My weekend pursuits......

Getting out a project that I started in May 2008 and have yet to finish! What a slacker!! I really want to make these pieces into a wall hanging for our lounge room but had to finish off putting tissue paper onto the calico base to cover it entirely and also to 'go off' the edges. It's an ongoing project but I hope it will be finished before January 2012!


Making paper beads out of pages from an old book (Jane Eyre as a matter of fact - sacriledge I know to cut it up but I have another copy!) This was an Evie and Dot project....... aren't they lovely all piled up there?


And then there was the joys of discovering shellac!

Dot and I spent an afternoon with the lady who made my birthday book and she was AMAZING! We arrived with kids in tow, making sure they had books to keep them occupied for how ever long our visit would be, and she immediately took them off and set them up making little books with lots of interesting bits and bobs which she had sorted out from her stash! They took on the challenge and got to work on making their own little books.... fantastic.

Dot and I then spent about an hour and a half looking at just a small proportion of the artwork she has produced and which is displayed around her home finishing in her WONDERFUL studio...... it truly was an inspirational place and Deb was so willing to share all her ideas, hints, tips, books and experience with us..... how lovely is that?

We shared afternoon tea, during which she had organised some home baked cupcakes for the children to decorate with icing and lollies..... a lot of finger licking and lollies-popping-into-the-mouth went on!

Then it was back to the studio for a rummage through her bookshelves (we borrowed a few to keep us inspired) and a quick lesson in using shellac...... you knew I would get to the point eventually didn't you.......


We discovered that shellac (used by french polishers on furniture apparently) is great for giving paper or fabric a lovely brown sheen and also making it possible to mould said fabric or paper into 'shapes' which harden when dry (not rock hard, just firm enough to hold its shape). Above are Dot and Evie's projects in hand - bowls!

We also hung a lot of tea bags out on the line to dry - not to reuse I hasten to add, but so that we could empty out the dry tea leaves, flatten out the paper that the tea bags are made out of and then reuse the paper ...... for what I am not sure yet but I will let you know what becomes of them!

Phew, I think that's enough for now..... if you read all the way to the end of this post, well done...... it was a long one wasn't it? I'll try and be more concise next time!