It's YOU! Hello! Nice to see you! Here you will find stuff about living a creative life in country Australia. I create with watercolour, pen, collage, mixed media and photos. I teach, hosts workshops, collect, dream. I love cheese, travel, my garden, faffing, colour and whimsy. I am crap at time management, and do way too many things, but it is all good. Oh yes, all pictures and photos on here by me too, just saying.

Saturday 8 November 2014

THE SUNDAY WEAVE with Chief and Kewpie


THE SUNDAY WEAVE
with Chief and Kewpie

This time last week, I was sitting in the delightfully colourful and heart happy shop JUMBLED,in the bustling little hub of Orange, Central West NSW. Orange is around about an hour and a half from my home, affectionately called Serendipity, (but a more truthful name would be "Chateau de Chaos"),in Cowra

The drive over is just beautiful,lots of hills, rock formations, vineyards, fields, scenic vistas... and it always takes me longer then it need to because of constantly pulling over to snap way at the countryside. 

This day though was a tad different...I had to drive to Bathurst, a whole other direction, (100km + with Miss 7 and 11, who were spending the day with their grandparents,and go from there to Orange (another 45km?).No time to snap away with the camera on this drive, there was a deadline. Weaving workshop in Orange started at 10.And even though we got up at sparrowfart,of course I was still a little late to the main event.Yep.Consistent.

BUT...seeing as the Sunday Weave was a day with the uber spunky and talented CHIEF AND KEWPIE,and it was at the invitation to join the adorable REDAGAPE, this Sunday dash was no problem at all. Bring it on!

SO, with coffee in hand, muffins and wool on the table, we lucky ladies opened our weaving showbags, a little giggly with excitement. Loom, brush, needle, ....ooh er!And straight into it, we were...wefting and warping, weaving and threading, snipping, pulling.

As a complete and absolute novice, an innocent newbie to the world of weave, it was time for my brain to process and grasp fine technical points. But it was easier and more fun than I dared to hope.Okay, I made mistakes,sure. But you know, that's how you learn. And Chief and Kewpie were so very friendly, patient, generous and sweet with their encouragement.And a little bit cheeky and naughty with their wit...that it was super easy to just to keep giving it a bash and not take it too seriously. I laughed so much. 

3 hours after we started,the beginnings of a weave, a bag of goodies,a bit of a retail purchase(cannot leave Jumbled without one),a new vocabulary in my head,and a face full of smiles,and it was time to go.

The next day,fired up and all enthusiastic,I got out my stash of thrifted, hoarded, inherited (from my late grandmother, who knitted things for premmie bugs and the red cross),and even bought(!)yarns,wool and string,embroidery threads,knitting needles, buttons and pom poms.I got out my weaving show bag.I put ABC on the telly.I sent the kids and hubby off to school,and settled in to finish the weave. 

I must confess,I am a bit of a rogue creative,likely to go off on tangents,trying new things,while projects almost completed,lay neglected and waiting to be completed.And seeing,as the house was looking a little 'festive' with the remnants of a big art commission and my exhibition now taking over not just my studio room,but our entire big table in our "good room"... I was determined to get this little project wound up(pardon the pun)and completed,so that my family would not have to endure weeks of wool and needles and tufts of fluff cloying up flat surfaces around the house.So it was purely for unselfish reasons I ignored the housework on this day, to finish off the weave.Obviously.

And finish it I did.By throwing pom poms (made previously for vignetting challenges), buttons and thread at it,finding some knitting needles as a handy way to hang it. By snipping and trimming like a mad hairdresser,and tying and finishing off bits.

TAH-DAH...and there it was..my crazy little weaving. So now it sits on a peacock blue wall, outside my bedroom, and reminds me of the fun Sunday weave... a little lonesome on its own for now.But not for long...
Woolly goodness
The beginnings of my weave
OOOOoh...which colours to choose?!
Kel of Chief and Kewpie showed us how
A great combo...muffins and making
The owner of Jumbled, Pip, joined us for the class. These are her hands weaving and making magic.

Getting a bit fancy
My finished weave...complete with knitting needles, pompoms, and buttons.