flight paths for paper birds

rainy days

For this rainy day, while I'm at home doing some work, I thought I'd take a break to post some photos of (some of) the things I've made in the last few months. 

If anyone happens to read, and wants to know how anything is made, I'm way too lazy (or busy? should be, anyway!) to write out instructions, but let me know, and I can give tips. would love to! 

This barrel was for the fundraising auction for my favourite eco non-profit, Reverse Garbage - and I was a bit terrified that no one would bid on it, but they did! and my lovely friend Ellie made the winning bid. 

I had some other stuff in the gift shop there too - all made from reclaimed or recycled materials, some cards:

And a striated pardalote recycled paper bird mobile - there were actually 5 birds, but these mobiles are really hard to photograph! 

and a whole lot of my older stuff - but I didn't take photos (I'm slack like that!)

RG is now moving on to bigger and better premises, which is very exciting! 

giant recycled fabric doily rugs

so, I saw these awesome rugs on dudecraft - like huge doilies. I immediately wanted to make one, but with my aim to use only recycled or reclaimed materials this year, it took a bit of experimenting to find good materials. 

My attempts

 

The best option I've found so far was to use stretchy fabric, and luckily I had some slightly damaged ribbed shirt fabric from reverse garbage (sorry this is mostly relevant for brisbaneites, but maybe there is something like this in your city? I LOVE rg - could rave all day about them). Non-stretchy fabric was ok too, but the rug had less... bounce to it. 

these ones were for a show Rozi and I were in recently - Future Specs, run by the 4c arts collective. More pics and things from that show to come! 

They got a good response! I think I'll have to give some lessons sometime. Basically though, if you can crochet, you can make them. Just use your hand as a big crochet hook! And if you are going to make one, please think of using reclaimed material - divert some fabric from landfill! 

big ball of fabric yarn

  

what's 350 about?

Well, it's about the maximum safe level of carbon parts per million in the atmosphere, above which the risk of runaway climate change is very very high. 

here's some photos of my first craft activism expedition (with thanks to Rozi, Josh and Josh for help!) to get the number visible in the city (briefly). This was actually back in last October, just before the global day of action on climate change- which was Oct 24. 350.org is a fantastic group making links between climate action orgs all over the world- with the aim of getting action based on scientific evidence about what the world needs (ie. 350 ppm) instead of what is politically expedient or the fact that big polluters don't want to have to change their ways. 

in blog news I'm just starting to make an effort with updating again now (after being reinspired at Woodford, about both art and activism!) 

 

and here they are in the homes they found around the place, for a very brief life in the limelight, before they were all taken down by maintenance. 

 
 Victoria Bridge

I made about 60. my hands were mighty sore from all that crochet! 

Oh yeah, and my friend Josh wrote a blog post about this project too (and writes the funniest blog I know in general) where he says nice things about me. He also wrote a book which is faaaantastic and you can read about it on his blog too. yay! 

red birds flying in a circular path

I always have trouble photographing my mobiles- they look so much better in motion. Perhaps I should try to record them moving... 

Recycled paper birds and discs (covered in tissue paper, fabric, and varnished) scraps of chain, and sticks. 

and some birds of cool colours. 

I actually sold a few of these mobiles at the Top Floor disco ball a few months ago. In future they might have to be a special present or request mostly project, as they take quite a long time!

weaving 2 - new and improved!

I built myself a loom! (sounds more impressive than it is- a frame) So now my weaving is improving. I'm so excited about it that I'm putting up a picture before I even finish anything. 

it's good for multi-tasking too, I was working on phd work while I wove. I only like multi-tasking when one task is being done by the brain and one by the body. 

first weaving attempt = success!

I decided at the end of last year that I wanted to finish some of the projects that I started long ago and became bored with. This is the first one I have finished! 

it's made of fabric scraps and old t-shirts. 

It may come as no surprise to you- I am a hoarder. I have a huge cupboard filled with fabric. This was an attempt to use some of the worse quality fabric, and get rid of some off-cuts. 

Unfortunately, being my first attempt at weaving, and done in front of the tv on no frame, my skill changed significantly as I went along, resulting in an interesting shape. 

I still like it though!

I certainly didn't aim for perfection, so I like its character! besides, if I wanted perfection I wouldn't finish any of my projects, and that would be no fun at all!

pop the cork!

It's always nice to finish a project that has taken many stops and starts- on new years eve I remembered to collect the last few corks I needed to finish this cork board, which is going to be my craft to-do board. I originally intended to have more corks, but I think it might be good to limit myself to 25 projects on a to-do list. 

some organisation might be a good way to start the year, I think!

made with an old piece of plywood, paper and some polypop fabric that I printed ages ago, varnish, nails and corks.