threadmark

project 21/52 . . .

. . . more scarves. Bluebirds with red flowers . . . 

And weird stylised trees . . .

I'm in production overdrive at the moment, getting ready for Handmade 2012. It all has to be on the courier tomorrow, so it'll be a late night tonight.

project 20/52 . . .

. . . applique detail on scarf. All handsewn, so my fingers are now ripped to shreds.The colours have come out a bit funny, but you get the idea.

Once upon a time, when my friend had a fabulous design store and very kindly stocked my stuff, I used to make quite a few of these but I haven't done any for ages. However, thought I'd make a couple for the Handmade Display and Store, just for a bit of fun. Believe me, it's well and truly scarf weather now.

project 19/52 . . .

. . . little boxes. 

With little flowers on top. It's my 'ode to Autumn', if you will. Autumn is a season that Christchurch does really well. Our summers might be pretty average and our winters inevitably disappoint those looking for a decent ski season  but man, do we rock the autumns.

Today is Mother's Day here in New Zealand and as my present Little Man gave me a 5.30am wake-up call. However, I pulled the Mother's Day Card and got a lie in while Muz did the breakfast shift. I also pulled the Mother's Day Card for every single one of today's nappies. All in all, it was a lovely day.

project 18/52 . . .

"Another bird," I hear you sigh.

Yes, I know it's meant to be '52 projects, no repeats' and yes, I have made one or two birds before . . . but not THIS bird. It's my stab at the kereru - the New Zealand native pigeon.

Use your imagination, people. It's freakin' hard to replicate iridescent green feathers in felt!

Again, it's for my birdmaking course at Handmade 2012. Another bird you can make if you tweak the pattern a bit.

project 17/52 . . .

. . . photo albums. For all the blood, sweat and tears (literally) that went into these, the final product looks somewhat underwhelming. This is actually one album, made three times. The photos are from my great-aunt's 90th birthday and I made one album for her, one for my parents and one for me.

I used to make all of my photo albums but in recent years I've gone off it. It seemed as though making them was getting harder and harder to do (you should see the 'threadmarks' I got after this batch) which is pretty much the opposite of what I expected. Under normal circumstances this sort of thing is meant to get easier the more times I do it.

After I'd had a bit of a think about it I realised that the reason it's getting harder is that the albums I'm making are getting bigger and bigger. Back when I started making albums I was using an SLR and paying a small fortune to get a roll of film processed. The crippling price of photos meant my albums usually didn't stretch much past 10 pages.

These days, with digital cameras and 10 cent prints, I've suddenly found I've got hundreds of photos all looking for a home. 

I'm not really sure this epiphany changes anything. Or even where I'm going with this. Clearly I need to get out more.