Love that Coffee

If you have a friend that loves coffee and you want to show how much you care this Christmas, why not check out my tutorial's for the a coffee brooch on line with squidoo, the link is under "links with the wow factor". These little hearts smell divine and are so easy to make.

Nesting

I pruned our Bay leaf tree this week and came across the most precious nest. The industrious bird that created it must have subscribed to the shabby chic movement, the swath of lace confirms that it is "soo in" this spring.


Theres nothing like a little craft imitating life, to bring out the challenge can we make a nest? Well I guess being bird brained would help, so does getting together with your friends as I did this week, and the results (drum roll please)
was some of the best fun ever.




Building a nest is an intuitive thing, very hard to break down into step by step instruction, however I do believe a picture (or as in this case several) tells a thousand words, I hope they inspire you to create your own little nest.

Start with a few strands of raffia , wool roving and nice fluffy wool. see above picture .
Wind these in to a circle (approx the size of your nest) Needle felt some of the fibres together using a felting needle.

Thread some raffia into a large darning needle and weave this in and out of the , going around in circles to hold the nest together. Using a combination of stitching and tacing with a felt needle until it all meshes together.
Add wool roving to the bottom of your nest and weave this in using the raffia.

Complete the process by weaving in some shredded paper, old lace and sewing in some buttons, and top of with a few hand felted eggs.
This would also be a perfect way to present a gift to a friend or to celebrate a birth, you could even needle felt a little baby bird (or child), too nestle amongst it.
To finish I would like to share a painting a I completed a few years back as part of a "portrait of my mother" series.


"The Nesting instinct"
painted 2002
Victoria Te Tau

Where did this week just go?

Life has a way of speeding up when decide what you are doing, suddenly I have a so many creative ideals, I feel as if I'm going expload.
I hooked up my counter for the blog and became a little obsessive as I watched the numbers slowly climb, after a week I was so proud (over one hundred visits) and half of them I am sure were not friends and family. My clever friend and blogger extraordinare has as many visits in a day , so I suffer a little blog envy but none the less I am soo happy . A huge thank you every one whom has visited my blog and an even bigger thank you to those who have left comments. I am unable to email people individually at this stage as I am still getting to grips with the process , but please be assured I value (and read them and re-read them and then make every one else read them ) and I just cant stop grinning .

This week I started writing the tutorials for felted beads. I plan to upload it over the next couple of days . The photo is of completed necklace using felt beads I have made.
I also had some success with incorporated dried lavender to some beads and and the results have been very special .

Home is where the art is

Welcome to my brand new blog site.

My first art piece was a little red fire engine , it was a kindergarten project and I remember being very proud , it was truly wonderful and to date one of best feelings ever.

Having spent many years painting, creating, and teaching, there have been many more Red fire engine moments , not all of them mine, but non the less impressive.

Teaching craft and Art has meant experimenting with many simple yet exciting projects . I have decided to share these projects in the hope of developing them further via your feedback, so as to fine tune them for my craft book.

I look forward to hearing from you.
cheers Victoria