Variscite Sucker Brooch

I'm finally happy that this little 'sucker' is finished!

The circles, dots and spots remind me of octopus tentacles - hence the name.

The gemstone featured in this is Variscite in shades of soft seafoam green from one of my favourite suppliers Heart Of Stone Studio (in the USA). This artistic bit of rock is from Australia and is very unusual in that it has the Variscite running like a river through interesting shades of matrix.

Other materials used (all cold connections):

copper (patina using liver of sulphur and then with prismacolor and gloss on top);

pearls stitched through holes in the copper - in light pink, cream and chocolate brown;

merino wool in shades of purple, mauve & turquoise (needle felted);

beads and thread.

There is a brooch pin stitched to the back.
Approx size: 7cm x 8cm / 2.75 inches x 3 inches

She is headed off to be judged for the Regal Castings Contemporary Jewellery Awards, which is part of the New Zealand Jewellery Show.  This will be held at SkyCity, Auckland on 1-4 July 2010. So fingers crossed!

Ginga Alpaca Yarn Dreads...

Been having quite alot of fun with my kiddies and a bag of locally grown ginga alapaca.

First I spun the alpaca on my Majacraft Pioneer with some green & orange locks, pieces of sari scarf and turquoise sari silk (as modelled below).  The sari silks I bought from YarnTraders here in New Zealand - a great online resource for exotic and unusual yarns, fibers, felt and fabrics.

It was made a little trickier as the ginga alapaca (kindly and lovingly carded by Sharon at Jumbuck Carding) had been sitting squished in the bottom of my cupboard for a few months and was all matted together.

I think I am going to keep hold of this ginga yarn in case I want to wear it to a party (not that I ever go out these days unless its before 7pm) or I may knit it into a Ginga Hat.

By the way, the lack of Lanolin in alpaca fiber (such as is often found in yarn made from sheep’s wool) also makes natural alpaca yarn hypoallergenic in nature or very unlikely to cause any allergic reactions.

Knitting Handspun Frenzy.....

I'm in a bit of a knitting frenzy at the moment, which has been great for using up some of my handspun yarns. I can now nearly shut my cupboard!

Some of my better knits go to The Little Gallery Of Fine Arts in Tairua and these ones are all headed there. Its a fabulous tourist destination on the Coromandel run by the talented artist Paula McNeill.

The Coromandel is one of New Zealand's favourite tourist destinations - you can even dig your own hot water spa pool in the sand at Hot Water Beach.

The above is a crochet scarf - I love crochet as its difficult to drop a stitch by mistake as there is only one on the crochet hook anyway! The gorgeous commercial green heather merino wool is Cascade Magnum in Moss colour (100% Peruvian Highland Wool). Its 2 stitches per inch - love it! Nice and quick!

Following a Pattern...

Arghhhhh! I'm still just not in the mood - feeling flat. At times like these I try not to force myself to create anything, as if I do the results will just make me feel even more deflated.

But I find this is the ideal time for me to curl up and relax with some patterns I've stashed on Ravelry and some beautiful wool (Aslan Trnds La Pampa) that I picked up for a REAL bargain online here at Webbs.

I don't have to think about anything - I can just follow the pattern and watch TV! A while ago I put this pattern by John Brinegar of Yarn Ball Boogie in my project queue. It a long, long, long crochet scarf that looks well 'fierce'.

Aotearoa Neckpiece

Aotearoa (pronounced [ao tea roa]) is the most widly known and accepted Māori name for New Zealand. It is used by both Māori and non-Māori.

I was invited to contribute to a group show at 'Quoil Contemporary Jewellery Gallery' in Wellington, NZ (www.quoil.co.nz) the title of which is 'Aotearoa'. It needed to be a neckpiece with earrings.

To me (being a recent migrant to this beautiful country), NZ equates to sheep, wool, blue coastline, lush green grass, paua shell and the native Māori peoples. Quite a simplistic view, but hey that's me!

I wanted to combine my love of spinning, which is something I have recently learnt how to do here in NZ on a NZ made spinning wheel, with a wearable piece of jewelry.

First I dyed some polwarth sheep wool and kid mohair locks using blues and greens. Then I spun it into yarn adding in pieces of paua shell along the way.

The centerpiece is a vintage (1940s) 'blinking' dolls eye which I am using to represent the Māori peoples. The eye is set into Faux bone using UV resin with tiny fine silver beads and gold plated washers and vintage pink glass shards.

 I am quite happy with how it turned out. Its definately something that I would wear. I made simple earrings to match with oxidised sterling silver.

 

  

Summer Sunset Handspun....

I purchased this delicious batt created by the amazing fiber artist Jazzturtle (who has a shop on Etsy of the same name). She really does create the most amazing textured art batts - if only I had more money.....

 She describes this 'Santa Monica Summer Sunset' batt fiber as a "beautiful sunrise colors of corals, pinks, fuchsias and yellows, with a hint of orange".

She used fluffy merino top, squooshy targhee fleece, soft corridale fleece, curly kid mohair locks and shiny bamboo. For the black shadows she swirled in some soft black merino, shiny black bamboo and a touch of black shimmery firestar. She added pink and orange sari silk for texture and LOTS of sparkle with firestar, and gold and shades of pink angelina.

 

 

Thats why I could spin it up into such a delicious art yarn! It was so easy to spin, I almost didn't need to be there!

 

  

Gorilla Knitting....

Gorilla knitting - a cuddlier version of guerilla knitting (apparently)! Fancy dress outfit optional.

 

Led by the unstoppable and ever enthusiastic Sharon of Jumbuck Carding (the Tasmanian Queen Of All Things Woolly), a group of gorgeous crafty ladies got together in the fabulous garden of the even more fabulous artist David Poole. David is opening up his garden for viewing as part of the Auckland Summer Garden Festival - 'Heroic Gardens'.

Look at the size of Sharon's needles - don't sit too close!

 

Heroic Gardens is an annual Auckland charity garden show which is held over the weekend March 6 and 7 and the funds raised will go to Hospice New Zealand.

Anyway, our objective is to cover this tree with random pieces of knitting, crochet, felt, wool roving, pompoms etc! Its already looking extremely colourful and hopefully people who visit David's garden on the days of the event can come and have a go with a bit of knitting to add to the tree - or even try their hand at some Tunisian crochet!

 

By the way - it is seriously sunny at the moment here in New Zealand!