Em's Jumper/Sweater Cushion

I have been waiting for winter to arrive so the op shops put out their winter stock so I could find an orange jumper/sweater to turn into a cushion. I wanted to make cushions from jumpers for a while, especially since we bought a bigger lounge. I needed more cushions. They had to match the retro print ones we already had and I thought orange would be perfect, with big buttons, maybe orange plastic ones. Well I couldn't believe my luck when I scanned the jumper rack in the first op shop and saw this one in the perfect shade AND it had big buttons!!! I love the wooden buttons and think it works really well.

The jumper before

It was very simple to make and took all of 20mins? I also had bought a cushion from the op shop and used the existing cushion cover as a template, worked out what part of the jumper I wanted and cut a square from the front and back. Then sewed the two right sides together all the way around, turned it the right way and hey presto! Done! The beauty of it is I can use the buttons to put it on the cushion so their was no need for a zipper or any hand stitching.

Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik- paper mosaic

Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik cuts up and rearranges paper from different literary and media texts, including comics, collaging them, mosaic style, into new images using strong lines, shapes and colour. I love how the negative space creates clean lines with a mosaic effect.

"My work is visual biblical commentary; I call it “paper midrash.” I always begin with text — often bible and other traditional sources, but also the words of poets and musicians. My work is influenced by elements of the natural world and how tradition understands its connection to the Divine"

Kedusha

Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire

Seven to Seventy

Flame On: Burning Bush

Fantastic City

The Flood

Brittany Lee- Paper craft

Brittany Lee is the artist behind these great paper and sketches. Britsketch is her blog and she sells her work in her etsy shop.

Queen of Hearts

Muse of Arts

Muse of Literature

Spirit set- Sake, Absinthe, Vodka, and Tequila. 

Little Mermaid

CTN-X- I wonder if I could do something like this or a wedding card!

Bride- another good wedding card idea..

It's a small world

Em's Holiday Crafts

After going on holidays I collected shells on the beach and some interesting bush leaves etc. I have turned the leaves etc into some very interesting looking native potpourri. I added some nice smelling eucalyptus and paperbark leaves to create a great native aroma. I will add essential oils to it once it loses it's smell. I found a perfect wooden bowl in an op shop to hold the potpourri.

 

 

With the shells I bought a shadow box frame and filled it with the shells. It took me a while to get them to sit and stay just where I wanted them to. I tried taping the back with various different tapes but the tape either stretched or came unstuck. In the end I used the frame stand to create some tabs to screw in to the frame and hold the back in place as well as putting a piece of soft woolen fabric behind the shells to hold them. It looks great in the bathroom!

Em's Jumper/Sweater Blanket

I saw this awesome inspiration on Yellow Suitcase Studios to make a blanket out of old woolen jumpers/sweaters and had to have a go. It just looked so cozy and warm. I collected jumpers from op shops, which were ideally wool, however 100% wool was hard to find so a few are mixtures. I then pre-washed them all and cut them all up into 25cm squares. Some knits were more prone to fraying and got a little messy but stayed together enough to work out the layout order and sew them. I numbered each square and then sewed each row before sewing all the rows together.

I bought some black fleece for the backing as the other colour fleeces available really didn't match the jumpers, then sewed the two pieces together around the edges, leaving the edges raw at this stage, as well as sewing along all the other seams to hold the two pieces together. It really needed this as it moved around a lot. I then did a blanket stitch all the way around the edges with some wool/yarn to finish it off. I love the look of blanket stitch and was most excited to do it.

 

 

Em's Feijoa Jam

We have been very busy making feijoa jam for everyone for Christmas! During the year we harvested kilos of feijoas from the in-laws tree and froze the pulp after scooping it into containers. A few weekends ago we thawed them to make the jam. We had a little trouble with getting it to set. Now, after much research we know feijoas don't have much pectin, which is needed to get it to set nicely. Some of our batches worked out ok but the big batch we did needed some jam setter (which is pectin) added. Next time we want to try adding apple, a fruit high in pectin. I also experimented with using gelatine, which worked but it needs to be kept in the fridge.

Things we learnt:
-Use the right amount of sugar (usually same ration as fruit)
-Add lemon juice (jam needs acidic acid to help set)
-Use jam setter to help set fruit jams low in pectin or add other high-pectin fruits like apple
-Do not over cook jam (it will caramelise and become very sweet tasting, taking the freah fruit taste away)

Feijoa Jam

 1kg Feijoa, peeled
1/3 cup water
800g -1kg sugar
1tsp ginger powder
3Tbs lemon juice

Bring water and feijoa to the boil in a pan, and cook until the fruit is tender. Add sugar, lemon juice and ginger and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Boil until the jam will set. Test by spreading a spoonful of jam on a cold plate (start testing after about 10 minutes of cooking time). Bottle in hot sterilised jars while the mixture is hot.

To sterilise jars
Preheat oven to 120C. Clean jars well with hot soapy water and rinse well. Let drain then place upright on oven tray. Place in oven and heat for 20mins. Fill while hot with hot jam. Boil lids in saucepan for 10mins then let drain.

Em's Redback Spider

I made this red-back spider to go in the shed toilet. I painted some rocks black with red stripes and then twisted copper wire into shape around the rock. Twisting the thick copper wasn't easy. I had to use pliers, which were at times too big to get into the small areas but I persisted and am very happy, albeit a little scared of the outcome. When it was sitting on the bench before it was hung I often gave it a double look. It freaked out our poor nephew who screamed, ran away and cried (oops!). What's an outdoor toilet without a red-back spider!

Eugenia Loli Collages

Eugenia Loli is a collage artist and film maker who creates interesting and sometimes controversial or at least conversational pieces. Some are a bit gross or scary.

"...for the vast majority of my work there's a meaning behind them. I usually do this via presenting a "narrative" scene in my collages, like there's something bigger going on than what's merely depicted. Sometimes the scene is witty or sarcastic, some times it's horrific with a sense of danger or urgency, some times it's chill. I leave it to the viewer's imagination to fill-in the blanks of the story plot. "

For example, read this detailed explanation of her Three Minutes to Nivana artwork. I love the way the new meaning or social comment can be made by combining images. Loli does this cleverly, blending images creatively to create new meaning. She achieves the "look twice" trick, which I love. I like the geometric cuts in some of the work making it look simple but still so effective in creating something new with a different meaning. It is also interesting how the titles of the works can change your perception of the concept, usually deepening the message. I think I also am attracted to her use of vintage looking images! I like so many of her works, so check out her page for more. Some are just so clever.

Very clever and eye-catching works in her Farscapes series. I love how these works can have you staring at them working out all the different parts and the new landscape they create. I love the mix of scale too!

The Wreck

Objective-Obscurity series:

Extremities

Cut-outs

Mind-atleration Series:

Nomalisation

Zimbardo

Modern Citizen (Pothead)

Cature I and II (diptych)

Oh-L-amour series: I obviously love the negative space and depth tricks the galaxy/star pics play on the images as these were my favourites (always love a play with negative space!):

Dependable Relationship

Kundalini

Add caption

"Erinyes" triptych from New-Mythology series

Worshiped-Women series. So many more clever images in this series! Great meanings and comments on women in society!

Speech on past days

Rising Mountain

Gladiolus

All-Fun-Games seriers: Again so many clever comments, only a few here:

Bloomed Joyride Too

Girl with Balloons- so simple but effective use of contrasting bright with B&W

Maker

Fabulous-Gentlemen series:

Faboosh, Part II 

I AM is Pondering the Self

Disappearing-Acts series:

The Droplet that Returned to the Ocean

Reportaz Series:

Dry cleaning

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