Hang the Shirt

Everyone has one: a favourite t-shirt that is past its prime and ready for the bin. For some sentimental reason we just can’t bring ourselves to throw it out. Why not ‘hang the shirt’? Turn your t-shirt into wall art, whether it’s a kiddie’s special tee you just can’t part with, a collection of race day tee’s, all those rugby supporter’s shirts you don’t know what to do with, or t-shirts you’ve collected on your travels. Also a great Christmas gift idea!
Your t-shirt will be mounted onto a 25cm x 25cm canvas covered frame, which is instantly ready for hanging up, giving away or gazing at lovingly! 

For this concept to work on your beloved t-shirt there needs to be an area of at least 40cm x 40cm that is undamaged for me to work with. THEN:

1.  Drop off washed t-shirt/s with me

2. Make payment (please!)

3. Allow 3 working days for completion

4. Collection/drop off


5. Hang the shirt!

Contact me on clairebrear@gmail.com for more info. 

Inspiration is a Wooden Spoon

Inspiration is a wooden spoon. It stirs things, things that are dormant. Things that are sleeping. Things that have been simmering over a low heat, on the back burner. You'd think you have to wait for it. But it comes to us when we stir something up, when we put our minds to something, when we put our hands right into the wet clay of it. And even if its not perfect, even if its not exactly what you had in mind, even if you have to do the sacred artist's rite of at least fifteen disclaimers before you share it - try it. 

Once it gets going, its hard to turn it off. The popcorn of the mind. The bubbling porridge of the mind. The internal explosions. The swarming beehive of the imagination. The looming storm clouds. They gather to dump their heavy rains upon you. Watch out. Because you won't be able to sleep. You won't be able to turn it off. It will grab you by the guts, it will take over your head space, it won't let you go, it won't let you rest. Keep a notebook nearby, or three, your phone, and two soft pencils. Oh, and at least one new black felt-tipped pen. Because when it strikes, its not the soft ordered rainfall of spring, it's the monsoon of high summer. It floods the streets of your synapses, it sweeps the leaves from your thought's gutters, it washes away the old, it forces in the new. It's a monster. 

It doesn't keep office hours. It strikes in the night. It strikes in your dreams. It strikes when the power is out and the coffee supply is low. Its a pain in the butt. Its a nuisance. It's a pest. It's an infestation of beautiful bugs in your brain. When it shows up, be on the ready, take action. Get up. Record. Write it down. Sing it out. Hum aloud. Cut and stitch. Make your lists. Sketch. Feel. Think. Dream. Come alive. And then fall, exhausted, into another wide open dreamworld.

Long time

Though its been way too long since I blogged (I am too embarrassed to mention just how long), I am bursting with creative ideas, DIY inspiration, the glory of upcycling,  my growing addiction to instagram, a longing for my sewing-machine buried under the rubble of the 'spare room' (otherwise known as the pit), and just the pure joy of making things. Here I sit with my moleskin ideas book and fresh felt tipped pen, my sketch journal, my daily diary which also incidentally got buried in the spare room, pinterest site open, statigram, instagram, twitter and yes, the blog. I do plan to get it going again. I want to post pics, ideas, things to sew, furniture I plan to renovate, decor I intend to scatter about my little housie, a foray into baking and whatever else I might be inspired to do. Instead of keeping all these ideas tucked away in the recesses of my e-files I thought I might just blog about them! So here's to inspiration, here's to spare time, here's to order from chaos, here's to beauty, here's to the therapy of creating something lovely.  

Getting my Afrikaans on

So the grand old NG Christmas Market. Boy, did I get my Afrikaans on. We set up Thursday morning in the bucketing down rain, running to and fro from my car with bags and boxes of things. Thankfully I'd wrapped everything extra carefully in all sorts of plastic so it was all in tact. Actually I didn't wrap anything at all, my super helpful friends, Vix and Wends did all of that in a mad panic the night before as I tried to finish off some cushions, which stubbornly refused to take on the right shape. The market was the usual hodge-podge of goodies, from some really great (and cheap) food (koeksusters, vetkoek, caramel cakes, ginger biscuits, curry & rice, pickles of all sorts), succulent plants potted in all manner of quirky containers, cupcake kits, the usual shabby chic type stuff, recycled and upcycled bits and bobs (www.kisma.co.za), and so on and so forth. I can't say I made a huge amount of sales, I think people were looking for little stocking fillers at low prices, which was not what I went for, but I did get a bunch of encouraging comments and met some really great people: fellow crafters, shop-owners from the surrounding areas, community volunteers, and visitors from overseas. Yay for new friends! Some of my craft highlights: Mareli Els' handcrafted silver and copper jewelry, the Grahamstown Woodworker's offerings, beautiful and useful things from yellow-wood, kiaat, and jacaranda. I also stumbled upon some creations from Mitat, who make a range of bespoke home decor products (see www.mitat.co.za). All in all it was a good, though rain-drenched, experience, with some interesting opportunities that have come out of it. More to follow! 


By the way, this delightful oom in the picture (above) is wearing, wait for it, a lined waistcoat made from a collection of ties that belonged to his father. :)

I've been doing covered journals (see previous post) and decided to branch out into 2012 diaries. Everyone needs a diary for the new year, right? So far I'm experimenting with printed cotton, a great range of shweshwe, embroidered maps of Africa, felt and of course, some hearts. The cotton makes for a neater fit than the tweed (very bulky) and I feel you can't go ever go wrong with shweshwe! I don't feel I've quite 'got' it yet. There are elements of all of it that I really love, and then somehow I don't feel like its really 'working' quite yet. I think the felt hearts (situated, of course, in South Africa) probably stand out a bit too much and I might try some fancy embroidery stitch there rather. Hmm. A work in progress.

So I'll be selling these at the NG Christmas Market (1-3 Dec in Grahamstown, Hill Str) but if anyone is keen to order let me know. I'm on c.brauteseth@gmail.com.

Tweed

Working on some tweed-covered, felt-decorated journals at the moment in aid of building up my stock for the NG Christmas Market. I like how the tweed is really textured and the felt kind of sinks into the fabric when I stitch over it. I must say, some frustration has been experienced in the process, such as having the fabric slip and slide this way and that when trying to stitch over the felt. I'm a rather impatient seamstress, and as soon as something doesn't work I'm ready to abandon it and start on something else. The many overflowing boxes in my cupboard bear testament to that. However, I'm determined to make these things work, no glitches, pulls, tucks or mishaps.