I sell sets of weaving sticks for $16 per set, plus postage and handling. All sets come with written instructions, with colour pictures.

Stick weaving is a traditional technique. It is very quick and easy to do, and I absolutely love it! You don’t need much equipment either – just a set of weaving sticks and some yarn, plus scissors to cut the yarn. That’s it!

You can read more about stick weaving in my how-to article in the latest Down Under Textiles magazine (issue 2, released June 2010). I have some copies of this magazine for sale – they are $9.95 each, plus postage and handling. These magazines are not available in newsagents.

The magazine article also includes my project instructions for a cute clutch purse made with weaving sticks (you can see it in the centre of the photo above).

See my website for more information: http://chiatanyadesigns.com.au/stick-weaving/

I have since found out that the dates for the first weekend workshop are actually the ANZAC Day long weekend, so I have shifted the dates for Bead Embellishment Explorations 1: Brilliant Basics to Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd May, 2010.

See the Events page of my website for more details.

Maharajah's Fantasy Bloom

I have been working really hard over the last month to complete my latest artwork: “Maharajah’s Fantasy Bloom”. It is my contribution to the ATASDA travelling suitcase exhibition called Maharajah’s Garden, and even the suitcase has a name: Safron! Isn’t that fabulous.

ATASDA (Australian Textile Art and Surface Design Association) hasn’t had a travelling suitcase exhibition for a little while, and this is the first time I’ve made an artwork to include in one of these exhibitions, so I am very excited about it.

My piece took approximately 200 hours to complete, though this does include a small amount of time “wasted” on starting the process… Initially my design was for a needle-felted shape (as seen in the actual work pictured above) that was to be attached to a velvet background. But the needle-felted shape stretched a little too much to fit the maximum size constraints (60 cm x 40 cm) so I had to quickly change my procedure…

I just changed the focus of the needle-felted piece – instead of having  a needle-felted shape on a velvet background, I cut my design shape from the velvet, and made a large piece of needle-felted “fabric” to use as my background. The needle felting was done on a large sheet of Solvy (water-soluble stabiliser) which was washed out when the “fabric” was complete.

Once I had attached the velvet shape to the needle-felted background fabric, I attached heavy iron-on interfacing to the back of the felt, and then started beading around the velvet shape. This is the part that took the longest (beading is not a speed sport, after all..), but in the end I was happy with the result.

In the above detail photos, you can see the effect of the needle-felted background a little better. Needle felting (using a needle-felting machine – mine is a Janome) is fabulous fun. It is probably nearly as time-consuming as regular wet felting, but I love how you can build up interesting colour changes in any part of the needle felting that you desire.

I like to add my wool roving in small amounts, often just tiny wisps of wool, to build up the colours and add subtle colour shifts in different areas of the work. It takes time, but it is also a bit like magic, the way it all comes together. If you haven’t yet tried using a needle-felting machine, I can heartily recommend you have a go. They are so much fun!

I used just one bead embellishment technique on this piece: bead couching. I like to couch my beads very thoroughly to give them a really flat and smooth finish within the design. Some beaders will couch their line of beads only every 3-6 beads, but I couch in every space between beads along the whole line. Of course this takes longer, but I much prefer the result.

The Maharajah’s Garden travelling suitcase is available for groups, schools, guilds, or other interested people within Australia. Just go to the ATASDA website (http://www.atasda.org.au) to find out more. The cost is not high – mainly just postage of the suitcase on to its next destination after it leaves you. It even comes with a set of wonderful bunting flags to hang up around your display area to really add extra wow-factor to your display of the artworks from the suitcase.And every contributing artist has created an A3 sheet giving some information about their artwork, including instructions for one of the techniques they have used in their artwork. This makes the whole travelling suitcase a really wonderful resource for schools, or people interested in learning more about textile arts.

The travelling suitcase is available from late March 2010, and will be available to travel for two years. Book it now to make sure you don’t miss out. I’m sure you won’t be sorry!

These workshops are all on bead embellishment. They are techniques-based, and focus on particular techniques which can all be used for jewellery or textile art of many kinds.

Each retreat is for just 6 participants – 4 residential and 2 non-residential participants. So get in early to avoid disappointment.

The first one is in late April, and is for all skill levels. It is called Bead Embellishment Explorations I: Brilliant Basics.

The second one is in late May, and is for intermediate skill levels. It is called Bead Embellishment Explorations II: “Encrustations – 3D and textural effects.

The third one is in late October, and is for intermediate skill levels. It is called Bead Embellishment Explorations III: Beading the Void.

Friday 25:  10 am – 1 pm  “Spiral Rope Earrings”  Cost: $70 (includes kit)

Friday 25:  1:30 – 4:30 pm  “Spring Bling Beaded Blossom Brooch”  Cost: $65 (includes kit)

Saturday 26:  12 noon – 4 pm   “St Petersburg Chain Bracelet”   Cost: $80 (includes kit)

Sunday 27:  1:30 – 4:30 pm  “Pillow Bead Pendant”   Cost: $70 (includes kit)

I was thrilled when the editor of Australian Beading magazine asked me to create a Masterclass Project using seed beads for the August 2009 issue. The result is the brooch you see in the  photo above – Beaded Treasure Brooch. The August issue is due out in the middle of the month, so check your local newsagent if you’d like to learn how to make your own brooch like this.

The beading techniques I’ve used in this project are bead couching, peyote stitch bezel, picot edging and regular fringing. It’s all stitched onto fabric with heaving interfacing underneath.

These are just a small sample of the bead embellishment techniques that I offer in the various beading workshops that I teach. If you’d like to learn these and many other techniques, you might like to attend my Fiona’s Fivers Retreat, called Bead Embellishment Explorations. Contact me through my website if you’d like to book your place in this retreat, or would like more information.

This is a bit off topic for my blog, but I just have to tell you how excited I am that my treasured Astro Boy collection will be seen on the ABC TV show Collectors this Friday (June 5th, 2009) at 8 pm.

The film crew came to our house in late March to shoot the segment, and I haven’t seen the finished result yet. They were here for about 4 hours, and the edited result will be around 3 minutes long, so goodness knows what they’ll have kept in the finished piece, but I’m really looking forward to checking it out, nevertheless! It is quite possible I may have made a bit of a ninny of myself….but that’s OK. It was such fun to do the segment, and it is always a pleasure to do some show-and-tell with my Astro Boy stuff.

I have loved Astro Boy since I was just 7 years old – and I remember seeing the very first black-and-white cartoon version on TV.  It took just one episode for me to be hooked! There’s something very appealing about a cute boy robot who can save the planet, yet still be emotionally fragile at times.

I like to collect the weird Astro Boy bits and pieces more than the expensive stuff made especially for collecting. My most  treasured Astro Boy possession is my mismatched pair of children’s toilet slippers from Japan….. I suspect I am the only Astro Boy collector who has a pair of these! If you miss the show on telly, or don’t live in Australia, go to the ABC TV’s website (www.abc.net.au) after Friday and you should be able to download the show to check it out. Collectors is one of my favourite TV shows – I look forward to it every week. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to know I’ll be on an episode too.

I taught my two-day “Curvaceous Squares Quilt” workshop again over the weekend – this time in Canberra. The workshop participants were mostly members of Canberra Quilters – a group that I belong to and have great affection for, partly because they have been so supportive of my quilting journey for nearly 7 years.

Two of my workshop samples are  pictured above. Raspberry Lime Splice was featured in Down Under Quilts magazine, issue 128 (January 2009) as a project.

Every time I teach this workshop I marvel at the creativity of my students. My Curvaceous Squares technique is fairly forgiving, in that the piecing and freehand curved cutting don’t have to be perfect to create a successful quilt. But to see how each student comes up with something so special, and has fun doing it too, is one of the greatest gifts a teacher can receive.

I am also really inspired by the clever variations that students come up with in this class. I have been planning to write a book about my technique, and I can see that when I do get down to writing it I will have plenty of wonderful quilts – made by my students – to showcase in the Gallery section and also to demonstrate many possible variations.

So today, I am smiling big time just thinking about how joyful it is to teach something I love so much myself. It is such a pleasure to share my passions with others in this way. Fiona very happy!

Here’s a sneak preview of my beading project for the June issue of Australian Beading magazine (due out mid-June).  Kelly (the magazine editor) has given me permission to talk about my projects that will appear in the magazine – thanks Kelly for allowing me to share some of my designs on my blog.

I think the name of my project will be slightly different in the magazine, and they’ll have taken their own photo – which will be better than mine, but you can at least see how the necklace looks.

It is made using square stitch (for those of you who aren’t beaders, that is a traditional off-loom beadweaving technique, using beading needles and thread). I’ve used size 9 and size 11 seed beads (Delicas) in this necklace.

I don’t like to be drab at any time, and especially in winter. So I designed this necklace to be a colour pick-me-up for the cooler months.

This desire for vibrant colour in winter goes back partly to the time I lived in Tokyo (1985-1987), and saw how dark and drab (to my eyes) the fashions were there in winter. I made it my mission back then to wear as many bright colours every day as I could. I got lots of stares, but that happens to all gaijin in Japan anyway, so I just considered myself a sort-of side show while I lived there. It was fun!

I don’t know who made the quilt, but Erica said the maker had even acknowledged my project on her quilt label. How fantastic is that?! All quilt designers are thrilled when people who make their designs think to acknowledge the designer too – so whoever you are, not only is your quilt beautiful, but a huge thank you for citing me as the project designer. Very much appreciated.

This is only the second quilt project I’ve had published, though I’ve had many beading/jewellery projects published over the last year or so. It is really heartening to see that someone I don’t even know, and who has not attended one of my workshops, was able to create her own Curvaceous Squares Quilt following my instructions in the magazine.  I wonder if anyone else out there in quilter-land will have a go.

Makes me so happy to think that someone liked my project enough to have a go – and make something that is really beautiful too.  I am smiling big time right now!