Saturday, July 6, 2013

eco felt


Because my range is 100% vegan it means that I don't use any wool felt in both my bird decorations or on the backs of my brooches. Instead I use eco felt. I often get asked about eco felt so I thought I'd answer a few common questions here.

What is eco felt?
Eco felt is made from eco-fi, a high quality polyester fibre made from 100% certified recycled plastic PET bottles. It can go into any textile product such as clothing, blankets, carpets, wall coverings, auto interiors, home furnishings, and felt. You can read more about eco-fi here.

Is eco felt as good as wool felt?
Before going vegan I used wool felt and yes I agree it has a lovely soft texture. The down side of wool felt was that I would sometimes find moth holes in it. Plus depending on where you buy it, it's not so easy to know the conditions it's sourced in. Eco felt is softer than acrylic felt so for me it was the perfect solution, and I like that it's recycled.

Where do you buy eco felt?
In Australia I have always bought Kunin eco felt from The Thread Studio here. I've never seen it in store nor have I found it anywhere else on an Australian website.
In America and Canada the Kunin brand is everywhere, check out the outlets here.

So there you have it! Please leave me a comment if you have any other suggestions or questions and I'll keep adding to this post :)

Thursday, July 4, 2013

my creative space


I'm playing catch up this week on my last creative space post. There's been lots happening as always including having a crack at screen printing with Brown Owls, learning from the amazing Catherine and Vanita of cat&vee who shared so much screen printing knowledge with us. Their generosity went above and beyond everyone's expectations. What an amazing craft community we have here in Brisbane!


My screen printed lighthouse, I'm pretty happy with my first attempt, not sure what to do with it yet :)


The GoMA Winter Design Market was fabulous as always, a huge thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hi :)


I even managed to knock out a good selection of crochet necklaces which will be in the shop soon!


Speaking of crochet! I've been working on some fun, super quick and easy crochet jewellery designs for our Brown Owls meet up this Saturday!


I love this one, it's teeny tiny, worked in a very fine linen yarn. I'm thinking a bracelet version would be really cute.


And to round it all off, a fabulous end to BrisStyle's Saviours of the Lost Arts program. What an amazing three months it's been, so many great Brown Owls meet ups have formed part of the program. With the final one a mix of basket weaving, rag rug making and crocheting. The most popular crafts of course!

For more spaces or to show off your own head here, it's a great way to keep on top of documenting what you've been up to :)