Rose-ringed Parakeet

He helpfully turns around so we can see his thin black and rose loral line

From the front you can see his bright red beak and his smart black mandible line.

This previous post has a picture of the female rose-ringed. She doesn't have the ring, she is all green with a red beak.

Scarlet-Backed Flowerpecker

If you peer into the centre of the picture you will see a little tiny bird with a red stripe down his back. This is the male scarlet-backed flowerpecker and its only about 8.5cm long. He enjoys starfruit seeds and flowers and hopping from branch to branch. This is a very elusive bird, I've only managed to get one photo of it, as by the time i take out the camera, he's gone. We've also seen his wife, a mostly brown bird with red wing tips, but not caught her on film yet.

Of Clouds & Rabbits

Rabbit Silhouette Badge

Cloud Pendant

I recently brought a rabbit shaped punch for paper and having some textile markers around, I decided to experiment with using the punch to make stencils. The rabbit was stenciled onto a small circle of calico and I used a button-making kit to make a button of it. I made some into hair ties and this one I made into a brooch. I just glued the back on with some contact adhesive. The contact adhesive seems to stick well, though its a bit messy.

The cloud pendant is a cloud shape I got from mein and while the clay was still wet, I stamped my name onto it and punched a hole in it to hang it. The glaze is a double layer of blue underneath and white on top that gives it some beautiful colouration around the edges. I just use a piece of ribbon to wear it as the metal loop is too noisy! I also have a smaller cloud that I glazed with namako blue which I also wear with a ribbon. The two are too noisy to wear together, though they would look great!

Reduce Reuse Recycle: Wear

The 'D' Ring Belt Loops & Belt

The Belt helps to control the 'floofiness' though the skirt can float away if left unattended

How I'm wearing it: with grey tights, black singlet & cardigan, grey scarf and purple shoes (everything goes with purple shoes)

I finished the bag skirt on the weekend and it turned out just nice. It is floofy and in just the right way. The lining didn't work out as it made it stick out too much, so I'm just wearing it un-lined with tights. I used the 'D' rings of the bag straps for the belt loops which gives it a more utilitarian feel. The lining from two bags was reduced down to 4 rectangles which I sewed together and pleated at one edge before sewing the housing and adding the elastic. The belt is made of the two long base pieces of the bag. The outer lining I will make into another skirt later on. Its currently hibernating in a state of semi-finished-ness. I will be using the zippers and straps for that skirt and that may be a little more experimental...

Horses

I just ordered a pair of purple Dorothy shoes from The Horse, an Australian maker of organic, foot-conscious shoes. They don't ship to Singapore, so I've had them sent to my parents place in Australia where they await me when I arrive in a few weeks for Christmas. I like both their philosophy and their aesthetic. Many of our shoes don't really care for our feet or our environment. Here's what they say about themselves:

tHe Horse was born out of the praxis-gap of health care & the retail industry.

Disillusioned with blood, syringes & HD appliances, both Scott Hawkes & Gabrielle Glennie founded a friendship upon an ethical & organic vision of highest quality Italian leather for the fashioned gentleman, the discerning lady & the recalcitrant young.

Developing themselves as commited farriers, Gabrielle & Scott began shoeing the public with a prescription leather applied topically to the foot, an innovation taken from scott's research in health care.

However, after careful assessment and both feeling more could be done, Gabrielle complimented Scott’s original model with her own creative eclectic collective; thus producing tHe Horse: organic upholstery for the foot.

Based upon the idea of 'each feet personality',
tHe Horse wears & grooves in smiles & tears as your feet live,
birthing individual character.

I can't wait to see my shoes too, I think I may never take them off!

Card Making

Tracing paper Christmas Trees made by the mr. which I love (both the mr. and the trees!)

Sneak peek at this year's Christmas cards in progress

Its a tradition with me to make my own Christmas cards. I can't possibly buy gifts for everyone (and ensure that its not another white elephant gift thats not used), so I like to give cards. I find handmade ones more special and more personal. Each card is different due to being handmade and I make only a few of each type (as I prefer things to be unique). I like the slightly imperfect quality of the handmade, what the Japanese would call 'wabi sabi'. There is a beauty in that is held because of the flaws, not in-spite of them. I made some of the cards on handmade paper as well, so there really is a sense of making with the cards. In the paper, in the print, the artists hands are visible. Its not like the mass-produced card, where the precision of the machine cut and the sharpness of the printing are evident. The mass-produced is about speed, about minimum effort, a results-oriented product, precision and economics. The handmade is almost counter-cultural (in fact, it is counter-cultural). It makes little sense to spend hours making cards when you can buy them in under a minute. But I find a connection here with slowness. Here are slow cards for a season which should be marked with slowness. Slowness of spending time with family, of lingering over the dinner-table chatting, of making space for reconnection with the spirit.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I just started a new project which is going to be a skirt made out of two recycled bags. I'm still halfway through unpicking all the seams and sorting them into their respective parts. I've been inspired by all the paper-bag style belted/gathered skirts that I've been seeing online. Its very fortunate that I have two bags as one wouldn't be enough to make a knee-length skirt with a gathered waist. Its also a good use of what were two rather unattractive bags which would otherwise be languishing in a cupboard somewhere. I'm going to use the inner liner as the outside and the outer for the inside as the outside has stitch marks. Plus the inner is lighter and will be 'floofier' (no, that's not really a word, I know) when I wear it. So wait and see. The white dress is in hibernation as I'm not entirely happy with the gathering I've done and I need to unpick some and add some darts and stuff and I've not been in the mood for this patient task.