July BJP

Apologies for my tardiness, I was away for part of July/August visiting family in Paraburdoo which is in Western Australia; and still trying to get back into things. So much going on. I've just come back from a weekend away with Embroiderers Guild - we go to a school camp twice a year  for lots of stitching and beading and substantial meals, all catered - we just do the washing up. It was wonderful - I needlefelted for most of the weekend, but a group of us made fabric bowls out of fabric covered cotton cord.
Here is my July BJP - a Cooktown Orchid which is the state flower of Queensland.  I will have to get my skates on and start the August BJP, only a couple of days until September - how the time flies.

Cooktown Orchid



Dyed cotton cord with crochet edge



Fabric covered cord with button



Fabric covered cord with crochet edge

Owls need a bit more work

June BJP

Hi everyone
June's BJP is a Sturt's Desert Rose (Gosspium sturtianum), the floral emblem of the Northern Territory. It is named after Captain Charles Sturt who was the first person to collect this species. The flower is associated with a cotton plant. The petals can be pink, purple or maroon. Another common name for it is the 'Darling River rose'.

Beaded Dragon

Life has been very hectic both at home and work so have spent what time I had beading this dragon which is for my granddaughter Haley's 19th birthday coming up soon. I had a lot of trouble with the wings, trying different methods. beaded fabric were too floppy, I thought the fast to fuse between silk too bulky and settled on organza/vlisefix sandwich with a thin wire sandwiched around the edge. Only a little beading on these so that they would sit up. I used plenty of Swarovski's on the chest and underbelly to satisfy Haley's love of bling.

BJP May

This month I have chosen Sturt's Desert Peal which is the floral emblem of South Australia. It grows on a creeping plant and can be found in different shades of red. The base of the flower is either a deep purple or black.

Sturt's Desert Pea

Spring Swap Doll

Whoopee! I received my swap doll from Sherry today. She is a beautiful rainbow. Here are pics of both.

April BJP

Hi everyone, I have chosen the State flower of Canberra, the Royal Bluebell Wahlenbergia aloriosa as my April BJP. It flowers from October to March with flowers up to 2-3cm on long slender stems. It measures approx 6 x 9 cm (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").

Thought you might be interested in looking at this beadwork by Margaret Lee http://margaretlee.com.au/gallery/bead-embroidery/index.html She specialises in Japanese bead embroidery and uses size 15 and 12 beads. It looks like she uses delicas as well but it's hard to tell from photos.

Polymer Clay

I moulded some faces on the Labour Day weekend.I finally painted and varnished them a couple of weeks ago and thought I had ruined them by spraying with too much varnish. They were horribly tacky. Luckily, bought some Liquitex at the paper craft show I went to last weekend. I had tried re-polishing a couple of faces but that didn't help. The next stage was to try and sand the varnish off as these are my best faces yet. I was dreading the sanding, so my friend Phyllis suggested the Liquitex. Great results, no more tackiness. Here are the faces I made. This is about the 5th lot of faces I've made in the last year and my painting techniques are definitely improving.