Maker In Residence

 And if you are a creative type, you know I'm not talking about little green men. UFO = Unfinished Object.   A little suncatcher I finished on the weekend. First a disclaimer: I do have many UFOs in my house, in boxes or lying around. I also have several projects 'resting' on my craft table. But these days when I start something, I try extremely hard to finish it. Finishing projects (or not) is a huge factor in how my mental health is travelling. (I'll write another post on this tomorrow).   A bag of 'scumbles' which need to be crocheted together as a freeform crochet ... very much a UFO. So first off... what causes MY UFOs? When you look at the reason for a problem, it can help you tackle it. So here's a list of reason's my projects go off task; 1. I've discovered I don't yet have the skills to get the result I want. 2. I have the skills, but it's still not turning out how I envisioned. 3. I've decided it needs something else and I'm...

 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...

 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...

 Here's a little video showing me working with a size 40 thread. It's not the smallest thread I've worked with and I'm still pretty new to this, which is why I'm looking all fingers and thumbs still. but I know I'll get quicker and more confident as I go. This little flower ended up encased in resin... The experiment wasn't a success unfortunately, but these little flowers only take about half an hour to crochet. In the same experiment, I was trying to encase half this piece of lace I made. I like the way it turned out actually and I'll definitely do something like this again... Even though the experiment didn't go as I wanted. I love how the lace hardened and conformed to the shape. I get excited thinking about all the shapes I can mould the lace into.  Here's what they looked like before they were encased. I've always wanted to make fabric pieces that I knew would stand the test of time, not fading or breaking down as is their natural proce...

 My mentor, Liz, at The Hawkesbury Remakery has encouraged me to find materials that speak to me when I'm making my pieces for exhibition. Thinking about it lead to a bit of a materials study. Below, you can see three different materials (3 sizes of crochet yarn with their 3 different size hooks). Not only do you get seriously different results on the size front, I chose three different types of yarn to test.  The one on the left is a 60 weight lace thread (crocheted over a 4 strand cord) with a 0.6mm hook. It's super fine, (though I might add, not the finest you can do - stay tuned for the 100 weight and the 0.35mm hook (I'm waiting for that to arrive from Japan). This is a thread designed for making fine laces and is not for the faint hearted. This was only my second time using it and I still felt like I was all fingers and thumbs, but I managed a nice little sample. I can't wait to do dome more gorgeous fine laces with this. The one in the middle is a perle from DMC ...

 So ...my Maker in Residence is all about showing my process of creativity right? Well, here's something you don't always get to see ... This is my work space after a few weeks of working on several projects at once, and not tidying anything up. Yikes!!! My poor husband lives with this. And somehow I manage to keep working in this. But this morning I decided it was time for a bit of a reset and to put some things away and give myself a nicer work space. Much better! I'm still working on about 4 things at once, but I put away things I don't need at the moment. Ahhhhh. I'm off to enjoy my space with some Russian crochet.

 Still in lock down. Still creating. I finished this lovely suncatcher. It was a bit of a prototype and I also just really like it, so I think I'll keep this one. The crochet around the outside is actually plastic, though it looks soft, it isn't, so the whole thing is quite safe to be out in the weather. It's gracing my front entrance now and I couldn't be more pleased. I can't wait to make more. I need to wait until I get a little oven for the garage to melt the beads though as when i created this one it made the house quite smelly and Mike asked me not to use our kitchen oven again as he is concerned the smell will permeate the interior of our oven and be unsafe for cooking - fair enough. A new little oven will be about $60. And this is what I've just started. Can you guess what it will be? Today I should get a call from Liz - one of the co-ordinators of the Remakery to discuss how things will flow. Of course this was meant to happen last week, but lock down h...