photo love

I'm selling some stuff on Ebay, trying to declutter the life while earning some cash. Anyway, I've had these three necklaces for years and I don't want them anymore, so up they go! I always find it better to show things like that on someone, to give the buyer a better idea of how it hangs.

I don't have anyone around at the moment, but luckily I own the most incredible looking maniquin who is happy to pose for photos.

Meet Miss Glass Ameliorate:

I love her long neck and the expression on her face which changes depending on which angle you veiw her on - haughty, sleepy, curious or lanquid. She's also bald, although currently she has a scarf draped across her head in a Mary like moment that's been going on for about a year now and I really should give that scarf back to my sister.

She's been in a number of my exhibitions and photographs, infact there's a photo of her available on Red Bubble as a card:
Nothing like theatrical lighting for a dramatic shot. Click on the photo to buy the card... Go on, you KNOW you want too.

In fact, are you still bereft of beautiful Christmas cards? Click on the photo at the right to buy some of them. Send them to friends, family and everyone you can think of!



Onto other things, I'm currently writing up a Little Blue Bird Tute. They're so dreadfully cute!
Stay turned...

Props!

In the next week there's going to be a Surprise Piggy tutorial and a cloth doll tute (I haven't thought of a funky name for her yet) and I'm really looking forward to sharing those with you!

But until then, I figured I'd share some photos from the play I designed that's just finished, This Is Set In The Future at La Mama. There was heaps of good feedback for it, and I was pretty happy with it all up. This was what the Bedazzler was for, as well as the Confusion Fish. But here are some photos of some of the things I made in all their glory!

Joshua Cameron and his bedazzled DISCO SLUT knickers

Joshua Cameron, Rachel Barring and the Confusion Fish


Something I haven't mentioned yet on the blog, the Turkey Baby puppet. It waves it's wings gently if you watch closely. Erm, not in this photo of course, but when Rachel was cradling it.


Rachel and the Turkey Baby.

Nicely enough, I heard one audience member remark as she left "That headless naked turkey really freaked me the hell out" Shucks. It's so nice when something you make connects with the audience! I used to think puppets were in a realm of their own, you know, only something that a Henson Workshop employee could make. But puppets are just craft. The Turkey Baby is made up of dowel rods, shaped foam, loads of hot glue, some terry toweling for skin and then airbrushed with pink ink. Ok, well, the air brushing takes some special equipment, an air brush and air compressor (love you ebay!) but everything else is simple craft supplies anyone can get. And the best place for foam is the off cuts bin at your local friendly foam store.

And, indecently, if you're looking for books on how to make foam hand and rod puppets (think the Muppets) you cannot go past The Foam Book : An Easy Guide to Building Polyfoam Puppets
by Donald Devet and Drew Allison it was and continues to be extraordinarily useful. You can buy it off Amazon, and if I could find a simple way to link to the page I would. Damn uppity Amazon!

Stay tuned for more craft...

Awesome Craft Graffitti

I found this down Hosier Lane today


I think one of the 'S's has fallen off, but how great is that? It was soft and hand sewn and doing it for Crafters everywhere!

Love it. More, more say I!

Veggie sausage rolls version 1

I was somewhere the other day and they were serving party pies and party sausage rolls, and I got a craving. Being vegetarian, it's not something you can fix by buying it from the shops, but I've got two awesome Sausage Roll recipes to fall back on. One is my sisters and the other is a close friend's. Today I'm sharing with you my sister's version, which comes from a friend of hers and I don't know it's geneology before that. Lets call it an heirloom piece, and leave it at that.

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1/2 cup walnuts
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 cup rolled oats
3sheets puff pastry
1 tbls milk for glazing

mix together everything (except puff pastry)
cut pastry sheet in 1/2 and spoon mixture down one edge.
brush other edge with milk
roll to enclose filling with pastry and repeat with remaining sheets
cut each pastry log into 6 even lengths (or into little party sizes :)
brush with milk and poke with fork
bake in hot oven on a greased tray 200C for 15-20 min or until golden and crisp.

nb - you can freeze these before or after baking.

recipe one: home made bread crumbs

I decided to cook Veggie Sausage Rolls, and while standing at the supermarket looking at all the chemicals in commercial breadcrumbs, it occurred to me that I had a bunch of left over crusts in the freezer that are too thick to cram into my toaster, and that I could kill two birds with one stone... metaphorically speaking.

So I trooped happily home with the other ingredients that wern't hanging out in my freezer waiting for me to do something with and I embarked on Making My Own Breadcrumbs. You can find How Tos on the net, but they all involve food processors. For a machine-free way to do it, read on!


INGREDIENTS
BREAD
OVEN
A BIG METAL BOWL
SOMETHING HEAVY LIKE A PESTLE, ROLLING PIN ETC

First, I got all the ends out of the freezer and arranged them attractively on an oven tray.


Then I put them into an oven turned to around 100 degrees (C). You don't want it up too high, or they'll burn, and you'll have charcoal crumbs. Great for the art, not so great for the belly.

They need to dry out til they're hard, so I left them for about 20 mins, but that's only a guide. Remember to make sure that they're dry all the way through before you take them out. You want them hard but not brown.

Pull them out of the oven and put one in the bowl. Smash it with the heavy thing. It should break up into crumbs. Don't worry if the middle flattens out rather than disintegrating (and ends up looking a bit like a flattened bread daisy), it just means it's not fully dry yet. Smash all the dry bits off, then pop back into the oven for a little more drying out.
Breadcrumbs in the bowl with a Flattened Bread Daisy in the middle

Flattened Bread Daisies about to go back into the oven

Continue to take the drier middle bits out of the oven (the aforementioned flat bread daisies) and smash them until they're all crumbs. Then put in a zip-lock bag or container and put them in your freezer, all ready for next time you need home made bread crumbs!



Tommorrow, part two of this culinary advenutre: Veggie Sausage Rolls

While She Naps

I've just discovered a beautiful soft sculpture artist, Abby of While She Naps, who makes, amongst other things, incredibly beautiful birds. She's just posted a really interesting photography journey of making a peacock which you should check out.

But I found her for her beautiful teacup pin cushions.
She buys antique teacup and saucer sets and turns them into pin cushions like the one on the left. How beautiful are they? I love the idea of rescuing things that other people have thrown out and make them into something beautiful and useful. And I'm always a fan of old world items and crafts. Abby is selling her beautiful work at her etsy store, whileshenaps.etsy.com which has some heart achingly beautiful things on it!
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It occurs to me that I used the term 'beautiful' quite a lot in that post. But I comfort myself that I am an artist, so I call them how I see them. Plus, my thesaurus is all the way over the other side of the room. Of course, I could look it up on the net, but I think that what I think is what I think. And I find a lot of things beautiful.

Doll Workshop exhibition pics

The space isn't good for photos, it's terribly reflective. It's got a number of panes of glass between the camera and the dolls, but regardless of that, how good do they all look! I'm so proud.

Close ups:



I love how different they all are, even though they're all from the same pattern. The little doll in the fez is mine, all the rest are the ladies. I love them all.

and sometimes the universe craftily kisses you

For the play I'm designing, the director wanted jocks with rhinestones picking out a certain phrase from the play. And I was talking to my younger sister the other day, who often helps me out when I'm making stuff for plays or workshops or anything else I've said yes too, and I asked her how she'd feel about helping sew this phrase onto these jocks.

And she said - I've got a rhinestoner if you want.

"A what?" I replied, confused.

"You know, one of those machines that rhinestones things"

"You don't mean..." I said breathless...

She dived into the biggest craft box I've ever seen (seriously, picture a huge wooden pirate chest, stuffed full of crafting items) and pulled out a plain box

Hoping against hope, I carefully opened the box and pulled out the contents. Beyone my wildest dreams, my younger sister had had stashed in her craft box for years on end, A BEDAZZLER, complete with accessories!!!

It had everything in there, heaps of little stones, instructions, purple iron on stencils all intact and even the letters from Demtel thanking the buyer for their purchase! Ahh, if you're Australian and mid 30s, you'll remember the Demtel ads, where excited ladies offered you carefully scripted reasons why you should buy much junk over the phone.

We think that what happened was that one of my grandmother's friends was sucked in by the aforementioned ads and bought it, but then never used it. All the little rhinestones and stuff were still in packaging stapled closed. At some stage they would have handed it onto my grandmother, thinking she was a crafty type of person, and all crafty people have a use for Bedazzlers, surely. My grandmother obviously never used it, she made toys, not trashy 80s fashion, and a few years ago she handed it to my sister, who stuck it in her craft box and never used it either.

There's no date on the Demtel letter, but it does date it vaguely around the 80s. So this has been sitting in it's box for 20 years just waiting for the right person to come along.

Bedazzlers are really simple to use. Theres the tacky little plastic gem bit and a pointy metal backing that gets inserted into a plastic stapler like thing, and basically you pierce the material to hole it in.
Rhinestone goes into one end...
Pointy metal backing goes into the other end. Place the fabric right side down over the rhinestone and push down.

And congratulations! You have Bedazzled!

I sat on the floor at rehearsal last night happily bedazzling the knickers. So much fun and so, so horribly tacky.

You can even buy more rhinstones on ebay! I am so set. Now all I need to do is find more applications for it, ones that arn't anything I wear, anything anyone I know wears or will be seen with. But nothing like a big of 80s nostalgia to take you back to a more innocent time. Hammer pants, frizzy hair and the good old Bedazzler.

Theatre and toys

Oh, it has been a very busy week, mostly craftwise! I have built, sewn, glued and created more props for the play and we're now on the home stretch.

Once the show is down, I'll put some photos up here of these nicely crafty props, but y'all have to wait til then, otherwise it'll spoil the suprise (Confusion Fish notwithstanding ;) Before that time, if you're in Melbourne some time in the next month, you should go see it!

I should give it a plug actually:

THIS IS SET IN THE FUTURE
"In my dreams I shit eagles"
By Glyn Roberts
Directed by Robert Reid
from 29th Nov to the Dec
at La Mama,

205 Faraday Street, Carlton

The guests arrive.
the future is here.
They are fashion conscious, bi-lingual and well into their 100's.
This new black comedy from Glyn Roberts (The Jaundice Table. La Mama, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2006) is a densely packed meditation on mortality and love set in the middle of a debauched society party.
If you prefer your holidays more festy than festive, come spend a night with Roberts, lit by the dying embers of humanity

Wed & Sun 6:30pm, Thurs - Sat 8:00pm

Workshopped and Read in May at La Mama under the title 'Vampires Vs. Ninjas'
Bookings:

	Phone: 0393476142
Email:	bookings@lamama.com.au (weekdays only)

Until then, The Toy Society is looking for you! If you don't know about this wonderful group, it's a silent group of crafters who make beautiful handmade toys to leave around for other people to find. How beautiful is that? And they're looking for people for a Great Big Christmas Drop (TM). Read further for more info!

What: A co ordinated simultaneous world-wide toy drop the weekend before Christmas. On that weekend a map with drop locations will be uploaded to the blog so you can see where all the Toy Society elves are active. Each toy drop will also then be uploaded to the blog as well as any finder emails.

When: The last weekend before Christmas.

Who: Anyone willing to make a handmade toy and drop it on the street the weekend before Christmas.

Why: Because it's Christmas, of course.

How: To be part of 'A Toy Society Christmas' email thetoysociety@gmail.com with the subject 'Christmas'. Don't forget to include a link to your blog if you have one. The code for the button above will be made available to everyone participating. If you're part of this you'll need to think of your drop location and submit that via email by December 1.

(I stole that word for word from the Toy Society blog. But she's a lovely girl and I'm pretty sure she wont mind. So if you're interested in making a stranger's day, register now! I can't wait, I'm already thinking about what I want to make and drop...)

tutorial - felt Confusion Fish mobile

These fish were created as rod puppets for a theatre show I am designing, they float around a character's head and confuse her. Thus, they are referred to as Confusion Fish (and a Confusion Blue Ringed Octopus)

This tutorial is for the fish alone, I'll be posting another one for the Confusion Octopus as soon as I can photograph it's pattern.

Firstly, the fish. You'll need:
2 felt squares of complimenting colours (around a4 sized) for each fish
needle and thread of the same colour
stuffing
sissors.

Step one: Download the fish pattern here and print it out A4 sized.

Step two: cut out the pattern and place it on the different pieces of felt. Remember you'll need 2 of every shape.The HEAD, BODY 2, TAIL, and FIN are all from the Main Colour (in this example, it's Dark Blue) and the BODY 1, BODY 3 and EYE are out of the Secondary Colour (Light Blue)

Step three: this is the weird part. We sew this fish from the tail up. So grab the TAIL and the BODY 3 parts. Place the two parts together with wavy edge of BODY3 rests just past where the tail thins to become the body.
(Check out the example photo) Working on the wrong side of the fish, stitch the straight edge of the top of BODY3 to the TAIL. The clever thing about this pattern is that all the stitching in the body itself is hidden by the next overlapping piece.

Continue with BODY2 and BODY1 as in the photo
At the moment it will look a little flimsy, but don't worry about it, everything will be fine.

Stitch the other side of the body the same way. If you're keen, you can keep checking it against the first body to ensure it all matches up. I'm not that keen ;)

Step four: Now here is the clever bit. Place the HEADs in the correct place on the newly sewn fish body, and place them together, right sides in. Stitch around the entire thing, leaving a gap of around 7cm (2 1/2") at the belly to enable you to turn it right side out.

Step five: turn Confusion Fish right side out. Bet you didn't see that coming!

Step six: Stuff the Fish firmly, then stitch the gap closed.

Step seven: lift the edge of the head and stitch the fin under the flap (see example pic above) and stitch on eye.

And that's it. You're the proud creator and owner of a Confusion Fish.

Next, the Octopus. You'll need:
2 felt squares of complimenting colours (around a4 sized) I've gone with green here.
needle and thread of the same colour
scraps of light blue and dark blue felt
stuffing
scissors

Step one: Download the octopus pattern here and print it out A4 sized.

Step two: Cut 2 Dark Green BODIES, 2 Dark Green EYES and 2 Light Green HEADs. Each leg you make needs 1 Dark Green LEG, 1 Light green LEG, 3 Dark Blue RING1's and 3 Light Blue RING2's.

Step three: Place the HEADs in the correct place on the BODIES,and stitch around the entire thing, leaving the bottom entirly unsewn.

Step four: Turn right side out and stuff firmly.

Step five:Place a RING2 on top of a RING1 which you then place on a Light Green LEG and stitch around the edge of the RING2. Repeat twice more os the Light Green leg has 3 rings on it as per photo
You don't need to stitch around RING1, stitching RING2 is enough.

Step six: Place the Light Green LEG with the rings down on top of the Dark Green LEG (right sides in) and stitch around the whole thing, leaving the top open.

Step seven: turn right side out and stuff. Make as many legs as you need to fit into the bottom of the Octopus, mine called for 5.

Step eight: Place all the legs into the bottom of the 'Pus and stitch them all firmly in.

Step nine: Stitch eyes on

And that's it.
Make a couple of Fish and one 'Pus and sew them with a long thread to a piece of dowel, and you have a Confusion Fish mobile for a small child. Sew them to individual dowel rods painted black and you have Confusion Fish rod puppets.

Simple, colourful and fun