Nothing beats the post holiday blues quite like time spent in nature.
It was so good to be back in nature this week, sitting by the creek and listening to the birds. It's spring and they're very excited. Chirping loudly, swopping across the sky joyfully, building nests and feeding young. The sun was out and there was nowhere else I had to be.
Balm for the soul.
I started the new year in the best way possible. Camping on a gorgeous bush block on the south coast of New South Wales with delightful friends and eco dyeing using plants straight from the bush.
I managed to score a couple of old horse shoes at a local market. I used one and wrapped my bundle around it. I only used leaves and bark from the property in my bundle. Stepping way out of my comfort zone, I had no idea if any of them would give any colour. It was pretty experimental for me and I'm not sure how I feel about the results. Certainly not as much of the wow factor of more recent attempts but it's growing on me.
The last few times I've done eco dyeing has been with at a friend's house and we've had four pots on the stove at the same time. It was great to pare things back and have a single steel pot over an open fire. I love pulling the smoky bundles out of the pot and smelling the wood smoke and leaves on the wool. It is such a wonderful sensory experience. Outdoors on an open fire is my favourite to eco dye, when it's with friends, it's even better!
Primitive fire + water + air + earth + spirit = magic.
It's hard to believe that all these incredible scarves came from the same dye pot. They're all so different, just like their makers!
I started the new year in the best way possible. Camping on a gorgeous bush block on the south coast of New South Wales with delightful friends and eco dyeing using plants straight from the bush.
I managed to score a couple of old horse shoes at a local market. I used one and wrapped my bundle around it. I only used leaves and bark from the property in my bundle. Stepping way out of my comfort zone, I had no idea if any of them would give any colour. It was pretty experimental for me and I'm not sure how I feel about the results. Certainly not as much of the wow factor of more recent attempts but it's growing on me.
The last few times I've done eco dyeing has been with at a friend's house and we've had four pots on the stove at the same time. It was great to pare things back and have a single steel pot over an open fire. I love pulling the smoky bundles out of the pot and smelling the wood smoke and leaves on the wool. It is such a wonderful sensory experience. Outdoors on an open fire is my favourite to eco dye, when it's with friends, it's even better!
Primitive fire + water + air + earth + spirit = magic.
It's hard to believe that all these incredible scarves came from the same dye pot. They're all so different, just like their makers!
There are days when I leap out of bed, fired with enthusiasm. And days when everything seems to drag and I just want to bury my head under the pillow and pretend the world doesn't exist. There are projects that I zip through, completing in next to no time. And projects that languish on my desk for months. This pair of soft soled leather boots was in the languishing category.
This is only the third pair of leather shoes that I've made so I am still figuring things out. Once the boots were sewn and worn in, I needed to put on soles so I didn't ruin the boot itself. But I put it off cos it was fiddly, needed patience and as I'm still learning I knew that it wouldn't be perfect. It's hard to let go off that desire to be perfect and have everything just "so". But the more I do, the more I laugh and the more relaxed I become.
I finally did dive right in and get those shoes soled. It turned out all I needed was the right motivation. In this case, going to see the exhibition Inspiration by Design from London's V&A Museum at the State Library in the city.