August 31, 2014

Moving Forward

My birthday came and went in a bit of a blur. The day started with a welcome hugs from the lovely Ben and Jodie, my two sweet young colleagues working with me. Jodie who is a whiz in paper crafts made me a lovely bouquet of paper flowers. Other friends brought me pot plants and  cut flowers. 

In-spite of a pre arrangement that we would go out for morning tea/coffee, when the time came the team had their own plans. One of them sneaked out and got us all coffees and we shared them together. More gifts arrived. I feel so special and loved on my birthday!


Another group of friends past and present took me out to lunch at the famous Taste Baguette restaurant on the campus. Taste Baguette is famous for their smooth coffee by a number one barista! 


My desk on the day turned out like a florist shop with all the fresh and paper flowers I received that day. The many coffee cups weren't only mine. The team thought it would be fun to build a wall with empty coffee cups from Taste Baguette! 

I have been working on a commission piece for a go-away gift using my eco-print fabric. The recipient is a furniture designer. She is moving to New Zealand. I had a free run with the fabric and design. The fabrics speak for themselves. I only added stitchings. 

The photo didn't do it justice!.

I have given it to her and she loved it. The fabric was dyed using Eucalyptus bark, leaves and iron mordant in some places. The simplicity is in the prints and lines. I called it Bush Colour. Laura is taking a small piece of Australia with her wherever she goes! 


On my daily walk last week I noticed that the Eucalyptus iron-bark (Sideroxylon) were in full colour so I couldn't resist to photographed them. I use the leaves from these trees when I want an instant result. 


I unwrapped these bundles and jars a couple of weeks ago, but I missed blogging about them on the last post. Some of the jars had been sitting for about a month. 


Here are the Eucalyptus leaves, tea-leaves bush berries and copper pennies from the jars after the bundles have been removed. The goodness is still in the jars, so I preserved the dye to reuse again next time.


And here are the results from the jars and bundles above. So much nicer to put them together like this. Below is another piece from this batch too. I'm very happy with them!


BTW, if you are looking for that special handmade gift for a special person in your life, I'm taking orders for commission pieces using my eco-print fabric. The pieces can be handmade journals, wedding journal, bags, purses, wall hangings, wrapping cloth (Furoshiki or Pojagi), quilts or anything you may think of. 

I have also been thinking about opening an Etsy shop sometime in the future. You can guess by now that I have lots of dyed fabric. I need to make some room in my stash so that I have an excuse to dye some more!

Until next time
Nat






9 comments:

deanna7trees said...

so many beautiful dyed cloths....a good idea to put some up for sale. i've stopped dyeing because i have so many pieces that are just waiting to be stitched on. looks like you had a grand birthday celebration.

Els said...

What a lovely birthday you had !!!

I think lots of people (including me) would love to buy one of your wonderful eco-dyed cloth !!!

I love that "bouquet" of eucalyptus leaves on the last photo !

Yvette said...

late but...happy birthday!

my stash is growing above my head too
have to consider what to do with it.......

love you Nat!

Jeannie said...

Sorry, I had to wipe the drool from my computer screen. Gorgeous cloth! I love seeing the photos of the plants that you use. They are so exotic looking. The piece you made for the designer, is gorgeous! Keep having fun!!!

neki desu said...

beautiful all!

Nifty Quilts said...

What a sweet birthday! I hope you're still celebrating. I'm so glad you'll be offering your fabrics and creations on etsy. They are so beautiful, and they should be enjoyed in many homes.

Queen Of The Armchair aka Dzintra Stitcheries said...

Sounds like you had the best birthday Nat from your work friends....what a great day! Your dyed colours are just so beautiful!

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