How to use this Page

The Lockyer is a fascinating and fruitful area and I don’t mean just crops. They grow talent there. This was very evident at the Lockyer Arts Festival where I was honoured to be a presenter recently.  All the arts were represented.

The Nolan family alone included an artist, a potter and a jeweler. KCMinis beautiful miniature 3D creations using recycled materials and Sheryl Lothian’s bread jewelry revived old arts that are ‘new’ again. Couture, millinery, original art for t-shirts, art for the garden, art on stone, art with icing, quilting, aboriginal art, lapidary work, woodwork and culinary arts were just some of the wide and wonderful variety of artistic skills displayed.

Music was high on the agenda with the  Battle of the Bands resulting in a win for country singer, Reanna Leschke, and her band [Open] and runners up, Third Eye Alchemy. In the under 18 division, the very talented classical guitar trio, Un Dia Antes wowed with their  original work. Winners joined  the inimitable Marcia Hines as supporting acts in a first rate live concert.

The  writers and poets of the Lockyer had their work displayed by local poet and editor, Andrea Kwast.  Andrea’s bookshop is the Lockyer’s writing hub!

Presenters for the Festival, whose theme was focussed on ‘resilience’, came from Western Australia, Victoria, Northern Territory and Brisbane, led workshops on writing a novel, memoir writing, non fiction writing with an emphasis on culinary arts.  Workshops on writing children’s books, illustrating picture books, cartooning and animation and landscape painting drew presenters from Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane. This will be discussed in more detail in another blog.

My own photo images from the Festival, focussing on the talents of the Lockyerites themselves, are reproduced below. Click to view slideshow.

Add a Comment

I've been very busy getting ready for City of Craft! Here's a sneak peek..
I sold my last crocheted pincushion at Crafternoon Tea, so I decided to make some new ones. These are crocheted from my own handspun wool yarn combined with vintage feedsack floral fabric tops and vintage buttons with wool flowers or leaves underneath. They come with their coordinating pins! They're all stuffed with 100% wool fleece.
I've also embroidered lots of new brooches. These are made from thick white felted wool circles embroidered with crewel wool with a brooch clasp sewn on the back. I love making these! I generally just make up each picture as I go along.
And lastly I have some new necklaces. These are based on a new idea I had last year but I didn't have time to make more than one. I've added wool felt flowers to the usual beads and silver charms I use. I love the textile element and I've used lots of my favourite aqua and mustard. I'm just not tired of this colour combination! p.s. I only bought one pony charm (why? why?) so there is just the one pony necklace.

I hope I've tempted you to visit my table at City of Craft! I'm going to be inside the theatre in front of the stage steps close to my spot last year. If I have time this week, I'll show you another sneak peek. In the meantime, here's all the info:

Add a Comment

Montreal designer, Roadkill Roadkill, has made a series of pendants based on my comic Ojingogo! There are three of them and she has them up for sale in her Etsy shop.

They’re beautiful. I love them - but whatevs, yeah, I ‘m biased.

Check out Roadkill Roadkill’s blog for more great designs. I also highly recommend subscribing to her Google Reader favourites. Lots of great design links there.

Also check out:
Matt’s book available online
Ojingogo Nominated

Add a Comment

Tomorrow is the City of Craft crafts sale and I'm puttering around getting ready. I have things to sort through and find, things to finish up and new things to make. Everything is lined up on my dining table so I can see what I have: shoppers, totes, messenger bags, earrings, necklaces, pincushions, pouches, one hat, one flower brooch, one eyeglass case, trivets, bracelets, bird postcards, and last but not least needle books!

This picture shows some completed needle books. Please visit me tomorrow and don't forget the first 100 people in the door get free swag in a fabulous tote that I'm coveting myself!

Add a Comment

I had such a nice day today going for one of our loooong weekend walks. We went to look at some bike shops for Bradley, and I got to visit Arton Beads, Romni Wool, Fresh Collective and Red Pegasus. I found a notebook with a vintage bird illustration on the cover at Red Pegasus (and covetted some silver acorn earrings). I also bought a beautiful skirt at Fresh Collective and lots of beading supplies at Arton. Starting last night, I've been making jewellery once again and I've been putting new things in the shop.This time I also did the photography outside, which of course is much better light and the colours are truer. On the way home I collected stray leaves and twigs to use as backdrops.I go through weeks where I just don't feel like creating, then suddenly I'll get inspired and I can't stop! Lately it's been busy in a good way, because I've also been working on my Scholastic book and I really like how it's turning out. I wish I could share my pictures, but I have to wait until the book is published in the fall.

Display Comments Add a Comment

As promised, here are my new curtains that are filling in for wallpaper. I've been seeing so many pretty wallpapers recently, but it can be expensive and you can't take it with you! So when I saw this fabric I decided it was perfect. Also, my new desk is right beside the window and the old curtains just didn't seem good enough anymore.

Here's another picture so you can see the pattern better:
I'm usually not very patient, but the fabric was expensive so I took some time to finish them properly, with careful measuring, matching up of the pattern between the two curtains and a nicely hemmed lining fabric. That's right, they're actually lined. It's a bit tricky but if you'd like to know how to make this style of curtains I could do a tutorial.

I've also been making new things for the shop, http://www.clairelmilne.etsy.com. I'm inspired by Spring which I'm pretending is just around the corner. This new blue flower charm necklace is now my favourite, I had to make another one for myself. I'm certainly never going to get rich this way, but at least I'm supporting my crafts habit.
And just in case you love the curtain fabric as much as I do, I made some pouches with the leftover fabric. And I made one for myself too. Oh well!

Display Comments Add a Comment