update on my respite

The last two weeks away from Etsy has been godsend. Although my work and social lives have become very demanding, with Semester 2 starting with a vengeance and a friend returning to Sydney for two weeks after teaching in Japan for a year, I have immersed myself in my perfumery and have already composed two blends of which I’m far more contented than anything I have made prior. They are complex fragrances made with the most luxurious and high-quality essences I could find.

The first is composed of refreshing and uplifting citrus top notes that meld into a deep and luscious bouquet of florals that lie on an earthy green bed of moss and fern. It's vivacious, exuberant, and singular. The second is a narcotic blend of mandarin and spices on a smoky and sultry amber base, redolent of incense and silk. It's sensual, intoxicating, and intense. I have already tested them on two volunteers who rated them very positively.

I hope to make one more blend before I showcase the debut trio. Does anyone have any suggestions on what that third could smell like? I’m tossing up between a light woodsy floral of immortelle and neroli (similar to Nyctanthous), a deep floral of vanilla and rose (similar to Chypre), and a dry, woody, masculine scent akin to White Poplar.

I’d also like to mention that I will be discontinuing all my existing perfumes.  These are what remains in stock:

CHYPRE (sold out)
An impassioned brew of hungry vanilla, mysterious oakmoss, and lusty rose damask. Tenderly romantic and mercilessly erotic. The ultimate aphrodisiac no faun could live without. Notes of ylang ylang, vanilla, oakmoss, and rose damask.

GASLIGHT (sold out)
A still night at the end of a cobblestone alley. The faint scent of a woman’s perfume, sparkling wine and ill judgement still clings to the air, beckoning Jack towards his next prey. Notes of sandalwood, frankincense, cinnamon, violet, jasmine, bergamot, and bergamot.

GOLDEN LYRE (sold out)
A melodious, Apollonian blend of the sweetest fruits that dances on the skin. Energising mandarin is filled with joie de vivre. It gracefully fades into a more floral scent after a couple hours of wear. Notes of cedarwood, rosewood, clove, petitgrain, mandarin and bergamot.

HOOF & HORN (1 bottle left)
Inspired by the carousing faun herself who is fire and laughter to the bone, this is a rich and creamy blend of luscious blood oranges served with lashings of vanilla. Sweet, warm and utterly delectable. Notes of vanilla, blood orange, and pink grapefruit.

HUNTRESS (sold out)
A strong-willed scent that is both self-possessed and wild-at-heart. Bergamot sharpens the senses for your stalk through the groves at dusk. The citrusy fragrances meld tenderly with heart notes of feminine rosewood. Notes of bergamot, sweet orange, tangerine, rosewood, and patchouli.

JACK THE RIPPER (sold out)
A Victorian gentleman with a calm and composed façade, faintly scented with powdered violet and jasmine, barely restraining an alter ego of pure, concentrated sexuality frothing with vice and debauchery. Drowned down with a tall crystal glass, swirling with iced absinthe. Notes of sandalwood, frankincense, amber, cinnamon, violet, jasmine, and aniseed star.

MANDRAGORA (2 bottles left)
Bitingly venomous amber smoulders in this cruel blend of poisonous root and bittersweet sin. Notes of amber (from a plant-based accord), patchouli, root, bark and soil.

MIDSUMMER (1 bottle left)
Ripe, juicy lemons sweetened with a hint of lime on a bed of dark oakmoss. Notes of lemon, lime, wisteria, and oakmoss.

MIDWINTER (7 bottles left)
A chilly winter surrounded by the woody scent of white pine while a ghostly whisper of dried wisteria blossoms is carried on the cold winds. Notes of cypress, pine, wisteria, rosewood, and violet.

NAIAD (sold out)
Smoky white sage and lavender drowned in a clear, running stream. Herbal heart notes are gentle and elusive on first touch, like reeds on the riverbanks, but plunges you into its shadowy depths of violet and ylang ylang. Notes of sage, lavender, ylang ylang, rosewood and violet.

NYCTANTHOUS (sold out)
Delicate jasmine blossoms haunt this melancholy scent. When the sweet buds wither, grounding violet leaf leaves you to drift into a reverie on soft, shady grass. For those who flower at night. Notes of violet leaf, grass, violet, jasmine, and dew.

SATYRION (sold out)
Named after an infamous Greek aphrodisiac, this concoction is inspired by the untamed satyr who is beast and music down to the soul. Dark and warm like sugared figs washed down with a chalice full of mulled wine. Notes of cedarwood, clove, figs, mandarin, and oakmoss.

WHITE POPLAR (sold out)
An homage to the Greek God of the Dead. Rich, earthy and spicy, with a hint of bitterness. The scent begins fresh and grassy, but like a descent into the Underworld, transforms into a cold, dark and earthy scent after a couple of hours of wear. Notes of cedarwood, cypress, peppermint, and petitgrain.

first visit to a craft market

As many of you already know, my last trip to the Eveleigh Farmers' Market got me thinking about applying as a vendor for their monthly crafts one.  This Sunday, I visited their August Artisans' Art and Craft Market to scope out the vibe.

The Cat and I arrived at Carriageworks bright and early (perhaps a little too early).  We arrived at 10:15am and most of them were still setting up.  By the time we left at about 11-11:30am, it started picking up a bit more.  We were immediately struck by the wonderful range of handmade goods, everything including jewellery, upcycled notebooks, felted scarves, artworks, and ceramics.  There were no import goods or second hand in the mix, which I hear is what a lot of 'handmade' markets are doing nowadays when application numbers are low.  It was particularly promising for me to see that fragrance-wise, the closest was one stall that sold reed diffusers and candles.

Despite how new the Eveleigh Market is, the standard was very professional.  I visited every stall and almost all of them were well-established and had their own websites and many even a physical store or studio.  The prices were definitely higher than what you would find on Etsy, but knowing how much time goes into everything, I wouldn't say anything was exorbitant.  Most vendors who had $75+ necklaces or something would always be sure to also carry $10 rings or $15 earrings for impulse purchases.

In terms of selling there in the future, I had a really enlightening talk with one of the organisers on our way out.  He was quite frank and said that with what I make, I'm in with a good chance because they're really interested in variety.  He confirmed that jewellery is one of their most saturated categories and the applications he went through for them were two huge folders full and they had the longest waiting list.

However, measuring myself up against the other vendors there, I think I wouldn't feel comfortable applying until I was closer to their level of professionalism.  I have made two more supplies order over the weekend and today, getting much more proactive about my perfumery study and research than I have ever attempted before.  I'm thrilled to say I have quite a few exciting projects in store and I can't wait to share them with you all in due course.

where to for faunfare from here

Something quite fantastic and unexpected has happened with Faunfare in the last month; I broke even. I made back in sales everything I have spent on bottles, business cards, envelopes and postage, and essences since my very first supplies order, including those most precious that have not even made their way into my blends yet. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m immensely grateful to the amazing customers who believed in me, my perfumes, and my vision, and satiated their curiosities with a try. The feedback that I have received has also been phenomenal and more complimentary and generous than I believe I deserve.

As thankful as I am for my journey so far, I think it’s necessary for me to take a small break from selling and spend some time alone with my oils, reminding myself why I got into perfumery in the first place. To inspire myself, I ordered a copy of Mandy Aftel’s Essence & Alchemy before I left for Amsterdam, and have been devouring it since I got back. Her book is a poetic concoction of psychology, literature, and history, which weaves a tale about how natural perfumery has evolved through the ages, suitable for both aspiring perfumers and perfume-lovers. Trish of Scent Hive also had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing Mandy Aftel at her studio and presented a brilliant blog post about her experience.

Frankly, I find it mind-blowing to think what I could aspire to with my perfumery. There is still so much more I have to learn about the world of essences and I’ve never been hungrier for the knowledge.

Two nights ago, I received an email from a well-meaning browser who nevertheless startled me with her logic. She said she doesn’t like the use of cheap, synthetic fragrance oils in perfumes and wondered if I use any of it in my blends, “because the prices are so low?” Although the word “natural” features in my shop title and product descriptions, including further details of why I choose essential oils instead of synthetic ones, I can really relate to this woman’s query because a quick search of “natural perfume” on Etsy yielded for me pages and pages of products that were neither natural… nor perfumes at many times. I found numerous stores that described their perfumes as “natural” or “botanical”, but their ingredients clearly indicated the sole use of fragrance oils. I wonder if it’s that they’ve simply picked up the trend on Etsy of calling them “natural perfume oils” without realising what it means? Indeed, I have found a lot of new people who love the fact I use natural ingredients, but if I ask, they often can’t really tell me why they think natural oils are better. I have met very, very few people who can tell the difference. More personally, her point about my low prices inferring low quality hit the nail on the head of something else you know has been on my mind—pricing.

I posted a couple of weeks ago about my philosophy on pricing and how I passionately believe in selling my perfumes at below retail price. A wonderful myth that circulates Etsy is of a seller who makes high-end designer underpants. She made modest sales until one day she decided to counterintuitively increase her prices, fitting them better into the more affluent target market whose tastes and needs she caters to and her panties flew off the shelves. I wish this was indeed the case for everyone but I soberly reminded myself that perhaps for the vast majority of us mere mortal sellers, people might just simply not want our stuff and increasing the prices will only make them not want them more. This woman’s question however, brought this panty myth back into focus and made me wonder if there were more people who were turned off my store because my prices spoke louder than my words. I just wish there was a way for me to balance my love for purveying affordable perfumes without doing my work a disservice.

This finally brings me to the title of my blog entry. Where to from here?

I’m going to a take a short sabbatical, perhaps a month or two, to read and study more about perfumery theory and technique. From my own pocket, I will fund an augmented collection of rare and precious essential oils and gradually move away from some of the more affordable oils in my initial orders. I want to reconceptualise my entire brand and line, further developing my perfumes inspired by the Ancient Greek pantheon, which has been far better received than I could dream. I want to improve each and every one of my scents, replacing the lower grade oils (e.g. vanilla infusions, ylang ylang first) with the highest ones (e.g. Madagascan vanilla absolute, ylang ylang complete), and create new products such as perfume solids in lockets and pillboxes. I also want to indulge other passions of mine, writing and photography, and produce some essays and articles about why I choose to make natural perfumes instead of full or semi-synthetic blends, and spend weeks photographing my products to get them just the way I want them.

However, I know that if I progress down this path, my perfumes will no longer be viable to be sold at $6-7 a bottle. I’d imagine my ingredients alone will exceed this price, even in 5ml bottles. As such, I’m not sure there will be a place for me on Etsy, and I may have to consider other avenues, if selling is a priority. I have lots to think about in the next few months!

a week of joys and progress

On Wednesday, I went to the post office and picked up my latest order of essential oils, which include an indulgent collection of rose, violet leaf and blue chamomile. To say they are deliriously beautiful is an understatement. I have already blended two scents that I’m madly in love with and wearing every day. One of which I’m planning to name ‘Nyctanthous’ (flowering at night) is perhaps my most expressive, personal scent so far. It reminds me of fragrant jasmine tea and is as sweet as it is melancholy. However, it will probably be a while before they find their way into Faunfare, as I will need to order more glass bottles and complete the packaging design first.

This week, I have also been deep underground working on my conference paper for Amsterdam. It’s coming along so much more smoothly than I expected and every day, I find myself delighted with some new finding that emerged from my analysis. It gives me great faith in my final thesis and optimism that my contributions to research will not be entirely insignificant.

My rock for the PhD is a colleague of mine who completed her Honours degree and began her PhD at the same time as me. I met up with her for lunch on Tuesday and we were stunned that it has been almost two years since we began this journey together. That’s two-thirds of my doctoral degree already; the end is so close I can smell it!

Now in my fourth semester as a tutor, I no longer expect revolutionary learning curves, but I was surprised when I had the best experience I have ever had tutoring on Tuesday. I was concerned that my lesson plans would be full and poorly prepared, but I have never seen my students so engaged. The icing on the cake was that I even received some very positive feedback (unsolicited and unbribed!) about my teaching in between classes from individual students. So despite 8 hours of classes and late buses, I hopped home with a noticeable spring in my step.

the meandering path of creativity

Autumn winds here in Sydney have brought along with it the bane of my existence—dry skin. I was up last night until 2 in the morning with my dry hands feeling irritated and itchy and keeping me from a restful sleep. It also doesn’t help that I’m super vigilant about washing my hands and in this cold May weather, I have had to do it lately with hot water. Moisturising hand creams are a touch beyond what I’m currently capable of making myself at home. I hungrily eye pomegranate seed, apricot kernel, and rosehip oils for my next order of supplies to incorporate into my recipes, but for now, I will be contented with blending perfumes and lip balms.

I have discovered a new blog recently that I have thoroughly enjoyed reading. Amber from Caravan Herbals, an all natural, vegan skincare store, keeps a refreshingly candid yet infectiously optimistic account of her dream to start her own business. I love how she has her goals written in her sidebar! I will definitely be rooting for her to achieve all of them. The image above shows one of her latest concoctions, a cleansing oil, which sounds just divine. According to The Oil Cleansing Method, healthy skin is nowhere near as elusive as the skincare industry would have you believe. The simple notion that oil dissolves oil suggests that using a 1:4 blend of castor (for an anti-inflammatory, healing and cleansing) and sunflower seed oil (for luxuriousness and easier absorption) to wipe away dirt, grime and makeup from the face is a natural and nourishing alternative to harsher chemicals and synthetic fragrances.  The cleansing blend is wonderfully affordable too, I can purchase a litre (33.8oz) of castor oil for $8 AUD locally.

EDIT 13/06/2010: I have tried the OCM with a blend of jojoba and sweet almond oil scented with a hint of rose essential oil, but have not noticed anything dramatically different with my skin. In the future, I may attempt a new recipe with the aforementioned castor oil and see how I go :).

I read the directions for use on the website, which recommends almost incorporating the cleansing process into a ritual for calmness, and using a washcloth to gently steam your face. I wonder if you could also include a small amount of essential oils in the blend to give yourself a little aromatherapy as well during the cleansing for a multisensory, end-of-the day distressing routine.

In honour of Amber’s blogging style, I’m also going to share with you one of my setbacks then end my post today on a positive note:

Bunny’s Boo-Boo: I never wrote down the formulas I used for blending lip balms last year so I found a rough guide online that was a completely miss. My balms never even solidified, but I was so overconfident in my abilities and the recipe that I didn’t even do a test before I poured it. (To test; you put a teaspoon in a freezer when you get ready to blend and before you take it off the heat, dip the tip of the cold spoon into your mixture and the lip balm will harden on it, giving you a preview of its consistency/flavour.)

Latest Victory: I loaded up my printer with fresh inks today and printed off my labels for Faunfare. They look gorgeous and I cannot wait to begin packing them with sample perfume vials and jewellery to send around the world.

perfumes, oils and brews

For a week off from my tutoring obligations, this week has been rather stressful. It’s definitely nowhere near as out of control as they used to get a year ago when I had even more trouble saying ‘no’ to people and didn’t announce my ‘ground rules’ at the beginning of the semester to clearly delineate my role, but I have still spent the last week wrestling with a number of student emails about their assignments. The more sensitive ones (students who are unhappy with the marks I awarded them) take a long time to respond to because you need to respect that they are feeling a little fragile. Then there are tedious questions that pepper my inbox, which I don’t really mind, but many of them were addressed in the lectures, which they skipped, and are now hoping to get the information through other means.

I can’t help but get frazzled with some of the emails and it throws me off my writing. I have resolved to exercise more self-control and only check my email once, at the end of the day, and get them all over and done with in one go!

On to what has been keeping me up late at night!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@helenaliu) would know that a few days ago, I said I was, “wanting to reignite an ambitious idea”. That idea was a sweet but grandiose dream I had almost nine months ago to begin something akin to a romantically quaint trading post business where I would sell all my handmade creations (jewellery, perfumes and bath and body products) under the one roof. I have always had a soft spot for perfumeries like Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, but believed everyone should have the option for all natural, eco-friendly, vegan, and affordable luxuries. It’s harder than it sounds because I have somehow always focussed on one craft at a time and find it hard to switch into ‘jewellery mode’ when I’m blending perfumes and vice versa. But when my friend Andrea reiterated that I should consider turning my latest venture, Faunfare (yet another new craft that has become a cherished obsession), into an emporium of all my handmade goods, I just didn’t think I could cast away such a dream again without giving it a good go. And now that it’s blogged, there’s no backing out! :D

My goal is to spend the next few weeks designing new blends and original recipes for perfume oils, lip balms, and possibly branch into bath salts and sugar scrubs. I have made lip balms and lotions before, particularly for a friend who stayed in hospital last year with eczema, but I followed recipes found online, such as Craftbits. Before I consider selling any of my own products, I want to take the time and to develop my own concoctions from locally-supplied, vegan ingredients, like macadamia wax instead of beeswax for instance.

The area that I’m most worried about is the packaging. That’s really unchartered waters for me and I don’t want crappy, cheap labels to be the thing that sells my lovingly handmade and blended creations short. I will strive to make sure it’s a hurdle I will conquer, and not one that becomes an impasse.  Here is one label I have designed for jewellery and perfume sample boxes:

product line (sneak peek)

While The Cat spent the afternoon making pavlova, I worked on a forest scene with a hollow tree trunk and photographed some of my needle felted creations on it.  Here is a preview of some of what I have created so far:

Little grey owl sitting inside the hollow tree.

Peach-coloured bunny hopping about the forest scene.

Blue-eyed satyr peeping out of tree.

Red-haired nymph wrapped in vines taking a dip in the pond.

Red-haired faun with green ribbons in her hair.

Dark-haired faun standing by moss-covered rocks.

Elusive white stag saying hello.

And somewhere near the South Pole...

Mr Yeti is collecting ice slabs to patch his igloo.

You can now visit my Etsy store at faunfare.etsy.com!

wet felting scarves

After the resounding success of our last felting day, my felting buddy and I had another on Monday, this time with the seemingly monumental challenge of making a ‘kimono collar’ as seen in Felt by India Flint and Toyoko Sugiwaka. Over the weekend, I had dyed some kid mohair curls in deep green so I thought it would make the perfect fringing for a foresty collar.

To our surprise, it was complete within a couple of hours, so we laid them out to dry and began flipping through her many felting books for inspiration. The book on the top in the photograph was particularly breathtaking. The artist draws her muse from the natural world and attempts the most incredible simulations of landscapes and natural textures like honeycomb, moss and fossil with wool. I drew from her ‘fossil’ technique and attempted a thin scarf. This striking effect is created by layering cream-coloured silk ribbons and caps (thin tissues of silk) in between black wool so they become trapped. As the scarf is felted, the black wool shrinks around the silk, causing the silk to crinkle.

My creativity is still aflame. I’m planning on making a shawl next if I can find the space for such a large project and eventually attempt even more difficult techniques like hats and vases.

While The Cat was out at a concert on Sunday, I also (at long last) made a prototype for a felted faun that I’m really happy with. However, my camera’s battery was on charge all afternoon so I didn't have the opportunity to capture her. I promise I will share her, and more of my needle felted creations with you later in the week.

product line (slowly but surely)

Since receiving my wool on Thursday, I have compromised eating and sleeping to begin bringing my sketched designs to life.  However, the process has been very challenging.  Here's a sneak peek at what I have created so far:

I imagined that I would have had several creations completed by now but sadly, I find myself struggling over countless prototypes that I'm still not 100% satisfied with.

I'm doing a little bit of work today from home so that I may take tomorrow off and join my friend for another day of wet felting.  I crave a creative shoulder to lean on now, to push me to keep working on something rather than demand immediate genius and perfection of myself.  My goal is to complete both a faun and satyr design that I'm happy with.  Only when I have achieved that will I know my store is ready to launch.  I intend for them to be my signature pieces so they will need to be absolutely adorable.  So far, I have created and rejected four prototypes (probably to become cat toys for Salmon).  Here's hoping for a wonderfully productive day ahead.

there's something about felting

Those of you who knew me before I began this blog would know that my first craft was making jewellery and that I even had a brief stint selling my handmade jewellery on Etsy last July. The crocus necklace pictured on the right is one of my personal favourites, featuring antiqued brass and Czech glass beads in garnet.

My jewellery making hobby was always a little conflicted. I really don’t wear a lot of jewellery myself, but when I do, I’m drawn to elaborate and unusual designs like this necklace I made four years ago that converts to a bracelet, or this beaded choker featuring tiny framed illustrations from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll’s self-portraits I made one of my past Mad Hatter’s Tea Party themed birthdays. However, it was not easy for me to learn to accommodate for more tastefully restrained styles, and even when I tried, I just didn’t have as much fun with making jewellery.

Since I have picked up wet and needle felting in the last month, I feel as though I have found my calling.

Felting supplies are simple and affordable, while the beads, charms, components, findings and tools required in jewellery making are mind-boggling. Each of those categories also comprises an almost infinite range of sizes, colours, and materials. All my needle and wet felted projects come from wool roving, which differs most importantly by coarseness and colour. The latter can even be customised with hand dyeing.

If you wanted to move into metal smithing (welding your own metals) or lampworking (making your own glass beads), the space, equipment and resources needed for them will set you back several hundred dollars at least. I stuck with cold working, which meant I only ever worked with stringing bought beads on to silver, brass or copper wire, and even then I spent a couple of hundred dollars every month on supplies. All my tools and equipment for both wet and needle felting have not yet set me over $50 and $100 worth of wool will keep me in good stead for a long time.

Second only to those cotton/hemp friendship bracelets you learn to make in primary school, cold working is the easiest jewellery making technique to learn, and hence also the least skilful and unique. In my experience, jewellery makers, particularly cold workers, are very secretive about their suppliers. Finding cheap supplies is sometimes the only way we can compete with each other, but if someone else discovers where you purchased that antiqued brass crocus charm, there is virtually nothing preventing them from making the same piece as yours. I love that there is no deception to felting. Everything you see is wool and a lot of love, patience and elbow grease. Although I’m sure felters can still try to replicate another’s designs, it’s not as easy as buying the same beads and charms and stringing them together. You still need to build something from scratch and it will never really be the same as the original. Each creation is imbued with the soul of its creator.

wet felting day

I had the most fun I have had in a long time yesterday! I met up with a friend in my neighbourhood and we spent the entire day wet felting.

When I first arrived, she set me up with a DVD called On Gentle Threads, a whimsically inspiring short feature on Hungarian felt artist, Judit Pócs, while she prepared the outdoor felting studio. After feeling ready to dive into a bucket of hot, soapy water and squeeze out ten hats, I came out to find that we had a generous-sized table laid out with a pile of clean towels, bamboo mats and homemade soap formula, all ready to go.

Before our felting day, I spent the free moments of this Easter long weekend experimenting with wet felting projects on my own. At first, I grossly underestimated the difficulty of making a simple pouch until my make-it-up-as-I-go attempt failed miserably. I then watched a few videos on YouTube, including this great Threadbanger tutorial on making a beret, which requires the same techniques.

So I went at it again, making a white pouch with orange stripes that was covered in holes, but at least was less of a disaster than my first attempt, which is still laying in pieces right now on my armchair. I took it to show my friend yesterday who convinced me after a lot of gentle persuasion and persistence to patch the holes and work on it more. I was sceptical it would do any good, but a lot of faith and an hour of elbow grease later, including some great destressing sessions on a washboard, my failed pouch shrunk by a quarter at least (that’s a good thing in wet felting), with all the holes firmly patched, and actually useable now as a sleeve or heatable rice pillow. I was over the moon!

Galvanised by this experience, I made another pouch after the colours of my cat. It ended up shrinking to the size of an iPhone cover, a little too small to use as a rice pillow for us big cats and bunnies, but I thought our Salmon might appreciate it once the winter season sets in.

The homemade soap formula worked a treat. Prior to this, I simply used ordinary dishwashing detergent, but my friend had attended a felting workshop by Janet Page that provided a recipe to make your own soap ‘paste’. It involves adding one part soap flakes to two parts boiling water and leaving the mixture to set in a container. It will become the consistency of sorbet and can be scooped into the hot water when wet felting. I found this recipe much kinder on my hands than detergent and lathered up really nicely. If you live in the Sydney region, Janet Page is running a workshop in 10 days.

After lunch, we tried dyeing some wool with Landscape Elements dyes. This is the colour Shell, which turned out a lovely sandy, tea colour.

We are making a joint order of wool together in the following week and will be dyeing more wool to create scarves in time for winter. We found two great designs in Felt by India Flint and Toyoko Sugiwaka which will be perfect for our next challenge together.

felting along

Since felting the forest home, I have happily stabbed my way through a few other small projects to keep my felting skills honed. On Friday night, The Cat celebrated another year in his life with good friends and a couple of glasses of wine. The next morning, I scavenged a wine bottle cap and made this little mushroom scene inside it.

I also made a little black bunny and gnome girl with her toadstool cottage. I decided that the bunny belonged to a friend whose birthday just passed. He’s teaching English in Japan but had to leave his pet bunny behind.

 

Yesterday afternoon, I found a kindred spirit who has recently delved into wet felting. She introduced me to a flock (teehee!) of local wool suppliers, such as Virginia Farm Woolworks, Glenora Weaving and Wool and Waratah Fibres and Crafts, all of whom carry exquisite ranges of fibres and dyes. I feel so thrilled to know that I can now make all my felted crafts with fibres from Australian plants and animals, lowering the carbon output from otherwise shipping wool from overseas.

I admit that since my bookshelves have turned into humble abodes for my new felted friends, I have been eyeing Etsy with a hopeful sense of longing. I long for a marketplace to find loving homes for my creations so I may make room for more. However, I look at my designs and I know they are still very beginner, and I look at my schedule and know I’m still a very busy Bun! For now, I’m content in the knowledge I’m developing my skills and (hopefully) finding my voice and a unique personal style. That being said, if you see anything at all you like among the pages of this blog, you simply need to ask, and I will be happy to send it along to its new home!

wet felting balls

This Bun is a little bit worse for wear this week (but just a little!).  I have juggled tutoring, with data collection, meetings, editing my thesis and teaching training and it feels like I have managed to cram three full-time workloads into the one week.  But please keep your condolences!  I’ve also been feeling exuberant for the opportunity to get out of the house, the exercise and sensory delight of walking through the leafy cobblestone trails of my campus, and the scintillating company of my colleagues and students.

I had a meeting with my supervisors yesterday to receive some feedback for the last piece of work I sent them.  As always, my supervisors were extremely constructive, although honest about the fact that my first draft needed more work, yet they continually praised me for what I did right and assured me that some imperfection and uncertainty is definitely to be expected so that I didn’t walk away feeling discouraged.  Despite this, I have accepted the truth that supervisory meetings are more often than not, very overwhelming for me.  No matter the feedback, you walk away from any (good) meeting with a full plate of work, even if your supervisors gave you detailed and valuable information and guidance to complete them, you’re reminded that you’re treading the deep waters of a PhD.

I have decided that from now on after all my supervisory meetings, my schedule remains clear for me to return home to a hot shower, a cup of tea and a leisurely evening spent watching comedies (I have developed a new addiction to The Colbert Report).

In the morning, I also picked up the felting kit I ordered from Etsy from the post office, but was crushed to find that the seller had forgotten to pack felting needles.  Luckily, she separately mailed them out to me today, and in the meantime I had some fun making wet felted balls for acorns and toys for Salmon!

Although it requires a lot more elbow grease than it looks and my fingers got all pruny after 40 minutes of rolling a wet wad of wool around in my hands (renewed respect for felters!), it was so much fun!  I think I have found my favourite craft.

To make these, all you need is:

• Wool roving, tear into small tufts
• Dishwashing detergent (or soap will do)
• Bowl of hot water
• Bowl of cold water (optional)
• Tea towel

Begin by taking a small tuft of roving, drizzle hot water over it and very gently, begin rolling it in your hands until it starts to form a puffy ball.  Gently tease apart your tufts of wool roving so that they become more like thin sheets and wrap around your loose ball.  Squeeze a small drop of detergent on your hand and keep rolling the ball until it is covered in detergent and begins to lather.  Every now and then, drizzle hot water onto your ball, and keep rolling.  It’s the combination of the hot water, detergent and your rolling that makes wool fibres ‘lock’ together.  Your ball should start to feel more solid and you’ll find you can apply more pressure without crushing it.  Keep wrapping it in sheets of wool until you get the size you want.  Some people recommend dunking or drizzling your ball in cold water to ‘shock’ it and hasten the felting process.  I did find it helps, but it's not necessary.  When you are satisfied with the size, shape and firmness of your felted balls, rinse any excess soap off with water and rest on your tea towel.  Leave in a sunny spot (away from curious cats) to dry.

I found it was very important to begin very gently and gradually build up even pressure, otherwise you get cracks in the ball.  After making 2-3 balls, you will find your bowls water get very soap, after which you don’t even have to add detergent to your balls for them to felt.

I collected some acorn caps last week from a grand oak tree on my campus.  I’ve never noticed the tree before as it’s on my ‘scenic’ route and I used to always be in such a rush to get from one class to another.  I gathered a small handful of caps in my glasses case so they wouldn’t get crushed in my bag, and rinsed them in my leftover bowl of hot soapy water from felting the balls to clean off dirt.  I'll be hot-gluing them to the balls in time for the Autumn Equinox.

I definitely recommend this very tactile and therapeutic craft for anyone, perhaps we can learn together?

dollhouses and playboxes

Happy first day of March everybody!

When I was a about 6 years old, a girl in my class brought along a toy to school one day that had me completely enchanted.  It resembled a big plastic apple, which opened up to reveal a multistorey dollhouse for the little animals that lived inside.  Much to my dismay, I never got to play with her ‘apple house’, but a few years later, I came up with something just as fun for myself one school holidays.

Out of little more than a scrap piece of paper, my textas, and some already-been-used blu-tack, I made myself a hand-drawn teddy bear’s dollhouse when I was around 9 years old.  Unfortunately, my dollhouse has not survived, but I remember that I drew a big 3-storey house on a piece of paper and my three bears, a dad, a mum and a little girl bear, complete in outfits inspired by my parents and I, drawn on a separate piece of paper which I then coloured in and cut out.  I affixed a frugal dot of blu-tack on the backs of my bears so that they didn’t stick too hard to the house drawing and tear off bits of paper with them when I moved my bears around.  Day by day, I gradually added to my bears’ house by drawing cabinets, which I would then sticky-tape doors to from more paper cut-outs, and when the ‘doors’ were opened, more cut-out doodads like bottles of sunscreen (very important for the Aussie weather) were stuck to the shelves with blu-tack and could be removed and taken outside with the bears if they ever decided to have a picnic.

Playing with my teddy bears’ dollhouse is one of my most vivid and fond memories of crafting as a child, a deep-seated nostalgia that was re-sparked yesterday evening when I discovered upon Beccijo’s lovingly handcrafted wooden playboxes, from The Enchanted Cupboard.

fairy kitchen playbox

When I saw them, my heart skipped a beat, and I got that surging through my entire being I get when I am truly inspired.  I love the space family.  You can even order a OOAK custom playbox from Beccijo, for between $114-154 USD depending on the size and complexity.

max in space playbox

Although Beccijo’s skills in hand-turning and painting her wooden toys are evident in every one of her pieces, I considered that the needle felting supplies I have recently invested in may also make for great alternatives for wooden accessories and dolls.  After a few moments of quiet contemplation, I leapt out of my chair and began scribbling and sketching an idea for a ‘playbox’ of my own; an enchanted forest home.

I cannot wait to share with you the result!

marinating in creativity

Although it will be at least another week before I receive my felting supplies, that certainly has not meant I’ve been sitting on my hands since Thursday!

needle felting books

On Friday evening, I went book-shopping at one of my favourite online retailers, dStore, and picked up two felting books on making small animal toys.  Just for fun, I also added a Druidic animal oracle deck for critter inspiration and a book on creative parenting, called The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule.  I know I don’t even have buntens yet but from what I read of the preview, the advice in her books sounds wise for any bunny interested in reconnecting with her animal nature and developing a more mindful awareness of the world around her.

I went craft supply shopping on Saturday and found a small felt sale at my local arts and craft store, and stocked up on ten sheets for $5.  The Cat and I later went for a stroll around our very leafy neighbourhood during which he floored me with his knowledge of flora and fauna.  Here I was, this nature-worshipping rabbit, pointing at trees and plants and oohing and aahing as The Cat declared the names of everything I was admiring.  Our objective was to go pine cone hunting and The Cat recalled the grounds of a local private high school that grew tall, proud pine trees.  “Look!” he pointed when we finally arrived.  There were pine cones littered everywhere on the floor!  We each choose one to take home.  On our way back, we took the ‘scenic route’ and saw a butterfly, big white feathery cockatoos, a trio of rainbow lorikeets, and a fruit bat catching in some last minute z’s before his night began.  Maybe he was planning to party late at the Mardi Gras?

crossing the road to the australian museum


close-up of the exhibition sign

The weekend exercising was not done there.  Today, we visited the Australian Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition that I had read about in the Sydney Morning Herald.  The photographs on display were absolutely marvellous.  The top highlights for me would be a draw between the Photo Studio area where spiders and insects were on display and ready to pose for budding hobbyists like me to pretend we’re pros, and bumping into an old high school classmate I hadn’t seen for seven years.

When we had finished looking at the photography exhibition, we went upstairs and poked our wet noses around their other exhibits.  I loved the minerals one and took a photograph of my favourite gem, the garnet.  I love how it is a beautiful little ball nestled within the rock.

We finished our day with a leisurely stroll through Hyde Park, which is where The Cat and I got married a year and a half ago!  I stopped by the War Memorial and took a photograph of one of my favourite trees, the white poplar.  It’s sad that the elegant white trunks of these trees have been so carelessly graffitied.  We found a bench underneath the shade of a large tree and ate roast chicken and coleslaw sandwiches prepared by The Cat.

white poplars in hyde park

As a special treat, here is a photograph of The Cat practising his parenting skills.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is currently showing at the Australian Museum and will remain until 26th April 2010.  Entry fees are $17 for adults or $12 for student/concessions.  Mention the "Herald promotion" when visiting with a friend and you only pay for one person.

learning to needle felt

Since reading The Magical Onions, I’ve been inspired to dabble in needle felting.  I would personally love to try my hand at miniature figurines and dolls, rabbit and cat toys.  I watched some video tutorials on YouTube last night and it looks very therapeutic, the needle poking looks great for anger relief!  After dinner, I called a bunch of craft stores around my local area but unfortunately, none of them carried any felting supplies, but then I spent a good few minutes searching online and I’m really excited to say that I will soon be expecting this charming little beginner’s felting kit in the mail!

wool roving from the wild hare

It looks like it has everything I need to get me started (wool roving in a great variety of colours, 4 needles, and a foam sponge so that I don’t risk stabbing my desk with the needles).  Bonus bunny points for the fellow bunny seller at Wild Hare Fibre Studio.

When I have learnt to stand on my own four paws in my felting craft, I’m also keen to purchase some of the luscious roving at The Rainbow Room.  The colours are so earthy yet vibrant and the prices are not too shabby either.