30 April 2012 - Furoshiki with Zentangle

Furoshiki is the Japanese art of tying a square of fabric to create a carry bag, parcel or gift-wrap.

There's lots of different styles. This is a knapsack or shoulder bag - Nanamegake musubi

It's a square of cotton fabric decorated with permanent marker pen in a pattern inspired

by Yvonne Kettner's 365 Freestyle Zentangles project

http://365freestylezentangles.blogspot.com.au/

I tried sun-inspired zentangles on paper back on 22 February - it was easier to draw on paper!

Yvonne's project is still going strong, today she drew her 243rd freestyle zentangle.

The furoshiki inspiration came from a library book, "Furoshiki: The Art of Wrapping with Fabric"

written by Kumiko Nakayama-Geraerts

http://www.amazon.com/Furoshiki-The-Art-Wrapping-Fabric/dp/1847738168

You can find lots of furoshiki videos on YouTube

29 April 2012 - Carrot & Ginger Soup with Yoghurt

Tasty soup, easy to make and good for boosting immunity.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1146/carrot+and+ginger+soup

28 April 2012 - Popcorn Crochet Coaster

I like the wrong side

better than the right side

The mug is one of my Dad's creations.

Bendigo Woollen Mills' 3ply Classic Wool

3mm crochet hook

27 April 2012 - Used Tea Bags

The plan is to paint on these but I haven't figured out how yet.

To see beautiful tea bag art look at Githa's blog

https://teaarts.wordpress.com/

26 April 2012 - Learning Broomstick Lace Crochet

I didn't have a chunky knitting needle to use as the "broomstick"

so used a ruler for making the long loops

Very helpful tutorials for learning Broomstick Lace Crochet

http://www.stitchdiva.com/tutorials/broomstick-lace-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yM_q9gqxSY

The yarn is Noro Silk Garden Lite colour 2040  (8ply/DK)

5.5mm (American size I) crochet hook

25 April 2012 - Rose Bud Tea & Photoshop Filters

The best part of this was the scent when the pack of dried rose buds was opened

but that can't be shared via internet (yet).

The original photo had looked washed out so I used Photoshop to bring the colour back

and then had a play with Photoshop's filter settings

Fresco

Glow Edges

Pixilate

Then made Rose Bud tea which is really light and refreshing,

in the process dissolving the colour from the rose buds.

24 April 2012 - Felt Applique

23 April 2012 - Frozen Hearts

Frozen Raspberry Zinger tea

22 April 2012 - Spectrum on Paper Heart

Inspired by Ellen Davis Petti who is creating beautiful hearts for her project "daily heART"

http://ellensdailyheart.blogspot.com.au/

21 April 2012 - Concertina Paper

Quilling paper concertinaed, one strip of yellow and one of orange.

20 April 2012 - Banana & Biro

19 April 2012 - PVA Glue

The plan was to let this to dry then paint it gold,

but the glue hasn't dried yet so the gold will happen tomorrow.

18 April 2012 - Pistachio Nuts

Pistachios are healthy!

http://www.pistachiohealth.com/consumer/nutrition/compare-to-other-nuts

A week ago Mum & Dad gave me lovely fresh-picked pistachios from their own trees.

The rest are all eaten now but these were a little immature and not split ready to eat,

so far as I know there's no way to get them open if they've not split on their own.

The yellow blob made me think of an eye, it's still-sticky sap from the nut's soft outer shell.

17 April 2012 - Chocolate Wrapper

16 April 2012 - Embossed Chocolate Foil Wrapper

15 April 2012 - Crochet again

Felt like crocheting again today.

Small scarf based on Anesha Lace in "Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia" by Robyn Chachula.

One 50g ball Zarina marino wool 4ply (fingering) and 5mm crochet hook.

14 April 2012 - Artrage Paint

13 April 2012 - Granny Bandana Finished

Ends sewn in and buttons sewn on.

12 April 2012 - Bullion Stitch

How to do bullion stitch on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pevFfS8IUqc

Went for dinner with my sister to HaanSsie on Rundle Street and had lovely Korean food.

They have beautiful Korean paper lanterns and lampshades.

Their ceiling lampshaes could have been sun-inspired designs

https://www.facebook.com/haanssie

11 April 2012 - Bolivian Pom Pom

I was going to add these to the Granny Bandana but it might be a bit much. Still they're fun to make.

Tape a 6 inch (15cm) piece of thread to a knitting needle.

Wrap a second piece of yarn around and around the needle, fairly tightly, with the wraps close together, about 30 wraps.

Place a braid or twisted cord over the needle - this cord will hold the pom pom.

Un-tape the ends of the short yarn and tie them together around the cord, slipping the wrapped coil off the needle as you do so. As you pull the knot tighter the coil of yarn will wrap around to become a little circle. Pull the knot tight and tie and extra knot to make it secure.

Trim off the long ends of yarn.

Make 2 more of these beside the first so that you have a set of 3 sitting together on the cord to make a pom pom.

I used 3ply (light-fingering) woollen yarn and 4mm (US size 6) needles. If you use thicker yarn you might need a larger size needle.

I learned to make these from a book "Finishes in the Ethnic Tradition" by Suzanne Baizerman & Karen Searle, it was published in 1978 so might be out of print.

10 April 2012 - Artrage Airbrush

6 April 2012 - Tasmanian Devils

I'm taking a break and these little guys are going to babysit my blog.

In return I made a donation to their rescue project

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-save-the-tasmanian-devil/

Happy Easter!

5 April 2012 - Granny Bandana (nearly finished)

Still needs all of its ends sewn in.

4 April 2012 - Granny Crochet (work in progress)

3 April 2012 - Peas & Red Lentils

2 April 2012 - Pumpkin

1 April 2012 - Orange Rind & Illustrator Colour Harmonies

Today we're celebrating Dave Hoffmann's "365 Days of Color" project in which he's working around the colour-wheel, working on each colour for a couple of months creating drawings, paintings, paper cut-outs and paper sculptures. He's finished Red and is currently working on Orange

http://justdavescreations.blogspot.com.au

Orange isn't a big stretch for my sun-inspired project. I looked at Orange-based colour harmonies in Illustrator and created a sun from strips of orange rind.

 

There's a good website for looking at many and varied colour combinations, it's free to use but you'll need to make an Adobe log-in to use it fully, or use your existing log-in if you already use their products

http://kuler.adobe.com

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