashion

Accessorize with this bag -

QT canvas tote by kinies

And if you need some more orangeness in your life -

cup by CircaCeramics

MoonMoon by JulieAbrams

imagine - fused glass earrings and pendant by urbanfusions

If you want some more orangey ideas you could check out Beadsme's orange and poppyseed treasury!

Favorite fibre people

I am priviledged to know some amazing fibre artists, some of them I actually know and some I just "know" virtually!
Know what I mean!

So I would like to intoduce you to the incredibly talented Pam de Groot.
I first met Pam in her previous life as a potter!

We are both members of The Nook craft co-operative in Leura.

For the last several years Pam has turned her hand to felting and fibre arts.

Pam's entry in the Art Street competition at Winter Magic this year.

She has a very lovely felty blog.
If you are in Sydney or the Blue Mountains or nearby you may be interested to know that she holds felting workshops.

She also has an etsy shop where you can find hats, wraps and more!


I am the proud owner of a Pam de Groot wrap and am now the very unhappy ex-owner of a Pam de Groot hat (sadly lost!).
Maybe I should do a hat making workshop with Pam?

Another fibre artist that I have met through the crafty community in the Blue Mountains is Michelle who I am delighted to say is a new member of The Nook.



Michelle spins, dyes and creates eye-popping pieces.
I urge you to look at her Wooldancer blog - she has list of spinning divas in her side bar, for more fibrous adventures!

If you are interested in incorporating some amazing fibres in your creations have a look at
Wooldancer on etsy.

Now to close encounters with fibres of a third kind!
Well I guess the fibres have the same initial source (sheep) but the end result is very different.

I introduce for your entertainment and delight, the Grand Purl Baa, Loani Prior, queen of the teacosies!

I love reading her blog - she has a wonderful turn of phrase and her teacosy designs are legendary.


See what I mean?
Have you ever seen such an awesome teacosy?

Even if you dont drink tea, you ahve to take a look at her work!

She has written two books, the latest one made it to the top ten of books in the Sydney Morning Herald!


She often wanders around the country teaching workshops.
I hope to be able to catch one, one day.

Roger Rampart - my favorite - of course!

Enough for today, but I have more lovely fibre delights for another day.

Do you have any fibre art blogs you'd like to share?

Adventures in knitting and felting

I've been knitting little mitts for a while now and one day whenI was browsing the wool department of a chain store, I found some very prettily irresistable wool.
Unfortunately I didnt have my glasses on so it wasnt until I got home that I saw I had bought some unusual wool - lovely but not what I really wanted.

The label said "felt me"!

OH!

Not suitable for mitts then???

Not to be deterred I found a pattern for a beanie to felt.
But you had to knit it in the round on a set of needles - something I have been too intimidated to try!

Circular needle to the rescue!!!



The crown of the beanie where you have to decrease for the shaping I managed to complete with a set of four needles without poking myself in the eye once!




So far so good!

Now to the felting part.
I decided to do this by hand as the laundry was still out of bounds (due to broken ankle not being compatible with stairs navigation)

To felt you need to treat wool in the absolute opposite way to how you normally treat it!

You use HOT water and lots of rubbing!
I used a bar of Sunlight soap and an icecream container (empty), to dip and rub-a-dub-dub!
Then rinsed in cold water.
I did this several times until the stitches became indistinct and the knitting felt felty.


It made a wonderful warm sturdy beanie.

Observations about this process.

1. The wool I used was a non-plied (or single ply, I'm not sure what the technical term for this is, it isnt twisty) 70% wool / 30 % soybean fibre.
I am guessing that it would be harder to use the new super-wash yarns, because they are designed to be machine washed, and specifically to NOT felt.

2. Using a circular needle is fun because you get to knit every row, non of that pesky pearling.

3. Sets of needles are not scarey.

4. You can also felt in your washing machine (if you dont have a broken ankle and a downstairs laundry)

5. I made 5 beanies and they all turned out different sizes.

6. Knitting beanies take a lot more wool and time than mitts.

7. Maybe I'll stick to mitts.

If you are a knitting and/or felting expert please feel free to comment!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my favorite fibre people, so come back then!

dont you just love -

a brand new stack of fat quarters?





I went to the Sydney quilt and craft fair yesterday with three other lovely DUSTy ladies.
We all do different things even though three of us make jewellery but our styes are very different.

Mandy of Beadsme and Radical Glass makes beautiful dainty pieces using glass and gemstones as well as fused glass pendants and earrings.

green pastures by radical glass

Rachel of LaFemmeJewels creates elegant jewellery using quality components.
She has also just opened a shop for her enamel and metal designs, rmdjewellery.

earrings by rmdjewellery

Somewhat outnumbered was Julie from julieblanchette who is a felt and fibre artist, but we managed to walk the length and breadth of the show, and fit in a couple of pit stops at the coffee shop.

gnomes set by julieblanchette

We all came away with a few goodies!

Even though I dont need all these fabrics, they were too beautiful to resist!

Some of them will be appliqued to BoosTees tshirts, other made into cute little pin brooches.

I bought a few beads, so look out for an update.

Oh, and I bought some wool to knit myself a jumper - dont hold your breath for that one!

what do you love?

monday's treasuries

I love doing my little Monday treasury feature.
Not only does it give me a chance to boast about the wonderful treasuries I have been featured in, it also gives me an excuse to show you some gorgeous work from the artisans of etsy.
And also to show the beautiful collections they have created because people do put a lot of thought into curating these treasureies and they deserve to be seen more.

So this week, with a great fanfare I bring to you seven outstanding treasuries and seven wonderful etsians!

Kicking off the week is Jacqui from ShadeofaBonsai who has a penchant for Japanese art as you can see by this treasury, her shop name and the lovely things in her shop.



Thanks so much, Jacqui for chosing BoosTees flying crane fabric brooch.

You can see that we both love this Japanese symbol -

origami crane necklace by ShadeofaBonsai

On the other hand Carmel of LaceandLuxuries chose a colour theme, and what a striking one it was too!

Pink and black - very decadent!

What thrill to see my Raspberry wine beaded pendant here.
Thanks, Carmel.

What to pick from LaceandLuxuries?
Carmel has such a variety!
But how cute are these little finger puppets?

finger puppets by laceandluxuries

Perfect for the little ones in your life - your kids, your nieces and nephews, or maybe you are a pre-school teacher??
How can you resist?

Oasis - was the theme chosen by RomanticArt and there are some amazing picks here that fit!


I'm pleased that RomanticArt found my desert oasis bracelet was suitable.

RomanticArt does amazing things with fabric!
For example this pretty flower brooch -

pink rosettes brooch by RomanticArt

Go and have a look at all the other pretty brooches she makes!

Who doesn't love owls?
Look at all these cute ones selected by JoiedeTea.

Thanks to Verity for popping in BoosTees little owl brooch.

I am a big tea drinker and I really would like to try this delicious-looking chai, by Verity.

chai masala by JoiedeTea

Samara of Maddo is a great treasury maker - she is always busy, and such a great member of DUST (Down under street team of Australian sellers on etsy).
She took her selection from recently listed items from the DUST team.

What a great idea!

Samara makes lovely jewellery, but I'm a big fan of her paper goods -

gift tags by maddo

There's nothing quite like a rainbow to brighten up your day, and I felt especially brightened when I saw this treasury with my Colour My World necklace in!

Many thanks to Jess of full spiral for this.

I love Jess's clever metal work -

swirly hoop earrings by fullspiral

And lastly another amazing member of the DUST team who is a rival for the crown of treasury queen!

Carley of vanillapixie!

Not only did she pick these from her favorite stores but she found a lovely pastel theme.

Carley is a really hot seller of hair accessories for girls!

I'm only sad that my girl has outgrown these sweet creations.

strawberry hairclips by vanillapixie

Thanks to all!

Vanillapixie, Fullspiral, Maddo, Joiedetea, RomanticArt, ShadeofaBonsai and Laceandluxuries.

Happy treasury making and have a great week!

Wednesday wishlist

This week I wish for a vibrant brooch to brighten up my winter coats -

violet pink flower pin by beljaysFeltnArt

Some warm happy gloves -

burnt orange fingerless gloves by aronsnthings

and boots - 'cus i love boots!

red ostrich boots by Gauteraux