mothers day

Blessings to all  loving mothers

and the angels who watch over us and our children.

This wet felted angel wall hanging was created for a brave mother 

who's little boy returned to the angels all too soon.

We also send blessings to all the mothers that passed too soon 

from the world and their children. love and blessings of peace.
   
My apologies for my long absence.
As you may know i moved our family from Melbourne to the gold coast 4 years ago to look after my husbands 2 nephews and niece after they were orphaned.Tragically both their parents died of cancer 5 years apart .
After 4 years with us they have all come of age and we have had to return to Melbourne due to financial constraints.
The last 6 months have been difficult for everyone but I couldn't have got through it without Mia and my amazing crafting women friends who were so generous and loving and supportive.
So although we are all still recovering i am happy to say this blog is up and running again and i have alot of projects to share with you from the past 12 months.We are also looking forward to offering some of our frequently requested kits for sale thru this blog. 
 blessings . nikki

birthday celebration craft

Mia and I made some special peices this year for some special people.

We began by making 2 sets of birthday celebration props for Prep.

The birthday angel .

 

The rainbow spiral birthday mat.

The birthday crown.

The rainbow silk birthday cape.

And the rainbow bridge story mat with a mum and a dad, a cradle, an angel, and a wee babe.

And here is my sweet son at his celebration!

term 4 2010

Greetings dear crafters,

It has been a long time since my last post .

Fortunately there has been no gap in the creating of projects and the giving of workshops!

 I have  many many  projects to share with you! 

I hope they inspire and delight you as much as they have us.

Our first project in term 4 was Mias beautiful affirmation pocket friends.

These sweet tiny pocket folk fit perfectly into the hand (and pocket) of a child.

They are a simple friendly reminder to a child of a small message of affirmation to help them deal with what might be a difficult time or a hard lesson to learn.

What a lovely way for a child to be reminded to be brave in the face of fear or to believe in themselves!

Each one is also accompanied by a simple poem of affirmation.

They were so popular with the children we have made them into a kit including our rainbow felt and silver plated bells.The bells have the most pure ring that is quite delightful every time it is heard.

 

Here they are with their affirmation poems.

Our next project was the beautiful felt flower hair clips from purl bee.Check out the free pattern at www.purlsoho.com under rose barrette .Mia also created the lady bird clip.

 

 We then went crazy for the delightful soft trees.

 The crafty mums had loads of ideas that completley surpassed our original ideas.

We finished the year with the sweet and simple raibow silk fairies.

Dear crafty friends,

We have been busily creating spring inspired goodies at our monday craft sessions.

Our rainbow mother and baby bird were lots of fun to make.

Over 30 people came to this workshop.

 

Our silk dying workshops are also a big favourite with our mums. With just yellow and blue and a touch of pink we created some stunning spring playcloths for our seasonal tables.

We created a rainbow angel mobile in hounour of our newest craft baby Skyla.

She loves it!The ladies worked in pairs to make the mobile which was really enjoyable .

Our Australian animal series continued with the rascally dingo designed by Dionne.

Isnt he gorgeous!

 We held a saturday workshop showcasing Christina Lane with her needlefelted spring maiden.

She is truly the queen of facial detail!

This bee hive was inpired by Satchico one of our talented mums.The coil basketry technique is so useful to make all sorts of containers.We are very lucky to have so many talented women in our group!

The chidren love to hide the bees inside the hive!

It can also be used as a string holder!

 

We have a couple of weeks left in the term befor our market so I will share them in the coming weeks!

Cheers for now .... nikki

Dear crafty friends,

We have some beautiful work from Christinas crystal cave workshop which is ready to go to our end of term craft market next week.Im also keen to enter our craft groups work into our local agricultural show. Here is some of the beautiful creations!

The central one AND the one below was made by wendy. She delighted us all by creating a treasure hunt list of 14 different things to find in the landscape including a treasure chest full of jewels, a bat, a bear, a frog, a snail, a mouse, a pile, of wood, a camp fire and an owl. What an inspiration she was for us all!

I love the little camp firers that appeared.

they all turned out so well and all so different.

so much attension to detail.

They are so 3 dimentional its hard to do them justice in the photographs.

 

I love the tree idea! and the fairy ring of flowers.

 

 and more detail.

 

Well done everyone!

Hi Crafty folk,

Its been a busy couple of crafting weeks for me .I have so much to share with you!

At our craft group the week before last we made beautiful bees wax candles in a felt candle holder.

I started with a huge 8kg block of pure local bees wax.

It was then cut down into smaller size peices.

This took us almost an entire day to complete!

The wick was then cut into lengths, folded in half ( to make 2 candles at once) and dipped in wax once or twice.This first dipping  helps the wick to absorb the wax and burn better as well as making a nice straight shape to build the wax onto.Here they are hanging over a stick ready for the next step .

On the day I then set up the burners outside on tables with the tin of wax sitting in a pot of hot water.

The smell of the heated bees wax is absolutely devinely honeyish and heavenly!

 We then dipped untill they built up to a good thickness then hung them up to cool off.

And here they are all along the fence and then put together in a box.

 

We then made the felt holders and beaded them.They beading is so beautifully done!

Not a bad effort for a monday morning craft session !!

cheers for now!

Interveiw with felting artist Christina Lane

Dear crafty folk ,

I would like to introduce you to the very talented artist Christina Lane

who has contributed the wondrous crystal cave woodland scape project to our monday craft group this week (see photos of crystal cave at the end of the previous post).We had a record turnout of 32 people to our Monday session which is testament to the inspiration her work brings to us crafty women and ultimately to the children.

Christina how did it feel sharing this beautiful project with so many women on Monday?

Exhilarating! I was overjoyed to be able to inspire others to tap into their own creative potential and imagination. I enjoyed the buzz of people at play and the merry mayhem that ensued as the muse stepped in and unlocked inhibitions.

Christina has kindly allowed us  to share some photos of her other work she does for children.

What did you most enjoy about the process of bringing this project to the group?

The joy and delight that the group experienced was just totally mind-blowing.

I loved being part of the co-operative team process with Nikki and Mia.

I enjoyed brain storming and refining the ideas  so that when we presented it to the group everyone would feel able to participate and have a successful result .

What inspires you in your creative work?

I am inspired by my love of nature and humanity .

I feel  in absolute awe of the beauty, wonder and magic that comes with each new dawn.

I am inspired by seeing the world through the eyes of a child and the challenge of creating craft work in a way that shares that delight and sense of wonder with others.

My work is a response to the beauty around me and an expression that comes from, and endeavours to connect to, the heart and the soul of this beauty.

I love reading, poetry and music. One of my favourite artists is Albrecht Durer. I admire his amazing drawing, line work and detail. I especially love Mozart whose beautiful work are so intensly uplifting. Gratitude.

Christina you have a beautiful attention to detail in particular your characters facial expressions. What experience have you had with craft and art in the past?

As a child I spent many hours my aunt's French fashion salon playing with fabric scraps, colourful buttons and her sparkly bead box. My grandmother taught me to sew and encouraged me to explore art and craft. She sent some of my sketches to the National Art School in Sydney, N.S.W. Consequently I was invited to sit for an entrance test and was awarded a teacher training scholarship.

After a year teaching in the western suburbs, I decided that I could serve better as a social worker and returned to University. For one of my pracs I set up a Community craft group with the idea  to present craft as therapy, reaching out to socially isolated women to build their skills and self esteem. At the time it was a weird and new concept but it worked .

At university I met my ex-husband, and when I completed my course we moved to rural N.S.W where I raised a family of four children. During this time I became involved with playgroup and fibre arts, patchwork and creative sewing. I was teaching Craft at night for Community education, knitting custom orders as well as  running a craft supply shop and tourist information centre.

In the early 1990s our family moved to Canberra where my eldest daughter and I opened  a cafe. At this time I also became involved with teaching English to refugees and set up a craft group for them. For many years I have  painted miniature houses for sale in shops. Also during this period I worked in patchwork shops and was fortunate to be able to attend Canberra Quilters meetings which were a great motivational and inspirational force as well as joining the Cloth doll club.

 

Eight years ago I moved to Queensland  again having the opportunity to teach patchwork and quilting .One of the groups is still meeting even though the shop has closed. Then through my new friend and neighbour Marlee, I was introduced to Jennifer McCormack. Again through Marlee I was led to Silkwood, connecting with Nikki and Mia and their beautiful craft group. 

This little owl family is so special. Do you have some affinity to certain animals you create?

When I create a piece, animal or landscape, quilt or painting I do so with a deep love and respect for the subject. 

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Thank you for asking and allowing me to participate. Monday craft sessions are sacred. I hope I can continue to learn and inspire others. I truly believe that through craft we reach out to others and give an opportunity not only to make beautiful items and share that beauty but to enable people to create  a sense of achievement and self respect as they explore the wonder of the world and of their own innate abilities.

Thank you so much Christina for kindly sharing your extensive experience with us and for giving your generous gift of creative inspiration us all!