Maker In Residence

 I've been blogging and vlogging for about a month now and my cousin Libby has followed along. Hi Libby! Libby is my dad's cousin (so my first cousin once removed - I had to google that). When she saw I'd been crocheting, she told me about my Great Gran (her grandmother) doing the fine lace too. And she offered to share some of the precious things Great Gran left behind. The package arrived a few days ago and I was so excited. Inside, carefully wrapped, along with a bundle of photographs, were these items; Libby made me the cute mug mat herself. She has inherited the creative gene too. Here it is with my first tea of the day. Cheers Libby! Inside the pencil case I was delighted to find 4 antique crochet hooks. Three of the hooks have caps to protect their tiny ends. And tow of them have etched designs. Even the shaped end of the hooks is exquisite. I was also thrilled to discover that the hooks have a bit of a point to the top curve of the hook. I was just saying to Mike, m

 I had a chat with my mentor from the Remakery, Liz, the other day and we spoke about how our childhood and early life can affect what we view as important and also form our tastes. I think they form our life time goals too. I was folding washing today and I looked at one of my life goals...this is a weird one, but there is good reason behind it. When I was about 14 I went to a friend's house and we were getting things for a sleep over and I saw her underwear draw. A life long goal immediately formed, and I have now achieved it. This friend had the most wonderful underwear draw. It was full of nicely folded, new looking undies. My own draw was the complete opposite. We didn't have a lot of money, AND I wasn't great at laundry. So if I was lucky there might be a few pairs of  undies with worn elastic thrown in there. This is what I have today... These are my functional ones - I'm not sharing my lacey ones ^-^. Just the fact that there is a drawer full of clean, folded un

 Does it bug you as much as it does me that people refer to Mental Health like it's a bad thing? Mental Health is an area of health, not a condition. Positive or Negative Mental Health is the condition. Ok so I'll hop off my soap box now and write about the real purpose for this post. My progress on this Bruges Lace is such a positive mental health booster because it's a physical measurement of my achievement, of the time well spent and a new technique learned. This is what it looked like after using a full ball of thread. About 26cm. This is what it looked like this morning. That's about 37cm if you count the bottom half. And even more satisfying is the decision I made about what to do with this lace. I have a short black skirt that I will embellish with this lace. So now it has a purpose and I have a target length. Like I was saying to my wonderful Life Coach, Judy, yesterday, it's one thing to make something lovely, but so much better if it gets finished and turn

 The lock down in NSW has been terrific for me to upskill ...not sure I like that word for creative work, but it does describe what is happening. Can you think of a better term? Anyway, I've been learning a lot. Yesterday I followed a video on how to make Bruges lace and I've started a piece. This is a very basic piece really, and this is the level I'm aiming for ... (Sorry i don't know who the maker is, of this lovely lace. It's a picture from Pinterest) As you can see, I've got a bit of practicing to do. But I'm very lucky in that I pick creative skills up really fast. I wouldn't be producing lace like this for a table, more for wearing, like this...    Though I wouldn't crochet the entire outfit as is done here. I'm also learning a lot about running a creative business. I went to a webinar last night on Creative Marketing Strategies for Creatives. I learned a lot, though I never really intend to creative work to be my sole income. It will need

 WARNING! This will be a long one. As part of the Maker in Residence program, I've been encouraged to find my voice, my style, my artistic identity. In the first few weeks, this caused a serious doubt to well up inside me. I work across so many mediums that, at first I couldn't see it. My mentor encouraged me to journal and to experiment to find it. Then this morning, while in the shower it hit me (I often get epiphanies in the shower). I've already done all that!!!!! Ever since my teen years I've scrapbooked, journalled, flipped from one medium to another, followed and sought many influences. For one little moment there, I just forgot. So here is an affirmation. (for those who don't know me quite as well as others, these images are all my own work done over the past 30 or so years. And I apologise to those who have seen these images before, though I think this is the first time I have collected them in a statement like this.) My voice is evident in the sparkly mate