Mosaic Pendants.

I really enjoy making these mosaic pendants.  They are made from glass tiles and are clear grouted.  The chains are 92.5% silver in lengths from 46cm to 60cm.  All pendants come in a variety of colours which will make a great accessory for any season of the year.  They are priced at $18.50 plus postage and handling.

Eco Dyed Fabric using Leaves and Flowers

I have enjoyed dyeing wool and silk fabrics with leaves and flowers from Australian Trees and Shrubs and other plant matter.

1.  This wood jersey was dyed with eucalyptus leaves, red onion skins and carrot tops.  This piece of fabric will made into a skirt.

2.  This piece of silk was firstly dyed with dried herbs and then over dyed with eucalyptus leaves and red onions skins and I will make this into a scarf.

3.  Silk dyed with eucalyptus leaves and I will also make this into a scarf.

4.  I have dyed to 100g hanks of wool, one on the left is dyed with spinach/silver beat and the one on the right is dyed with eucalyptus leaves.

5.  This is a piece of silk dyed with pepper tree leaves.  The leaves didnt give a good colour sadly.

6.  I attended a workshop learning how to achieve colour using this type of dyeing so this is my original piece where  I used wool jersey and dyed it with eucalyptus leaves and lavender flowers.

7.  This is a piece of pale pink silk satin and I have dyed this using bottle brush flowers.

8.  I dyed this piece at a workshop too, using the pale pink silk satin and dyeing it with bottle brush flowers, prunus tree leaves and carrot tops.

9.  This is a piece of beautiful wool fabric dyed with eucalyptus leaves.  Normally eucalyptus leaves give you a orange colour but this one gives a yellow colour.

Mosaic Bird Baths.

I just love mosaics.  This is a selection of my designs.  The measurements of these are approx. 18cm high and 28 and 31cm wide.  They sit under your shrubs and the little birds just love them.  Prices are $68.00 for the 28cm size and $71.00 for 31cm and if they need to posted, postage and handling would have to be added to the price. 

Polymer Clay

On the 10th October I attended a Polymer Clay Workshop at Edelweiss Gallery at Dungowan.  Our tutor was Arlene Delahenty.  Arlene is well known for her Sculptures and Silver Jewellery. Using Polymer Clay is just so easy and you can make the most exquisite things.  I will put up a couple of photos.  The Butterfly was our project at the workshop which I am going to make into a broach.  The middle photo will be made into a pendant and I used cotton lace to achieve the pattern. 

Eco Hand Dyed Wool

Firstly, I must apoligise for not publishing a new post on my blog for a while especially when I said I was going to do one, once a week.  I do have an excuse.......our son was married and I made the ring cushions using Machine Embroidery and I also crocheted around 4 white linen hankerchieves for the bride and the mothers and we had to travel interstate for the amazing day.Today I have been in the Kitchen Dyeing Wool with items from the Pantry.
The goodies from the pantry I used were Red Onion Skins, Blueberries, Tumeric and Shiraz.  I have also used Jelly Crystals and Crepe Paper.  These are all boiled on the stove, then added vinegar, to fix the colour, and boiled again for another 30 minutes to an hour.  The colours from these give you a soft coloured wool except for the tumeric. 
I am really enjoying experimenting with natural plant dyes and I have also steamed dyed a silk scarf with pepper tree leaves which gave a nice pale yellow leaf pattern on the fabric.  I attended a workshop back in the Winter, where we were shown how to do the steam dyeing.  Eucalypt leaves give you a wonderful orange colour on wool and a peach colour when using silk. 
You will see the colours you achieve from the photos. 

 Wool dyed with Jelly Crystals.

 Wool dyed with Crepe Paper.

 Wool dyed with Onions Skins, Blueberries, Tumeric and Shiraz.

 Jelly dyed.

Steam dyed with Pepper Tree leaves.

Handmade Cards

Welcome to my handmade crafts blog. Today I will introduce you to a selection of my handmade cards which include machine embroidery, needle felting and quality fabrics.

My machine embroidered cards were made using a Janome 300e and the designs were purchased from Janome Dealerships and reputable digitisers.  Their themes are only limited by your imagination. I use quality fabrics including damask, satin back satin and satin back shantung to name a few.  I use Mettler, Janome, Raimon, Echidna, Robinson-Anton and Hemingworth which are all quality threads.  Using good quality fabric and threads gives you a quality design.

The needle felted cards are made using Fine Merino Wools, Alpaca, Mohair and Kid Mohair and these are then felted into beautiful colours to suit the shapes of the cards.

My website is: www.thegumtreecraftroom.com