Studio Melt

these are the new things i have been making for the last few weeks and months...
pouffs

the two in the foreground are new arrivals at Studio Melt, they are mini pouffs for small children...they also go by the name 'zafu' which is a yoga seat.
the larger one sitting in the bottom shelf is a regular sized pouff.

each one is unique and made from rescued fabric off-cuts. 
they are also stuffed with more fabric off-cuts, so the bigger ones can be heavy!
Trish from wanderlust is my fabric supplier, she creates bags of fabric scraps every day with her womens wear label. 

thanks to Ange from Stuio Melt for taking this pic and posting it here on her store's Facebook page.

another dead bird

i have had a few post in the past about dead birds.

it was impossible to not stop to photograph this one...looking so much like it was sleeping! almost outside Good Brother cafe on Watt street.

i will get some new pics up here very soon of the things i have been making recently...

the maker of wanderlust clothing has been supplying me with all her mountains of off-cuts! honestly, i have had to make a storage space for the bags of fabric in our tiny apartment. i don't have enough sewing hours in my week to deal with it all quickly.

when i do have time i am making things that can be stuffed with small, otherwise landfill, fabric scraps.

newcastle yarn bombing

all these crochet posts are new yarn bombs on watt and king streets.

new crochet hand grips

these are my new bicycle handlebar grips.

the bike frame is yellow and i never liked the standard black hand grips...

so first i took a stanley knife to them to cut away the upright round rubber section...

and then i tried out some crochet.

new look handgrips

 

pulling the wool

 

it has been over nine months since i last posted here!! many reasons. there have been a few things over that time that have been waiting to be posted...this article for instance...about yarn bombing in Newcastle! and then this new crochet piece on a sign pole outside the Royal Exchange

trevor dickinson mural

on the way to Newcastle Beach from the city is a little tunnel taking pedestrians under the road to pop out right at the beachside...
there has been a mural on either side of this tunnel for years; but the predominate colour seemed to be black, making it dark inside...

in steps trevor dickinson with his awesome drawing and painting skills, and his humour.
it is now light, bright and exciting in this tunnel.





the ufo and superman silhouettes are a nice small touch..
you have to be really looking to notice them, they are very small details (to give an idea of scale: the ufo is that small smudge to the right above the 'showering' person)

dead birds

there have been very big oceans recently... and when the tides recede the detritus left behind on the shores is usually pretty shaming.
so much plastic.

but these two birds were also amongst it all.

door rock
made with:
one pacific ocean rock
two cotton crocheted doilies.

this is a new idea for a door-stop.
not too heavy to move around, yet enough weight to hold a standard door open.
the crochet protects parquet flooring and other smooth flooring materials from being scratched by the rock.

instructional design is everywhere when you start noticing it.
it is one of the areas of design that requires simplicity and clarity to achieve success.
which is why this sign on my local bus is so amusing.

vacate seat for an injured person, ok fine.
vacate seat for an elderly or less mobile person, but is she dancing ?
and vacate seat for a ....? what is that female representing?
is she obese?
is she itchy?is she pregnant?

was the designer having a joke...who designed this?
i would really love to know.

dead bird...
found in the park early one morning on those very first cold clear windy days.
it looked as though it had just fallen straight out of the tree.
frozen.

this was an accidental project...
it started as an idea that i could commission AB to make one for a friend's new baby.
then i started getting involved and found that i was making it myself. i've never tended towards patchwork... it just seemed too crazy to stitch all those tiny squares together by hand.

but it became strangely addictive and meditative to be doing something repetitive.

this cafe, good brother, opened quite recently.
revitalising a very dead part of king street...then a couple of weeks later this new crochet yarn bombing made its way on to the street sign post.
it's the small things that make the city feel lived in again.

these old bottles were found in the old dairy shed at a family property on the weekend.
not sure if they have anything to do with the running of the dairy, it is full of old junk and rusting machinery, so these are probably cast off from some other work.
they've been languishing in that old shed for decades.

of course they cleaned up well and are now gleaming on my kitchen shelf.
the lids are even in working order.
though perhaps not for food storage?


two of them have MASON'S embossed on the glass.
the other reads TRADE MARK LIGHTNING
what did they contain?...
how old are they/...

if you have any idea please leave a comment.

the scene from our inner city apartment. the beach is just beyond these buildings.
the light was perfect for only a few seconds... the colour of that new Sebel wall looked beautiful against the sky...and then there is all the construction work going on behind the old morgue.
great contrasts with the delicate sky.

broken in three

broken!

felicity gleeson made this gorgeous bangle.
it is parts of an old doily embedded in resin, which is perfectly clear and magnifies the textures colour and details of the yarn.



somehow i don't think gluing is going to do any favours for this beautiful piece.

if you are reading this miss felicity.... i need to visit any stocks you may have!!

citrus season

sundays are often when i remember the wonderful centenary centre on the harbour side of city.
it is often just to browse around and look at everything but for nothing in particular.

today's mission was a citrus press.

preferably not plastic.
but not the standard glass dish style ones either. without a clue what other design or way of squeezing oranges their might be (apart from the press/crush ones in fashion which J managed to break too easily with unwitting strength), i though this place was a good start.
after looking for a while at all the glass dish squeezers and one very beautiful green glass one with a jug below to catch the juice (much too expensive)...

...i found this perfect solution.

it is a 1940's piece, made from ceramic
very sturdy and perfect to use sitting over a cup to juice.

...and the autumn/winter oranges are on their way!

after a long break from any posts during summer it is time to be inspired again.

the colour of these aubergines is hard to reproduce in digital form, the texture and deep gloss of the skins are so much part of the pigment.
it is hard not to be inspired to at least cook these vegetables.
they are straight from our community garden... although small they are delicious.
like anything pick on the day from an organic garden they taste so much better than their homogenised sisters.

TOMS shoes are the creation of Blake Mycoskie.
the basic idea is business meets philanthropy... for each pair of shoes purchased, another pair are given to a child in need in various countries of the world.
one for one

great idea
great shoes

looks better with the crochet finished all the way to the ground.
this resurrected crochet lasted at least for the first evening of the Red Lantern Markets...it was no where to be found this time; and there are too many bins to go searching in.

....

organic
blueberries
eaten straight from the tree

the blanket is finally finished.

all those squares of knitting!
all sixty six
all that procrastination over how to join them together...
all that crochet
all those mistakes

bollard crochet

it lasted in place for maybe 10 mins? 1 hr? 10hrs?
well who knows.
but twelve hrs later it was definitely off.

this knitting was sewn on to the bike parking bollard outside estabar (cafe) a few months back, the wool colours are so bright and lovely here, and wet from a big late winter down pour.

these statues of sydney have been 'dressed' by a group of artist for sydney event art & about 2010

see the blog for more amazing images of the sydney statues: project!

I was just remembering this library in Paris to someone earlier this week.
i've only been there once, but i'm sure it would be a great library to live near. not only for the amazing collection of books, but also the setting you have to read them in.

the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterrand is the architectural work of frenchman Dominique Perrault.