Necklace

I recently finished this necklace as well. It is made of glass and stone beads and is strung on jewellery wire. The large grey beads and the small black ones are glass, while the medium sized black beads are actually snowflake obsidian. They are a black stone with white snowflake-like patterns on the surface. The beauty of this necklace is in the subtleties of the colours, the shades of grey and the delicate snowflake pattern.

More spying on the birds (and them spying back at me!)

The Black-Naped Oriole spies me...

but continues eating...

Red Breasted Parakeet also sees me... (but doesn't care)

The House Sparrow spies me

The Yellow Bellied Sunbird (Olive-Backed Sunbird) spies me too...

but rambutan is more interesting than me...

Mystery bird likes to hang out at sunrise and sunset...

and fight with the Asian Glossy Starling correction: Asian Koel. The spotted is the female and the black is the male.

Red Bellied Parakeet is back for an evening feed

So is the Long-Tailed Parakeet correction: Rose-ringed Parakeet

The Asian Glossy Starling is never far away correction: Male Asian Koel

The backside of a Spotted Dove who was strutting his stuff on the branch

The nicer view of the Spotted Dove

Probably the Brown Shrike, with its Zorro face banding... correction: yellow vented bulbul

Yup, he's spotted me too...

Out of about 200 pictures, these are the only decent ones. That's the thing about photographing birds, they don't like to stay still, and once they spot you, they are off! These are the variety of species that visit this one large Rambutan tree during a day or two. Usually at evening and morning there are about 3 different species feasting at the one time.

Some more weaving

I just finished this little bathmat out of old clothing scraps. I made it on my simple rectangular loom with a warp of cotton crochet thread and the weft of clothing scraps. The cotton thread is yellow and white and the scraps are white and green. Its a bit uneven as I think I was pulling too much on the weft thread in the middle so it grows smaller in the middle and larger at the ends! You can also see lots of bumps, but I think that just adds to the charm. Anyway, its supposed to be stepped on with wet feet so it doesn't have to be too beautiful!

Weaving

I finally finished this table centrepiece made from scraps of wool/acrylic of various colours. I'm quite happy how it turned out and the combination of colours makes me happy. I might sew a strip of cloth around the edges to protect them from moving about too much, though I think it will be secure on its own.

Spying on the Birds

The yellow bird is in the centre of the picture

This bird is mostly yellow with black streaks on its wings and tail. The beak is orange. Its yellow feathers form a surprisingly good camouflage against the yellow green leaves of the Rambutan tree. I think this is the Black Naped Oriole known to be particularly fond of fruit and well adapted to urban life in Singapore. It took me ages to get a picture because I couldnt find it looking through the camera because I kept loosing it among the leaves.

Mud into Wonderful

Coil Constructed Bowl

Coil Constructed Cup

Plate made from a polystyrene tray-mould with crochet motifs pressed into wet clay

Plate moulded from polystyrene tray-mould with crochet motifs and large leaf pressed into wet clay surface

The set of bowls and cup (smaller bowl was pinch made) with their two tone colour blues

The plates, same two tone blues, but different dipping times has made them different tones

The whole set. The dark blue is called Namako Blue. It is a colour with a lot of depth and differing tonality. The colour ranges from a brown green to a white blue depending on the amount of glaze applied and the dripping, firing etc. Apparently this is a glaze of Japanese origin developed in the Meiji Era. I think its gorgeous. The light blue has very little blue pigment in it, I think it is because was an old glaze and has been used a lot already. I've glazed some more of my smaller objects and hope to collect them soon if they have been fired. I will put pictures up when I get them back.

Birdies

Two Asian Glossy Starlings (they have red eyes!) eating the fruits of the Fishtail Palm (Caryota rumphiana)

I think this is the female Pink-Necked Green Pigeon (the girls apparently don't get the pink necks). This one had a distinctive yellow green underside and blueish back feathers. She knew I was looking at her too!

Noisy unknown bird that's been waking me up all this week! Has a very distinct and very loud call. Two of them were dancing for each other this morning, lots of tail flipping was going on. A couple of Asian Glossy Starlings also came to take a look at the dance. This mystery bird though, is very shy, and always dissapears whenever I have my camera out. I only get one chance per bird sighting to take a picture!

What I have been up to recently...

Grey Organic Cotton Baby Booties with Rabbit Buttons

Linen Acrylic Blend Cushion Cover on Grey Felt Backing

Pattern Picture for tatted Doily

The Work in progress, rounds 1 and 2

Beetroot Brooch for Spacious

Bamboo Yarn and Ceramic Bead Necklace

Bamboo and Beads

Knitted Hat (my own adapted pattern)

Crocheted Matching Flower

Closeup of Necklace

Orange Wooden Bead and Plastic Gold Bead Necklace on Suede

Pooch sleeping on fabric I'm trying to sew with!

As usual, I have been up to an amazing plethora of activities ranging from crocheting cushion covers, hand sewing clothing, crocheting little baby booties, making necklaces, tatting my first doily and reading books about Strads (the violins). I've also dried some mangosteen hulls to use for dyes at a later date, washed some fabric ready for sewing and been working on a crocheted dress.

Another project has been a barter trade system with friends, trading handmade for handmade like. So far I'm the proud owner of some little clouds from mein (can also find mein here) traded for three crochet necklaces and a happy recipient of a homemade apple and raisin pie traded for a knitted beanie with matching flower (shown above).

And I've been missing my little craft helper, who liked to sleep on my fabric while I am trying to arrange pattern pieces or freak me out by narrowly missing standing on a pin! He also enjoyed walking across my crochet squares and through piles of yarn and kicking them all over the place!