hand-stitching fabric beads

Some time ago I dreamt about the perfect way to use up my fabric scraps that are too small for brooches, this week I finally put aside an hour to realise that dream. I'm pretty happy with the results and am loving my recent adventures with running stitch :)

macramé & cocktails

It's time for another dose of macramé & cocktails!

This Wednesday 26 February from 7pm sharp, Wayne and I will be teaching macramé at Jungle Bar, West End. Perfect for beginners or pick up from where you left off last time!

Macramé Workshop
Jungle Bar, 76 Vulture Street, West End
Wednesday 26 February, 7pm sharp
Free with purchase of cocktail (non-alcoholic options also available).

See you there!

loom weaving workshop

For me understanding how fabric is constructed and the history behind it has been a really important process in my practice. That's what I love about sharing the history and process of weaving a small textile piece. At Carindale Library on the weekend I went through this process with a great group of women and their daughters.

It was a very calm and peaceful two hours and one of the easiest workshops I've ever run. The feedback was wonderful; from gratitude at being able to share crafting time between mother and daughter to comments on the value of taking time out to weave with women. I think everyone left feeling very centred and re-energised which made my day :)

Thanks as always to the women who came along and contributed to a lovely afternoon and also to my lovely loom-weaving Country Boy for helping me teach and for capturing some beautiful moments :)

For more workshops check out the full Art Bites program here.

All photos courtesy Wayne Dring.

sashiko workshop

Producing Brisbane City Council's Art Bites program for the BrisAsia Festival has been so much fun. As well as being part of our amazing facilitators' workshops I've also been running some really lovely textile based workshops around Brisbane including sashiko stitching at Old Inala Hall last week.

I had a really lovely time sharing skills, knowledge and history with a great group of ladies.

A huge thank you to everyone who came along and especially to my soul mate Wayne (aka Country Boy) who has dedicated so much of his time to making the Art Bites program happen.

There are still a few vacancies left in the workshops, you can check out the full program here.

All photos courtesy Wayne Dring.

Workshops for BrisAsia Festival

I am very excited to announce that Brisbane Brown Owls will be producing Brisbane City Council's Art Bites program of workshops for the BrisAsia Festival! A group of incredibly talented workshop facilitators have been hand selected to deliver a diverse program of Asian-themed workshops in February and March!


You can check out the full line up of workshops here.

Thanks to Brisbane City Council all workshops are free and include materials and equipment. Please note that RSVPs are absolutely essential by emailing brisbanebrownowls@gmail.com. Get in asap, we all know how quickly these will fill up!


Images from top left: Kanzashi flowers with Melanie Gray Augustin from Kimono Reincarnate, Kantha stitching with me, Amigurumi with Jessica Thompson of Out of my Mind crochet and contemporary Jewellery with Liana Kabel.

macramé at jungle bar, west end

It's happening again! If you've never tried macramé before or you'd like to pick up from where you left off at the last workshop you came to pop in to Jungle Bar this Wednesday night in West End for cocktails and macramé!

Wednesday 12 February, 6:30-8:30pm
Jungle Bar
76 Vulture Street, West End
Free with purchase of a cocktail (or mocktail)!

Look forward to catching up there!

woodford folk festival wrap up

I'm settled back in Brisbane this week for a few days before heading to India which I'm very excited about. I hope you've all had an amazing, inspiring and creative start to the new year, I'll be popping in here a bit this week to document all the creative happenings and travels in my little world since Christmas.

We had a fabulous time taking the Brisbane chapter of Brown Owls to Woodford Folk Festival over the Christmas break sharing good things like rubber stamp making, macramé, 17th century fabric buttons/brooches and basket weaving with fabric. It was so much fun for us to share this special time with my sister and her two beautiful girls who just moved back from two years at Lockhart River.

A huge thank you to Melissa and the wonderful team at Woodford Folk Festival for having Brown Owls along and to all the wonderful workshop participants I was lucky enough to share my time at Woodford with. We couldn't have asked for a more inspiring start to 2014!

'Aunty Wayne' (aka country boy) teaching my niece to juggle at Circadia

 Imagine the Land ephemeral art installation in progress at Artisania

Wang Wen-Chih's Bamboo sculpture project

We had the chance to participate in Dyani from Little Deer Creations paper bead rolling workshop, this was great fun and hopefully coming to a Brisbane Brown Owls meet up this year!

Our meeting spot and where we couldn't help but shop up a storm, Little Deer Creations fabulous eco friendly stall

 Country Boy drumming up a storm with my nieces to celebrate the new year

We would have been filled with regret if we didn't bring Senorita home with us hand crafted by the extremely talented marionette maker The Squeaking Tribe.

There's lots more to show and tell but that's more than enough for one post :)