Autumn - a return to making

We started back the crafty Autumn 'term' with something completely different - paper marbling. 

Paper treated with a special substance called alum is placed on top of a liquid mixture that has paint floating in it. The paper picks up whatever pattern the paint makes. You can make all sorts of patterns when the paint is floating and the results are, well, psychedelic!

Summer holiday

Our crafty gatherings have been on a wee holiday for the summer as a lot of us are travelling from here to yonder over the next few months.


I did however attend a horse-hair weaving workshop that the Chile Makers ran, facilitated by Varignia. The workshop happened on the last day of the pop up shop - Micro Techniques in Carnaby Street. 

This is my first attempt at horse-hair weaving and you need super concentration. This small disc is about the size of a two pence piece. A magnifying glass would be useful! The Chilean women who have been doing this for years put me to shame, they are so fast at weaving very elaborate creations.  

This picture is the start of a wing for a butterfly, I'll have to continue making this as the time seemed to fly during the workshop, very stimulating. We will have to get Varignia to run another one for the Frizzle Circle group. 

World cup fever

We continued with the rag rugs today amid the world cup frenzy. Especially for the Brazilian today, I think the rag rugging became quite therapeutic amid anxiety about the game later on. We were back in the garden amongst mounds of fabric. I recycled some t-shirts and brought these along today as this is a lovely fabric to rag rug with. The coarser fabric can be tricky to get through the hessian sometimes. 

We do seem to create a mess, but a colorful one no less...

This was the almost finished result of a bag I was working on, using both the proddy tool on the flowers and the hooky tool on the stems. A great way to jazz up an old hessian bag.