Hong Kong trip

I have spent the last week booking a trip to Hong Kong for 10 days over Boxing Day- New Year. Aren't airpoints great! I'm going to the World Shibori Symposium in Hong Kong from 28th Dec to 3rd Jan. The tickets were easy, it was finding accomodation at that time of year that was difficult. Who would have thought that backpacker hostels would put their prices up by 80% over New Year's night and the 1st of Jan! It isn't as if it is Chinese New Year or anything.

Last year I spent a lot of time learning how to dye wool and playing with wool shrinkage and shibori on merino knit fabrics. Then I had this year off for the costume course but now I seem to be going back to wool. I'm nearly ready to combine the two.

Yesterday I finished the capes for the pre-school circus class. The first two I made had a certain wizardish look about them. I discovered that screenprinted random stars makes a cape look like it is for a wizard and that circus has organised stars instead. They are stars in rows. Not something I had ever thought of before.

Extreme Craft

A favourite new blog called Extreme Craft. Learn about how food photographers build catapults to fling the food in the air for ads or consider glazing pottery plates with the aid of a paintball gun.

Indigo

While I am researching websites and blogs for the Websearch article I write for New Zealand Quilter I often find things that aren't appropriate for a quilting magazine but are still amazing.

This is from an exhibition called Japanese Suppleness

Then Deb Donnelly sent me a link to another website which had indigo dyed clothing. Called
Heartwear.

Above is an installation called 'Universal Blue' which was at a shop in Paris.

Hand Eye magazine has had some great articles in Indigo. Here is an article on their blog which I subscribe to. Hand Eye. 
Hand Eye is a great magazine and I used to subscribe to it but unfortunately the price for a subscription has gone up a lot since the beginning so now I just buy the individual magazines from Minerva Gallery.

Fabrications

This saturday

Fabrications 
10-4pm Horticultural hall, Lower Hutt.
30 Exhibitors/vendors, craft and textile supplies, exhibits of works, classes ,  café, lots to do, buy and see.

Costumier and textile Artist!

I found the little quilt above while tidying up my sewing room. It won a prize at Coast to Coast Open day last year and is called ' Going to Nana's at Christmas'. In New Zealand we leave for our summer holidays at Christmas and it is always sad to have to leave the Christmas tree, presents and decorations and go off to some other part of the country. I have made Christmas cards using this image on Snapfish.


So I've graduated from the Drama School costume course. I feel like I only went through orientation week a few weeks ago but I started  in March and finished last week and the year has flown by.

So now of course I am looking for work and I have my first little costume job. I am  making some little  capes for  pre-schoolers.

So now I have to make decisions like - do I gather the cloak at the neck or make a half circle cloak and what fabrics can the client afford while still paying me actual money to make them?

Whew, so many decisions...

And then I am designing some quilts for exhibitions and writing my Websearch article for New Zealand Quilter for the next edition.

One of my quilts is on the cover of the last edition. I can't find a picture of the magazine online so here is a picture of the whole quilt. On the magazine cover they have the quilt on the table as a table cloth.

It is called Granny Smith's Airing Cupboard and is made of doileys and placemats.

I have also spent the last 3 days tidying up my sewing room. There is a big wide bench in there which I haven't seen in a couple of years. I usually end up working on about a 30 cm square area because I can't find any more space. The photo makes it look quite cluttered but there is enough space to actually make something now.