Repurposing Mateials... loving it

Following from the amazing success of the Wedding Dress remodelling, and the creativity stirred up for my amazing experiences at the Woodford Folk festival I have been searching for craft projects that I can do using repurposed materials. I found some amazing and beautiful tutorials at Tea Rose Home and decided to give one a try.
I made this gorgeous Jean Corsage from an old denim skirt that I got from the op-shop a few years ago to patch a pair of jeans. I also had the opportunity to repurpose one of the many beautiful buttons I have collected over the past few years. I have developed a bit of a button “thing”. I find them interesting and I think they look great in their jars on the shelves in my bed room… many different colours, shapes, sizes and textures. I was a very quick and easy project to complete, but I am so very impressed with it. I still need to find the brooch back so it can easily be pinned on…they are somewhere in my stash of craft thingies. That is tomorrow’s task!
My two youngest children have also developed an interest in my buttons… so while I was making my Jean Corsage they sat on the floor playing with two of the button jars. Ethan who is 7 and very creative made me a bracelet… it was beautiful and I thought “Wow, I would actually wear this regularly”, only it is made using a piece of pink hollow plastic tubing… so I got out the tiger wire and some pearl beads left over form another project and put them on, added a clasp so it would be small enough to be comfortable and here it is… Ethan is very proud that I re-made it and will wear it everyday.

My Clever Daughter

My beautiful 3 year old daughter Chloe is somewhat an artist. She really loved to draw and colour with textas. She has completed artworks on the blinds, walls, carpet, her desk.... but most often the canvas is her own body. Future Tattoo Artist or Body Painter perhaps?

Most reciently I was reward with a wonderful surprise, she has developed her 'signature'. I'm such a proud mummy......

It is just a shame that the wonderful autograph was on her bed sheets! Oh well... what do you do? I took a picture of it and washed the sheets. They are good as new... although I cannot soy the same for the carpet and blinds.

Thankfully our landlord is also a proud grandmother.

Remodelling my Wedding Dress

Upon my return from the Woodford Folk festival I was feeling very ready to let go of a lot of “things”. I had been contemplating my beautiful wedding dress for over 12 months. Should I sell it? No I wouldn’t really get that much for it and it is too pretty just to throw away, but seriously I’ll never wear it again. Should I dye it? Oh but what if I wreck it?

Earlier this year photographer friend, Nicky Jackson, wanted to do a “trash it” photo shoot of someone in a wedding gown… hmm wet and dirty in a $1200 wedding dress. This was the first step in “letting go of the preciousness” as Nic Hohn would say… So I went to the beach, sat in the water, sand, mud and rocks and had an absolute ball. I felt very liberated, not to mention incredibly beautiful and fulfilled. Note: I was married in 1999 and divorced in 2002, so it really is time to let go.

Decision…. To cut it short and dye it… um purple, yeah that sounds good, purple! So I got out the tape measure and cut 25 inches off of all three layers of the skirt and used the overlocker to create a rolled hem. Nice… but it was still white, so I grabbed the biggest saucepan I could find filled it with water and added the iDye Poly (violet) and boiled it for an hour… stirring and praying that it wouldn’t wreck the boning or melt any of the fabric…

I washed it out and to my delight… it looked awesome. I was particularly interested in the brocade fabric of the bodice. The embrodiary was originally the same colour as the satin background and it was edged with a gold tread and I was concerened that it wouldn't stand out. As you can see from the picture I was way off... I am going to asume that the embroidery was 100% cotton thread and the rest of the dress was made from non-natural materials as the dye I used states to use a differt type for natural fabrics... that being said I am very pleased with the results and am looking forward to having a "special occasion" to wear it to.

But not seeing a "special occasion" in the near future I decided just to test it out at the local pub... I felt amazing and got many compliments... overall a very worthwhile project and one that I am very proud of!

I am also impressed that after 10 years and 3 children, it actually fits me better now than it did when I got married.

Three Lots of Three

While I was at the Woodford Folk Festival I had the pleasure of attending a Multi-layered Images workshop with Sara Rumsey. The emphasis of the workshop was on drypoint etching and some relief printing techniques.
We etched our designs into heavy cardboard, inked them and ran them through a press. I was very pleased with how my flowers came out but I think that my three beautiful children were with me in spirit.

Woodford Folk Festival

I have just returned from The Woodford Folk Festival...and I truely feel like a new person. What an amazing and life changing experience it was.

I have been to the Festival twice, have enjoyed it each time but then I had someone to hide behind. This time I attended the festival ALONE...this is the first time I have ever attempted to do anything ALONE. So it was not an easy decision to make but one I am so glad that I made.

Being alone in a crowd of thousands was an interesting experience...

Angie Heart with guest Taasha Coates from The Audreys

Toni Childs singing "You are Beautiful"

The Children's Festival area was decorated with massive flowers...

Closing Ceremony Light Show

The Sun rising on 2010.... beautiful way to start the year