These hefty beauties were found here in Titahi Bay. I was sick for a week, the weather was miserable and the kids were home for school holidays. So I made a quick trip down the beach and came back with these, with a mind to do some low-key felting in my warm home in front of the telly and with my kids joining in the fun too.
They look like dinosaur eggs.
Today I went to gather some more as they are disappearing fast. Each time someone visits, they choose a stone.
The view out to Mana Island was gorgeous. People swimming and playing and enjoying our sunny weather. There was a cool breeze coming off the ocean so one needed to be quite thick-skinned to get in that water.
Here is my first batch of giant felted stones. I experimented with sewing some pre-felt to get an 'X' mark on some of them but it wasnt as seamless as i hoped. Still they look and feel amazing. I use 100% NZ merino wool that is predyed and combed. The brown felted stones haven't been dyed, that is their natural wool colour.
I made some small teacup bowls too using two colours. I made mention of this process a couple of posts earlier if you want to know how to do these. I was pleased with these ones.
I was in Napier last week, staying on the beach front so experimented and made a few more things. The brown and white bowl is made from a bunch of prefelts sewn around a rock with silk and wool threads, then felted, then stitched some more and finally I added the mother of pearl buttons to the inside of the bowl. In the foreground is a stone I felted in Napier.
The back of the bowl in detail.
This orange/black one just has a plain black silk blanket stitch around the top edge, while the other orange/black one has orange glass beads sewn to the outside of the bowl. Unfortunately the photo was crap. I need to do a photography course and get my 'macro' happening. I'd be interested to hear some feedback. I was thinking I might have a go at selling these little objects at a couple of art gallery's around town. I have been approached but I always get shy about my work, and honestly for the amount of time that goes into them, i would rather give them away to people I love than get a smidgen of money for them. So how do others get their work valued and make money? It is a funny job, marketing oneself and ones work. I always feel odd doing it.
Making beautiful objects is my passion. I am enjoying my final weeks of pregnancy with a bunch of little art projects and a final art and craft market in November to look forward to pre-Xmas. I am hoping to make a truckload of yummy goods for sale.
Tea anyone? I drink copious amounts of hot sweet tea at the moment. It must be Earl Grey Tea too. I found the tea cosy in a bin that said "10 items for $2" at the local barn-sized recycled clothing centre. Total cost: 20c. I then had to look for a teapot and found a purple one at Trash Palace for $2!!! The tray was handpainted by my mother. The little beaded doily sugar cover also made by mum. And the teacups, well, another gift from my mum. Making up a tea tray has become a 'several times a day' constitution in our home. The biscuit jar is constantly being refilled.
Ok, definitely off to bed now. Toodles.
My one. I love the way the twine gets dyed too - I have a whole bag of little bits of twine and wool that have held many bundles together. They are so precious and get used to sew book covers, etc.
I am working on a blanket at the moment - a love/hate project that I pick up in inspirational moments and then shove away in frustration for a week or two. It's random but is meant to be a therapeutic project for me. Using repurposed silk, cotton and old wool blankets, I am piecing it together using various threads, mostly silk. The point of it is that lots of small things (sometimes even the most random) can work together to make a beautiful harmonious work of art.
I didn't know that when I started it. I knew it meant something but it wasn't until it started to slowly form (because handstitching is a SLOW process) that it came to me. See most of my life I have tried to make a difference in BIG ways but often fell short and got frustrated. Striving because I believed the hype that if we try hard enough, we can have anything we want. Get anywhere we want. What a waste of time and false optimism - sometimes what I wanted was based on my need to compensate for lack in my life. This turned out to be a futile cause - my naive younger years believing that I could control my destiny and all it's outcomes. 
These days, I am of the opinion that it is better to appreciate where we are because we can always attain that. And better to make lots of small wise decisions, small achievable goals, small doable actions daily that lead to a better place overall. Someone once told me the only way we can eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Funny, it was meant in a different context, like how to get through hard times. 
Boy, have I burned myself out for years over things that were not all that important like trying to make others happy, and being lead instead of figuring out what was important to me first, and not trusting my own ideas. Not only that, but I have been told by a few people that I was pretty unbearable to be around. Yuck. Don't like that. Don't desire that. Want to draw people near to me not repel them.
It was definitely time for a change. This baby has been a mixed blessing. I spent 14 weeks with chronic morning sickness trying to get my head around the whole idea. Then the next 14 weeks adapting to the physicality of being pregnant, growing bigger and putting my career on hold again. And now I face the last 12 weeks feeling heavy and uncomfortable, knowing it will get tougher with the added bonus of childbirth at the end. 
The positives (apart from our family having another beloved member) is that it has put my life back into perspective. It forces me to make better intentional choices about the most basic of things. Paring back my life so I am not around stressful folks, pacing my days so as not to be a harridan of a mother and wife, keeping real about what I can and can't do, praying lots when I can't cope, rejoicing on the days when I can, asking for help when needed, and burrowing in when I need to feel the comfort and safety of my own personal space. 
Sometimes external achievements and stimulus create distractions from what is really important. Like being fully in the moment. Finding joy and delight in the simple things. Appreciating the gifts we already possess. Loving the ones around us. Perhaps this is why I enjoy the work and lives of artists like India and Nina (Bagley). They reflect this ability to enjoy life in it's simplicity and bring forth uncontrived beauty by simply pointing out what is already in front of our noses. I love Mary Oliver's poetry for this reason. I enjoy the ramblings of Bishop TD Jakes who continuously brings me into the presence of the father-heart of God. I love walking the beach with my children. I love lying on the grass and gazing up into the sky on any given fine day. I love seeing other artists and craftspeoples handmade goods. 
The thing about handstitching is that it forces me to slow down and the whole process is meditative. One cannot hurry but simply wait until the work unfolds and reveals itself. Each stitch is intentional and lands where it does because the hand directs it.
These shell buttons are a random collection found in many op shops over time. I am the one poring through the button jars looking for the pearly gleam of a vintage mother of pearl button.