Get your Weave on - workshops in weaving (and finding your own creative voice)

I've long wanted to do some weaving workshops with adults, to share my own way of working with yarn and making pretty wall hangings and pieces of art. I've finally found someone who makes looms in Australia that I can share with you.

Weaving is just the teensiest bit addictive; I've actually been dreaming about new weaves and wanting to get up at mid-night to finish the current piece on my loom..... The house can stay messy for all I can. I guess I'll have to eventually feed the family - though they're pretty good at making do themselves.

Anyway. I'd love to share the fun and complete satisfaction that comes with making your own weaving. It's like making your own piece of amazingness. Yep - it's that cool!

I have a couple of workshops coming up really soon (before this baby pops!). Would love love you to come along if you can. To learn the basic skills and techniques and to spend time with me and hopefully soak up some of how I work - by breaking rules, making my own rules, experimenting, having fun, conversing with my materials...

Oh yes indeed. I do have conversations with my yarn and fabric. Sometimes they tell me they want to be just so and I really have to listen. I do think it takes practice and quiet and being fully involved in your work to listen to your materials. But when you do, when you discover how to, I think it brings an emotion and a uniqueness to your work. It brings yourself to your work. Not copying someone else's stitches and patterns and ways of doing things, but doing it your own way. Telling your own story. Allowing your own voice to shine. 

That's important. I hope that during all my workshops (be in children or adults, screen printing or weaving or sewing or....) I can help you to open up and find your own inner voice. To allow you - give you permission indeed - to shout your own creative visual voice. That's so important to me. That we all share our voices, that we all feel confident that we can share our voice, and not hide behind copying someone else, or worse still not making and creating because we don't think our voice is valid. 

Part weaving workshop / part find your creative visual voice workshop. Yep.

Details are: Get Your Weave On!

Brisbane - Saturday 20th Sept, 12.30 - 4pm. At Tangled Yarns in Newstead. 

Byron Bay - Saturday 27th Sept, 10am - 1.30pm. At Bubbles at the Head Studio in Byron Bay. 

Cost is: $145 for 3.5hr workshop. You go home with your own new weaving loom + accessories (those lovely wooden needles), instruction booklet, scissors and yarns. You'll have a beautiful day with new friends (or bring a friend along to weave together), nibbling cake and treats and creating an amazing special piece to take home. 

Bookings are essential as spots are very limited. Bookings through our online store. Click here. Or email me for more info if you want. (deadwoodcreative@gmail.com). 

I'm also open to private classes if you'd like to gather some friends and have a weaving workshop at home.

Natural Dye ~ the magic of creating colour from botanical materials {a workshop}

Lately I've gotten right back into my natural dye making, and it's making me happy and excited and eager to be at the dye pot as many days as I can. I'm stretching myself, and learning new things and discovering new colours. I'm also learning to take note and write it all down - not like my usual 'oh, I'll remember that..'. A dye journal - that's what I need to make happen.... perhaps tomorrow. 

All this new colour magic making has me wanting to share what I know and have learnt. Hence some upcoming Natural Dye workshops. Oh golly - I'm really excited about these. About gathering with people and seeing the look in their eyes when they make colour on fabric and yarn from simple plant materials. Oh yes, oh yes! It really is that much fun. It makes me sort of giggly sometimes... And I want to show everyone who comes nearby - though my family sort of doesn't have quite the same enthusiasm as other natural dyers would.. though they do try hard to be happy for me too.

So, I have an upcoming Natural Dye and Wearable Weaving workshop as part of the gather :: create events I'm co-hosting with Leah. It's about spending time discovering the beauty of creativity within the little nuances of exploration.

Taking garden, kitchen and road-side findings we will create some magic in the dye pots and discover the joy of dyeing fabrics and threads with the natural alchemy of botanical colours. I enjoy using hot and cold dye methods to create colour, and delight in the finished cloth. My easy to learn ways of working with natural plant dyes is something you can take home and continue experimenting with to create your own colours and variations of patterns.

After a full morning (well, half a day) of working with the colour pots and turning white fabric and yarn into a rainbow of hues, we will take those threads and weave ourselves a pretty wearable neckpiece. I am a self-taught weaving, drawing upon my childhood memories of weaving as my source of inspiration, and can't wait to share these easy workable ways of taking scraps and threads of fabric and making an art work for your wall or to adorn your body. I prefer to work with a flexible approach to my making, to discovering what can be done and not having to follow rules - to make up my own way of working. To share this way of making with you will be an honour - to help you tap into your own innate sense of creating is what our gather :: create events are about.

Natural plant dye is about more than just making colour on cloth, it's about the environmental aspect of our clothing and our textiles. It's about thinking about how our fabrics are made, and where our colours come from. It's about learning to appreciate the beauty in the softer colour palette, or how to up the colour hue with some simple modifyers. Natural plant dyes seem to always fit together as a range - with a beautiful way of melding and colours flowing into each other. The process develops patterns on the fabric that are often not easily replicated, and to be enjoyed for their one-off amazingness.

Our day will also involve delicious and beautiful food, as well as new friend making, and interesting conversations. To connect with other makers is such an important part of being a creative, and to be able to share a journey of learning and making alongside others brings a sense of togetherness in a unique way. 

 

We have one workshop in Melbourne and one in Brisbane. (click those links for details and booking info). 

The Red Thread- Space to Create

I first found out about Lisa's beautiful blog, design and making many years ago when her friend, Steph Bond, connected some dots between us, asked for some words and thoughts - which I was ever so pleased to be able to pass on. Since then, I've enjoyed visiting Lisa's blog, and being wowed by her skills in taking traditional crafts and reworking them into a modern interpretation. Her tutorials are amazing, with so much detail and thought and time gone into each one. Lisa's styling of her images, as well as the snippets of her home (that she shares with her daughter), are perfectly put together, in a simple and loved way. 

In the past six months I've been lucky to enjoy Lisa's instagram feed; which brings daily joy to many people through her love of bold clear colour and  sharing of skills. I'm so inspired by how Lisa works, and what she produces. 

So, it was completely amazing and humbling for me to receive an invitation from Lisa, a few weeks ago, to be part of her Space to Create blog posts. Where she shares an interview and images from creatives who inspire Lisa. Wow - to know that I inspire someone who inspires me. That's the wonderful circles I'm traveling at the moment!

Anyway, pop on over to Lisa's blog The Read Thread, to read my words on being a creative; a little snippet into our world and my life as a maker. While you're there, please be sure to check out Lisa's tutorials as well as the other Space to Create artists.

Thank you Lisa for your words. xx

Screen Printing Workshops

I'm getting back into the swing of workshops. Excited to be sharing my screen printing skills and tricks. I haven't done any workshops all year, so it's great I've finally found a space to have some fun and teach some fun techniques. 

I recently made a little trip up to a sweet fabric shop at Palm Beach, Qld (sorry, not the Sydney, NSW Palm Beach, as I mistakenly lead a few astray on Instagram!). It's called I Just Love that Fabric, which is exactly what Susie the owner does - loves fabric. Boy it was lovely walking into a fabric shop that "gets" beautiful real fabric. Someone who knows all the designers and their seasons, a place to see and feel hand printed fabrics - a place that supports Australian designed and made fabrics. Oh yes, such a place does exist. It seems that fabric shops are becoming few and far between, what with online buying so easy. But nothing can beat chatting with a real person who loves fabric as much as you do, laying out the roll of fabric along the beautiful wooden cutting table and talking about projects and possible uses. And just oohing and aahhing about fabric in general. 

Susie and I hatched the idea of me running some screen printing workshops in her lovely shop. I met Susie when she came to one of my workshops that I ran at Hey Maker last year, and it was so good to chat with someone who knew fabric, and loved it so much. How exciting to be doing some workshops within the walls surrounded by all the goodness of that fabric. 

So, for all those people who have been asking me when I'm going to do some more screen printing workshops. Here you go! We have three dates scheduled. Each class will be small, with only 6 bookings maximum, which means more time for printing and asking questions and actually learning a new skill. My aim is for you to be able to continue printing at home, making gifts for family and friends, or zhoosing up your home or kids' wardrobe. Let me tell you, seeing your design on fabric is such a great feeling. A Jumping up and down with excitement feeling! Watch this lovely video which gives you a small feeling of a printing day with me.

The workshop is $125 - dates are Sunday 8th Sept 9am-1pm, Sunday 27th Oct 9am-1pm and Sunday 24th Nov 9am-1pm. 

You can make bookings through my online shop, or contact Susie - details on her website.

Mishi with a skateboard and lots of jewellery......

 I took these photos yesterday of my ever-growing bigger girl. She's so little. She's so big. 

She jumped when I asked her to dress up and pose for a few photos with Sam's skate jewellery. She brushed her hair, tied her ribbon and washed the paint off her arms!

It seems my camera has done something wrong with the resolution, but I love that image too much to not share it with you. And I want to have it here, for my memory, and her memory, when we look at this blog in months/years to come. {And I ask myself yet again why the model agency never found any work for this little one, who we had hopes of making us a fortune!}.

These bracelets are now available at our little online shop, ellie beck handcrafted, (though all made by Sam!). The necklaces will be through their final testing and production soon, and will be ready in time for the Gallery Market in two weeks. I hope they'll be in the online shop before / soon after then.

******************

 Thank you so much all of you for your kind words and thoughts on my previous post. It's so good to have friends here who I can talk with, who will listen and share their advice and wisdom. I so want to continue this homeschooling journey, but know that I need to find the balance to make it work. Caged Tiger Mama is no good for anyone!

with thanks........ from me {I've been featured!}

A couple of weeks ago I was featured on lovely Susie's blog FlowerPress, as part of her Show & Tell series. Can I tell you how happy and excited it made me feel to be part of this series of amazing bloggers and makers; who's work I admire and respect. 

It's funny, Susie and I "met" many years ago through our blogs (and blog-friend links). I won a giveaway she had for her perfectly beautiful hand screen printed tea towels. I know I'm not the only one who hasn't ever used them, as they are like art works. {Though I always say that we should use our best and most beautiful to elevate the everyday}.

Also last week, I was the featured blogger as part of Megan's new series on North Coast Bloggers, as part of her The Byron Life blog. As soon as Megan contacted me, asking me to be part of this wonderful idea she'd thought up, I jumped at the chance. For me this series is all about what blogging means to me - making the connections and the joining the dots with other bloggers. The fact that Megan's series is based on bloggers within my region is even more exciting. It's so wonderful to "meet" new people who are basically your (blog) neighbours. 

Megan and I met last year, when she interviewed me as part of Hey Maker! We talked about pop up shops, and the closing down of businesses in small towns and how people are trying to change that. Her story didn't make it to radio, but was the research and impetus for this radio interview with Jo Olive and myself.

It's funny and wonderful, and interesting and smile inducing to read the things people have written about you. Oh my. Thank you both so much Susie and Megan for your lovely sweet words (you surely made me blush!), and for the photos you chose to go with my words - I looked at them in a new light; and that's always an excellent thing to be able to do with one's own images.

I think for me, both of these features reminded me why I blog, and what my blog is about. I was recently invited to be the guest speaker at a local creative business gathering about blogging, where I shared my blogging story. Connections in the blog world are the biggest reason I blog - finding like-minded creatives, being inspired by them, hopefully inspiring someone else along the way, and all the while exploring my own creative voice. Reading blogs is like gathering for a cup of tea, and enjoying some crafting and conversation with people who get me, and who interest me.

I'm curious - why do you blog? 

What do you get out of blogging? 

Do you comment and connect, or sit quietly watching? Why don't you comment? 

What qualities do you enjoy most in a blog, in the blogs you read? 

And also - what's your favourite blog - I'm always looking for more connections and dot joining...

Happy day my friends, 

Ellie xxx

a few things on a monday evening

My tea is ready.
                         A watched pot does eventually boil.

The kids are finally asleep.
                         Extra kisses and tucking in makes the difference (and a glass of milk after story time seems to have helped).

My husband is asleep, waiting to me to come and watch a video with him.
                        hmmm - lessons learnt?

Another wall went up today; well a panel of a wall.
                      Slowly and steady does eventually get us a house built; but just slowly.

I finally got my new shop ready and open!
                     Perfection never comes, so I became friends with imperfection / less perfection / still pretty excellent.

I proposed a big idea to my sister, and she said I'm in.
                    Big ideas are worth pursuing, even if they sometimes makes you a little crazy through the journey.


I think that's enough lessons and things for this Monday evening.