Fibre Arts Take Two, Friday Feature Artist, LIVE Interview

Excitingly, 

Fibre Arts Take Two 

 invited me to be their 

Friday Feature Artist 

and so I did a

LIVE INTERVIEW 

with team member & mixed media artist extraordinaire

Tara Axford (!!) 

on Saturday 30 April at 10am New Zealand time, 

(8am Australian time). 

Follow @tara.axford on Instagram HERE

Website: www.taraaxford.com

As the interviews are global, the interviews are done on either the Friday or Saturday depending on the time zone of the interviewee. 

What is Fibre Arts Take Two??

Fibre Arts Take Two, is a family owned business based, in Melbourne, Australia, that collaborates with fibre and mixed media artists all over the world to create quality online learning experiences.

Last year they created the Friday Feature Artist LIVE Interviews 

as a way of connecting their audience, promoting artists and 

further championing art textiles.

 

The interviews can be viewed 

LIVE on Facebook or YouTube 

or are available to view at anytime on their YouTube channel. 

There you will find a growing library of over 60 interviews 

with artists from all over the world.

On Facebook & Instagram:

@fibreartstaketwo

Facebook

Instagram

Join the LIVE interviews on Facebook 

or you can also join in on the YouTube channel.

There is also a Facebook Private Group: 

Fibre Arts Take Two Community, 

where members can connect and share their experiences 

with a like-minded community.

Website:

https://www.fibreartstaketwo.com/ 

Here you can enrol for online workshops or register your interest 

for advanced notifications when enrolments open. 

Also SUBSCRIBE to the newsletter to get reminders, 

latest news updates and a heads-up to register for coming workshops.

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/FibreArtsTakeTwo

SUBSCRIBE to the channel or drop in at any time to watch past interviews.

Connect to the LIVE interviews on the channel 

where you can participate in the live chat, ask questions or just say HI!

Many thanks to everyone who joined us!

It was wonderful to see so many familiar names pop up 

on the screen, plus people from all over the globe! 

And thanks for your lovely comments and your many questions too. 

Unfortunately we couldn't answer all the questions as the 

hour absolutely FLEW past and we had 

so MUCH to talk about. 

Feel free to contact me if you have any burning questions 

you would like answered.

VIEW MY INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE HERE

VIEW MY INTERVIEW ON FACEBOOK HERE

Artist Studio Clearout Sale!

I have been invited to take part in this awesome event: 

Less than a month away till the annual studio clearout SALE!! 

A whole bunch of arty girls get together with all their seconds and samples and fabulous bargains!! 

Pass the word on - its a great chance to shop for Christmas and birthdays and an excellent place to nail those end of year teacher/thank you gifts as well as an opportunity to pick up some great art! 

Here's just a taster of some of the work I will be including in the sale, all at marked down prices.

I'm also including some extras such as some of my crocheted Nest brooches, the remaining few Lubi Lids Hats (some of you may remember me making and selling these at the Titirangi Market while my kids were little), and perhaps even some of my little knitted kete, amongst whatever other bits and bobs I can hunt out. 

Maybe even some crocheted Nudibranchs!! 

Hope to see you there!

Psst: please pass this on to all your friends, family and work colleagues, etc. Maybe even drop some big hints for yourself for Xmas! 

Lubi Lids ~ Hats for Kids

As I'm contemplating new directions for my art for the coming year I thought I'd take a trip back down memory lane and create a record of something I used to get up to to fund the ever increasing kindy fees.

Being a home-sewer, through necessity as a poor student and later as a skint parent, I was always making things for my kids including their fleece beanies with appliquéd stars. I would get so many comments from people such as "You should so sell those! I'd buy one!" So, when the kindy fees went up another notch, biting into our ever-stretched household income, I decided I'd see how serious people were about their compliments. 

I didn't tell hubby what I was up to when I was found sitting on the lounge floor amongst a pile of fleece scraps. He was used to me always making stuff anyway and I thought if I told him he might pour cold-water on my hair-brained scheme. I had enough scraps to start by making an assortment of 40 beanies of various designs, colours and sizes. I figured that I didn't need to spend any money initially because I had heaps of scraps of fleece and a whole assortment of felt scraps squirrelled away from various craft projects. If people showed an interest and actually bought my beanies, then I'd buy fabric as required however, because a beanie takes such a small amount of fabric it wasn't going to need to be a big outlay. The biggest cost would be in time. And actually, having to sit still in the evenings to hand-stitch the appliquéd designs was a good way to get me to slow down a little. It's a very therapeutic past-time, as I'm sure lots of other crafty people will agree.

Initially I would take my carrier bag of hats along to coffee groups. Sales were promising and comments were always very encouraging so I thought I'd step up the action and booked a stall at the Titirangi Market for a once-a -month spot. It took a bit of effort but the whole family got involved on the day and again there was little needed outlay. I'd been given a folding pergola, we made a folding table by cutting an old door in half and hingeing it, and for windy days, we had a collection of milk bottles that we filled with water to stop the pergola blowing away.

Sales went well, earning me enough to pay for more than a few kindy sessions and a bit more besides. Over time I had repeat customers and my range grew to include adult sizes too. It was so satisfying to have such delighted, and delightful, customers. The beanie with the skull and cross bones was particularly popular with men! It was fun coming up with ideas for new designs. I also branched out a little and made a small collection of dress up hoods, some pixie hats (or Robin Hood hats depending on your point of view) and soft brimmed hats for those of us who look a little too bleak in a beanie.

Lubi-Lids kept me busy for a good couple of years and it was so much fun meeting other creative and entrepreneurial people at the markets. As my kids got older, my focus changed to new pursuits and I guess, as cheap imports were becoming more available, it was hard to keep prices competitive and to not rip myself off in the process. This was well before the internet and on-line market places were mainstream such as felt.co.nz. It was also prior to the current "Hand made" renaissance and comments like "I could get a hat at the Warehouse for cheaper than that" were quite laughable. (I priced my hats initially at $8 then rose to $12 for the simple beanies. The more complicated designs such as the Pukeko, the Gecko and the Frog with the spiraling tongue were a little more, to reflect the extra time involved but still my profits were

marginal.) I realised I needed to make a decision whether it was time to either rev up the production or to move on to other things when I was approached by a Kiwi who was visiting from the UK. She was sourcing NZ stock for a market in London and wanted to place an order of 20 hats, ready for delivery within the week, and could I give her a wholesale price?!

Yeah, nah, actually, nice compliment, sort of, but it was time to move on.

Knitted kete

Nikau

In New Zealand kete are traditionally baskets woven from harakeke or flax. They are beautiful, practical and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes to suit many different purposes. In Maori tradition they feature in the creation myths as the three baskets of knowledge retrieved by the god Tane. One interpretation of what each basket represents is the basket of light is present knowledge, the basket of darkness is things unknown, and the basket of pursuit is the knowledge humans currently seek. 

Mamaku 

When picking up the knitting needles a couple of years ago, kete seemed (to me) like the perfect choice of something to knit. 

First and foremost they are beautiful, tactile objects. They can also tell a story of place and purpose through the materials they are made from, their shape and their form, and  they can represent the holding and sharing of knowledge. 

I wanted to create a series of kete that spoke of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and my place here. I was also interested in exploring the merging of cultural traditions of European hand-crafts, as passed down to me from my Grandmother, with the traditional Maori form of kete, which I have grown up with and have always loved. The size and scale of the kete is such that they all fit into the palm of your hand. The largest, Nikau is 11 x 12 cm while the smallest, the little green "woven" one at the bottom of the page is 5 x 7 cm. 

Pohutukawa

Pohutukawa II

Paua

Crocheted Nudibranch

The idea for creating these began when I wanted to send a birthday present to a good friend of mine in the UK. She is a keen diver and a Nudibranch lover. If you check out the link, you'll see why - they are gorgeous, magical wee creatures and there are so many variations. 

Chromodoris elizabethina

So, I began by making one for my friend. I thought it would be more fun if it was able to be worn or be interactive in some way so I made it as a finger puppet. There are many patterns on the internet for nudibranch, believe it or not, but I prefer the challenge of making it up as I go along. Of course, when I finished the first one, I couldn't stop there. I had to make one for myself.  Then I couldn't resist making another design and then another.... There are so many colour, shape and pattern variations in nature that it's like trying to choose between lollies in a sweet shop. 

Hypselodoris apolegma

I started with relatively simple designs and I initially kept them all a similar size, as one-finger puppets. Gradually, however, I wanted to be able to add more detail so I needed to increase the size of them.

Chromodoris kuniei

Hermissenda crassicornis

Nembrotha kubaryana

This one is slightly larger and is a two-finger puppet. Additional detailing is added with embroidery.

I try to be accurate with colour combinations and main features so that they are recognisable against their real-life models.

Hypselodoris kaname

Hypselodoris Bennetti

Of course I got more ambitious and wanted to be more accurate and so the next one was even bigger still. This one is a hand puppet and so it took a lot longer to complete but it is very interactive and fun to play with. It has also given the anemone, that I created "accidentally" while experimenting with knitting techniques a couple of years ago, something to hang out with.

Please note: I have had many requests for patterns to create these beasties but I'm sorry I don't create patterns to work from. I simply make it up as I create when I'm crocheting and my "patterns" are only ever rough notes to myself, if anything.