I'm loving my Origami Crane necklace

I treated myself to one of these gorgeous pendants at the design @markit at Federation Square yesterday.

Made by one of my favourite crafters, I have loved watching her business grow into a quite sophisticated enterprise with lots of lovely shiny things!

How did they make that .. Hollywood Costume Exhibition

One of my gorgeous costuming friends organised an outing for us all to see the Hollywood Costume exhibition at ACMI this morning.

By organise I mean she told us that we needed to be in a particular place at a particular time. That works for me at the moment. The prospect of even a few hours without the kids in the presence of women of like minds, was like heaven. I bought the ticket a while back as I knew that if I didn't have it, I wouldn't go due to pending University due dates and school work.

My last essay for EER500 is due in at some point tonight (which of course is why I am blogging right now). The exhibition was a welcomed break from a rather intense weekend. 

If you do happen to go along and see the exhibition, don't go with costuming friends. We spent ages at each costume. How do you think they did that? Oh look, that bit is fake? I wonder why they did it that way? That isn't period ... and so on! It was great to have grown up conversations about grown up things!

My only criticism of the exhibition, is that on the exhibition information plates at each costume should have outlined what techniques were used. It would have complimented the materials listing. There were a few mistakes where the costume clearly didn't match the picture behind it, but overall the exhibition was worthwhile.

Incidentally, my gorgeous hubby had unknowingly bought me the exhibition book for Christmas (from V&A bookshop). So I had already had a drool over the exhibition without knowing it!

I will probably be going back to see it again before it closes, but next time with Tori so that she can see "those red shoes".

Challenges that photographers have

I've been desperately trying to get a nice picture of my son for his Godfather. Quite a wonderful gift arrived for him this week, you would think that I could take one nice photo as a thank-you! 

The task is more challenging than it seems! 

Trying to pick the time of the day is a bit of a challenge ..

And then you get the mischievous look ...

And then trying to keep him still for 10 seconds is a nightmare ...

you know what they say, don't work with animals or children!

Hairy Growler Jewellry

I stumbled across this artist on Facebook and I absolutely love the work that they do. Look at the intricacy of this dragon fly.

via Hairy Growler

And the coin rings are very steampunk and unique.

vai Hairy Growler

There are lots of "crafters" selling coins on a necklace on etsy, but to craft something like this requires real skill not just a drill bit.

via Hairy Growler

Looking forward to adding one of these items to my collection at some point.

via Hairy Growler

They also have a facebook page.

Happy Top Gun Day!

This morning I feel like hopping on the highway to the danger zone. Hope you all had a Happy Top Gun Day yesterday (13th May)

via Youtube

And for the ladies ...

via Youtube

Mother's Day

Wishing all the Mum's out there a wonderful relaxing day, with lots of hugs and laughs.

A beautiful day

Today is probably the last beautiful sunny day before we hit the pre-winter shivers. A perfect day to draw on path with chalk ...

and of course, if it isn't on Instagram, then it didn't happen ...

Hope that you had a wonderful day!

Sign for the Library

My creative exploits of late have been to do with the school library that I am working part time in. I've been playing around with Illustrator today rather than catching up on correction, designing a much needed sign for the fiction section of the Senior Library.

I started with the random.ttf font that I found online and then customised about half of the letters. Adding blood splatters, crowns and the dragon that my daughter helped me with.

I can imagine it being transfered onto canvas with the matisse gel medium to get a nice solid sign, or even onto blocks of wood that have been primed. But I only have time to print and laminate (if that !).

If you want a copy, you can download from slideshare if you want to take a look, else you can read about what I am doing with my library degree on my infowhelm (A journey into teacher librarianship) blog.

Heirloom Design

I came across this great article on Heirloom Design and it got me thinking about the objects that I surround myself with. Another article that I came about talked about slow consumption and the notion of adopting the values that our grandparents had in regards to repair, reuse or recycle.

via

But slow consumption doesn't mean no consumption, it means saving and buying heirloom design products that will last.

One example of this is our La Creuset cookware. The best thing that we ever bought was our large cast iron casserole pot. It has outlasted many other pieces of kitchenware, washes up wonderfully and the simple cookware can be used for anything.

This article made me think about what I do as a crafter. Do I create things to be bought, savored and treasured or items to be used and thrown out? I sometimes feel that concept of Heirloom Design is foreign to the crafty community as often what is created and bought is not designed to last long term. if we can slap a doily on it, then we can sell it.

This raises the question of what I want to be as a designer and crafter in 2013. Good question. 2012 saw me overwhelmed with study, family and work with not much crafty time left over. When I do have crafty down time, I tend to be working things out and writing patterns or ideas. I am loving the mathematics of patchwork at the moment. The patterns and possibilities excite me.

I enjoyed making and selling at markets, it isn't where "I am at" right now. The idea of preparing for a market fills me with dread at the moment, the organisation and kerfuffl isnt' as alluring as it once was. I also note that it is pretty hard to compete with chinese manufacturers and "weekend crafters" who might charge $5 for something that you charge $18 for because you are trying to make a living and they are just having fun on the weekend.

I hope to turn my hand at more design ideas this year, I've been enjoying the challenge of coming up with design pieces. Let's see how that goes!