I am gobsmacked by the talent displayed this week.
There has been such a diverse array of art over the last 13 weeks.
Thank you to the team at Creative Community, City of Greater Bendigo for this initiative and ability to peak into the studios of our creatives in Bendigo.
This room box/small miniature room is dedicated to my dad, who built me a dolls house when I was too young to appreciate it. The room contains books filled with Treasured memories. My still life of flora and fauna are featured as well.
Well today Bill and I ventured forth for our grocery shopping.
It was our first time since the required 1.5 metre distance between people had been announced.
I was anxious to be honest.
After a while I found myself skirting around others, some of whom did not seem to be aware or worried about this distance.
One chap, wearing a mask, seemed not to worry about the distance at all as he barged through the required space formed by ourselves and another shopper.
Ironic thought I.
By the time we had ended our shopping expedition I had mentally made a challenge of dodging people, almost saying Brrrm brrrm as I did so, as if I was driving a little dodgem car.
One way to keep oneself amused in these time I guess!
My friend Kerry has a lovely contemporary fold over bag.
It is something I have admired for some time but couldn’t justify buying as I really don’t need a new bag.
However my mind changed last week when we all went had into self isolation and I began to look for more things to do at home.
In my studio I was sorting through my small stock of floral fabric and found a piece of cotton/silk that was too small for a scarf or cushion but too valuable to discard.
Kerry’s fold over bag came to mind and so I accessed youtube for ‘how to’ patterns to make one.
Using two videos from Yoan Sewing Studio as well as a book I have by English bag maker, Debbie Shore, ‘Half Yard Bags and Purses, 2018, Search Press I proceeded to nut out the bag. I wanted a zipper closure at the top and decided to really test myself and added a zipper inside pocket as well as some extra pockets for a phone etc.
As well as my cotton/silk piece I used (from my plain coloured fabric stash) some red cotton fabric for the lining and some gorgeous boiled wool in black to sew onto the small piece of my cotton/silk fabric design.
It ended up taking me over a week, some days working on it for several hours and other days just an hour before dinner.
In the end I am happy with it and look forward to the day when I can wear it out.
View of bag with foldover topInside of bag with room for specs, phone etcZipper inside pocket