Where do I start?!

I've had several weeks at home since my return from Adelaide, which already seems so long ago. Within the first week, I had spent a great deal of time in the studio making felted and nuno felted wraps. I enjoyed trawling through my stash of wool, silk, and embellishments, finding cohesive elements to bring together. Here you can see a lovely piece of dyed silk organza which just happened to go beautifully with some wool I had - from layout to finished wrap. It felt really good to be 'using up' all these bits, which simply means I can
dye/buy more! The green and blue piece to the left was made with wool I had managed to matt together during the dyeing process, (I must have managed to boil it!) which was able to be rescued when I bought a comb for removing matted hair from pets, and worked my way through it - I can't throw it out! Sadly, RSI in my arm kicked in after a while, and I had to stop, so I moved on to ice dyeing for a while. I really enjoyed working on these, working out how to fold the garments to get the best effects (quite different to just dealing with plain material or scarves) and how to mix my new palette of dyes.
Dealing with powdered dye rather than liquid means that the dye doesn't always look like it's going to, so I'm really glad I invested in a colour chart as well - very helpful! All this effort was in aid of ensuring I had a varied amount of stock for the Etsy Made Local market, held last weekend in Brisbane City Hall. Sadly, it was all in vain, as it was a fairly unsuccessful day for me. The venue had a bit of a weird vibe, (just look at that carpet!) the poor crowd looked dazed and glazed by the time they had made their way in through the large queue in the sun, and 2m x 2m with no space between neighbours sure was small! I certainly noticed the difference between that and my generous allowance previously enjoyed at the Craft & Quilt Fair, and most noticeably, the lack of walls! It was a long day, but there was a silver lining - my neighbour was the lovely Juliarna of Carpe d'Art, which produces fabulous hand painted sneakers. We had a hoot! Both of us were also supported by our mothers, who came to visit and offer encouragement!

Last week we visited TAFE for the graduate Fashion Parade, which sadly, I have to say lacked a little punch! Many of the designs seemed to share similar elements, and the colour palette was woefully sedate. That may indeed be the 'trend' right now, but I'm sure you've all figured out that fashion 'trends' don't feature strongly in my world of unique design! One piece that did garner my interest was this lovely ombré dress.
This Saturday I will be at the ATASDA Christmas Fair and celebration, at the BVAC hub at Weller's Hill, open from 10-2, so come and visit myself and many other fine textile artists with goodies for sale.