Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Category: Needle Felting

Craft Morning

I was in craft heaven on Saturday. Surrounded by felt, fabric, wool, paper, paint, wood and tools. In a hall with lots of families including my own. And we all were there to craft beautiful things for our homes and our loved ones out of natural materials. I ask you, does it get any better than that? The morning was the perfect antidote to the Christmas consumerism that was beginning to infect my soul.

The craft morning was run by Carol, Ed and Nikki and their angel helpers. It began with a circle, a song and story. You could then hop from craft station to craft station as the mood took you, sampling the many different crafts available. The crafts included origami, paper marbling, wood work outdoors with hand tools and fallen branches; the sewing table with zippers, needles, threads and pieces of hand dyed wool blankets; and the felting area where you could make a candle holder or an angel for your Christmas tree.

My first stop was the wood working station. I had been wanting to make a wooden holder for my beeswax candles for a while. Last week I pulled out sheets of beeswax to make some more candles and discovered a stash of dipped candles we made a couple of years ago. They had been waiting for a holder all this time. Ed had brought along some beautiful pieces of wood from a fallen branch. I was so excited to turn it into a candle holder using a hand drill for the first time. I muddled along, not really knowing what I was dong. I wasn't sure which way to turn it or how to make it work. I started getting impatient and frustrated. It was when I decided to let go of my impatience and embrace the process that the drill bit into the wood.

I was keen to whittle a crochet hook but the other crafts were calling so I headed back into the hall where I met up with Miss 13 and her bestie. They were trying to turn pieces of felt into a woven heart. We didn't know what we were doing but had a lot of fun trying to work it out. Eventually my girl went and asked for help and came back and taught me. It was perfect timing – it's one of our family traditions to gift the girls with an ornament each year and when they were little I used to make them felt decorations. The other day I pulled out the box of decorations and realised it had been some years since anything handmade was added to the collection.

The paper marbling table was busy so I decided to make a felted candle holder even though I'm not a huge fan of the process of wet felting. By the time I got to the wet and squishing stage, time was beginning to run out. I panicked and abandoned my felting and headed to the marbling station. Luckily for me, while I was gone, Nikki finished it of for me.

Marbling was amazing. Swirling the paint on the surface of the water then laying down the fabric or paper to reveal incredible patterns. The whole family was obsessed with marbling and we've come home with quite a stash of fabric and paper. I'm sure it will come in useful for a future project.

I haven't been in such a beautiful setting with my family since the girls were little. It was so wonderful to be back in that beautiful, heart-warming space surrounded by other families all intent on creating with love.

December 18, 2019
Craft Explosion

There's been a craft explosion at my place. Beeswax candle dipping, leather pouch sewing, weed foraging, salve making, needle felting and whittling. And that's just the last couple of weeks!

This time of year is the start of the making season for me. It's the time of year when the weather is drawing me indoors and telling me to slow down. My desk calls me to sit down and make. At the same time, my brain fires and fizzes with creativity and new ideas. I get the urge to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!) and share my thoughts and experiences. My hands itch to hold something and create.

I want to feel raw materials in my hands and turn them into something new. I want to sink into the process of making. To sift through the clatter and chatter and get to the part where I'm immersed in the process. To that place where the repetitive nature of craft feels like home and soothes my soul.

True to form, I'm doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that and I love it. I admire people who can pick one craft and master it but it's just not me. There's so many cool things to make, crafts to learn and tools to buy. Why stick with one?

May 4, 2017
Listening

My oldest daughter turned eleven on the weekend. Her birthday was filled with all the people and things she loves best – friends and grandparents, a pile of new books and good food. It's so lovely watching her grow and change. Such an honour and a privilege to be part of her life and sharing these milestones with her. I really am so blessed that she is in my life. She teaches me so much about myself and about what is really important. Often it's not what I think!

Ever since she was three I've hand sewn her a little toy with wool felt for her birthday. It's been our tradition. Except this year she said she didn't want me to make her one any more. She's too old for them now. I was devastated. I've always made these little toys for her. How could I not do it this year?

I really grieved this ending of an era and of a tradition. I felt like the way I expressed my love for her was being rejected. That our family traditions that had developed over time was being thrown away. It threw me completely. How could I not make her something for her birthday? A good friend suggested I make her something else. She suggested a quilt. With less than a week till her birthday I knew that wasn't going to happen.

On a trip to the city she fell in love with a cute cat on the cover of a needle felting kit from the Japanese super store, Daiso. She was really keen for me to make it for her instead. I was reluctant. I've only done a little bit of needle felting before. Nothing 3D or this hard. I took a deep breath and bought the kit anyway.

It took me a while to start making the cat. I was still grieving the things I wanted to make for her. Still not quite ready to let go of my dreams and fully embrace her desires. It's a tricky business this, growing children.

Making the cat had a slow start. The kit she chose had no instructions – just some wool felt and a picture of the finished product! I watched countless YouTube videos, hoping for a tutorial for this particular kit but alas, there was none.

Once I started and the head began to take shape something strange happened. I started to enjoy myself. I found myself immersed in the process, intent on getting the cat's expression just right. I was in that wonderful flow state where time doesn't matter and you're completely absorbed in what you're doing. It was wonderful!

I'm so grateful that I listened to what she really wanted. I'm so relieved that she still wants me to make things for her. I'm so pleased that I pushed my boundaries of what I'm capable of making. And I'm so happy to discover a new crafting passion.

April 20, 2017
Slow Making

I’ve known about the Slow Food movement for years. It’s the one where you take time to cook delicious food and eat leisurely meals. The other night while crafting with friends I heard about the Slow Music movement. It’s where bands play a series of gigs in a town over a period of weeks, getting to know the place and it’s people. It got me to thinking about the way I make. And guess what? It’s slow!

The vest I’m wearing in that picture took me over a month to make. It was a slow process as I returned to it when I had a moment or two to spare and when I had figured out the nest step in the process!

It took time to sort through my fabric stash and find the burgundy wool I had machine felted a couple of years ago for my winter coat. There wasn’t enough for that project so it’s been sitting there, waiting patiently for its moment to shine! It only took a day to create the pattern (tracing around a favourite top) and cut it out. Fast making for me!

Then I got nervous and left it pinned, ready for sewing. Always that nagging doubt, “What if it doesn’t work?” Eventually I gathered my courage, dived right in and sewed. And it didn’t quite work. So it sat there for a bit while I figured out what to do to fix it. Not too hard in the end – just a nip and a tuck here and there.

And most of it wasn’t too hard – I just needed time to mull things over and space to be okay with things not working out as expected. That’s the beauty and the curse of the handmade. You can make what you want but it doesn’t always turn out how you imagined. Sometimes though, it’s better. Like my gorgeous new vest!

Next, the big question. How to adorn it? I wanted something bold, colourful and natural. Time spent dreaming and searching through my crafting stash came up with some wool roving for needle felting. The tree was needle felted on the Winter Solstice while beeswax candles burned in the window and my gorgeous girls played happily around me. That memory and experience are now part of my vest and I’ll remember that moment every time I wear it.

Once the tree was done I had to figure out how to finish the front. I knew I wanted to appliqué leaves to match the tree on the back but wasn’t sure what to use. Once I decided to use what I already had in my stash, it narrowed the choice. I ended up sewing on a leaf made from vegetable tanned, kangaroo skin on the front. The buttons are made from a fallen foraged branch of a Red Bloodwood tree comes from a local park.

I really love the mix of crafting skills that went into creating my unique new garment. It’s a great reflection of the the crafts I like to do – sewing, leather craft and woodwork. It has been machine and needle felted as well as hand and machine sewn. Traditional and modern techniques, hand and machine. It’s all in there somewhere!

It makes me happy that I used things I already had in my craft stash to make it. The magic art of making do with what you already have.

And I adore this vest. It fits me beautifully and is a reflection of the maker that I am. One who works slowly, in a variety of crafts while using natural materials.

So here’s to the Slow Making movement. One where we make the things we need, slowly. Where we enjoy the process along the way.

July 21, 2016