Buttercupchappati Chronicles

making lace in a throwaway world

Do you ever watch that movie Love Actually? I really like the voice over part at the beginning where the Hugh Grant character talks about how he feels much better about the state of the world when he thinks about the arrival hall at Heathrow, all that happiness and love right there.

My feel-good place? Spotlight.

You cannot go into a Spotlight store and not feel that everything will be okay. (For those who don't know, Spotlight is a large chain of stores that sell fabric, wool, sewing machines, buttons, curtains, everything you could ever need for making anything!)

These places are always busy, busy to the point of chaos. People, mostly women, are bustling about with arms laden with stuff! They are making curtains, deb dresses, baby clothes, knitting, making jewelry, you name it, it is going on. If there is a complex and time consuming craft that was only done by blind nuns in a remote convent on an island off the coast of a lost country, you can buy the stuff to do it here.

I adore it. No matter what the state of the nation, what terrible atrocities are happening in the world, what the banks are doing, what the government is not doing, women are still making sure everyone has a warm jumper and matching cushions for their curtains. We are still sitting in front of the tv at night making things, because we can and that's what we do.

I don't sew, I can but don't tell anyone. At high school in our compulsory sewing class I accidentally sewed up the leg holes of the phys ed pants we had to make, ummm ... And don't get me going on patchwork, why would you cut  up perfectly good fabric just to sew it back together? But I can knit and crochet and embroider with the best of them. Not to mention all the other crafts that have been big parts of my life over the years.  Lace making was one of the ones that I had admired from a distance but thought life was too short to embark on that particular journey.

Then in January, when in Sydney for an exciting visit to the Harry Potter exhibition (yes, geek out) we found ourselves in the Lace exhibition at the Powerhouse museum.

Wow.

Really, wow. Apart from an exhibition of the most beautiful collection of contemporary lace art works, there is a lace making lab where some truly gorgeous ladies will show you how lace is made, tell you everything your heart could desire to know about lace; and, take you through the permanent lace collection.

Here is drawer after drawer of exquisite pieces, crafted over so many hours its hard to imagine. Lace dating back to the 15th century. A panel of lace depicting the story of Judith and Holofernes, marginally bigger than a credit card, needing a magnifying glass to really see the detail, made in a time when the artificial light was a candle!

But the big excitement for the lovely lady who had taken me in hand was their collection of modern lace. Particularly lace made in eastern Europe after the second world war. There was nothing, absolutely nothing to be had anywhere in Europe at this time, forget about fine threads and the leisure for making lace. But these artisans needed to create again, that was their healing journey back to a place of sanity. So this amazing lace is constructed out of fine wires, synthetic fibres, whatever they could use, they did. The modern designs and stark shapes tell their own story of lives moved into a different paradigm. It was some of the most beautiful art I have ever seen, and the most moving.

My life does not have room for lace making, as much as I admire it, I will stay at a safe distance. But it makes me happy to think that all over the world people are still taking up their bobbins and threads and keeping this tradition alive - don't think for a minute that it is just old ladies either! This and so many other hand crafts might just be saving the world for us in ways we can't see or ever imagine.

 

Digital lace by Natalie Mcleod 

in the sweat shop

My own sweat shop, so I can't really complain about being exploited by myself, but I can try ...

Getting all kinds of stuff ready for my stand at the MindBodySpirit festival in about ten days time. I have done heaps of these events over the years from books, to wine (with believe it or not, some bread and cheese in between - yes I have a very comprehensive cv). But this will be the first time at an exhibition like this for my own business.

The sore feet, the worn out smiles, the ten million questions will all be exciting because this time it's for my stuff. It's exciting. I get to talk to people for three whole days about Tibetan Medicine! (I'm excited, hence over use of the word. And maybe a little too much coffee today.)

So I am sweat-shopping brochures, bookmarks to give away, signs and information sheets, slide shows of photos from Tibet trips, a crystal essence is in progress and Mindfulness Beads are in full production. As well as making sure I have all the odds and ends I will need on hand, that I have ordered all the things for the stall from the Expo people, organised some help for the two busiest days, and see a few patients in the odd spare  moment. I really need a clone of myself!

Mindfulness Beads, you really have to hold them in your hand to get it; but trust me on this, when I used to make these for my shop, lots of people went away seriously happy. And it has been FUN to get all this stuff out again and play play play.

yarn bombing - the new new graffiti

It's different, I will give them that.
And kind of endearing.
And it has a quirky humor that most graffiti misses out on.
(Do people buying spray paint have to hand over their sense of humor in return?)

there is even a blog (of course,compulsory yes?)
yarn bombing
and a mission statement:
"improving the urban landscape one stitch at a time"

When good knitters go bad, who could have predicted it?

browse my new Etsy shop

buttercupchappati.etsy.com

Visit my new Etsy shop, all my jewelry is now available there.
Not everything is up yet, so do keep checking back!

In love

With a funny little movie - "Music & Lyrics", Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore.

PRS and I went to see this at the movies (real movies, with popcorn and no talking or hitting the pause button for a pee break), and both really enjoyed it.

I tell you now I am not going to give a "brief plot synopsis", go and see it for yourself.

Anyway, when it came out on DVD I picked it up. Quite apart from the fact that I am a movie junkie, I will watch them on my computer when making jewelry or books.

I haven't stopped watching it since, and it doesn't stale.

It's funny this little crush we get on movies, or music (it used to be albums didn't it. You played it and played it until it almost made you crazy. And then you might even have played the B side!)

My last movie crush was Elizabethtown, still a firm favourite, and high on the replay list, along with the extended version of The Lord of The Rings.

So while I was in my jewelry sweat shop (my back room at home, looking out at the trees and Mount Macedon) I watched and laughed and sang along while making some truly gorgeous (yes!) things for the shop. Watch this space, I will be launching my on-line jewelry store soooooooon....

Ain't love grand.

When the movie stopped I listened again to some CD's I was given by a friend who works with me. I now have a major crush on these too, and haven't stopped blessing her since she gifted me.

I don't usually go for much channelled information, can't really say why. But this must have been the right thing at the right time and I encourage you all (in a non-evengelical kind of way of course) to stop by the website, or buy a book or cd and give this a try.

Esther, Jerry and Abraham

I've never met Esther and Jerry, but I have a crush on them too! They have been bringing in the words of Abraham, a non-physical entity, for many years now, and what he?she?it? has to say makes sense.
It has given me a huge lift in how I approach everything. Oh no, you are thinking, she has been drinking the cordial. No no, not at all. This stuff pings with me because it is sensible, it makes sense not to make yourself crazy. So go and have a look. You may be surprised, I was.

oh happy day

A day of working at home is always a happy day. Had both fires roaring, had no-one but my Leo Bear for company, which is fine! Had Pema Chodron to listen to, all 7 discs, and lots of beautiful stones to play with making jewellery. Am really looking forward to home time when the business is sold!

In amongst all of todays play was some "work' in arranging some tsang to burn as an offering when His Holiness arrives at the monastery at Atisha centre this Thursday, and when he makes his way up to the Stupa site for the blessing. I am more than happy to be incense wallah!!!! Especially if it means HH is walking by me and my vincinity!!!!

In real terms?
My kitchen is full of branches of juniper being quick dried in the microwave oven, so that we have enough to keep three offering fires going! FYI fresh juniper takes about 10 minutes to get to dry and slightly crispy in the microwave.

Poor "Maude Hardcastle"! She has had the brunt of this since I bailed out on the whole organising thing last year. She only got off a plane on Sunday after 2 weeks back in the States, and it has been hello to the husband in passing, and into the fray of event management. Emotional event management; because everyone wants to be near the Dalai Lama and feel special by helping.
See above.

But I am helping, because she only got landed with the incense gig yesterday!
See above.
Special?
Moi?
Perhaps.
Smug?
Definitely!
At least I admit it!

don't worry, it's a happy ending

I was a frenzied mother last night, much to the disgust of my family, and major amusement of my friends.

Any mother will tell you there is an internal clock that pings when it is time for your darling offspring to return home from school. Unless they have made an arrangement to be elsewhere, have an excursion, after school activity, detention or have run into a bud and gone back to his house for a visit.

So when arrival time comes and goes without the happy sound of hands in the biscuit tin, my motherly ears prick up. As time goes on further without phone call and with no help from the number one son as to the wereabouts of his brother (other than to say "don't worry, anyone who kidnapped him would bring him back really quickly), my motherly blood pressure starts to raise a little hell.

Of course by this time the expensive private school he attends has no-one available on the phone, and there is no emergency number to call. Feeling clever I check out their website to see if any excursions are listed, no joy there. Okay time to get creative, ring a few friends, see if anyone knows anything, no. Check on msn to see if any of his buds know what is going on, nup.

Now, this is a kid who always lets me know if he has gone elsewhere, because we live in the country it's not a simple thing just to walk home from a friends place after school; it can be a half hour drive.

Ring PRS, see how close to home he is and get him to go past the school and see if number two son is cooking and they forgot to phone us. No.

By now, it's several hours and I am looking for the torches to go and look around the school grounds - very well wooded - for pieces of him. I know it's illogical okay! We know he hasn't run away because the jacket he wants to be buried in is on his bedroom floor.

He is 17, well grounded, steady, too cranky to put up with anything from a stranger and I have lost it altogether.
How does this happen?
I really think what sent me over is the fact that we cannot contact ANYONE at the school. All I can do is leave a message which won't be heard until the next morning. Controlling? Moi?

Of course he arrives safe and sound not long after, an exam held after hours, I had been told about - well yes, but not the out of hours part. Now he pats me on the back every time he walks past me and everyone has a pitying look in their eyes, when they are not laughing at me. I can't help it, I'm a MOTHER!
Hand me that bottle of Rescue Remedy.

It certainly gave Gangster Girl a good laugh when we had lunch today.

We have bought a lottery ticket and perfomed much hysterical Power Ring Shazaam type "magic" over it. We want to open a school of magic, healing, crystals, you name it. We want to build Hogwarts.

Naturally this will entail lots of travel and shopping, particularly crystal purchasing. I intend to keep making jewellery, but won't it be fun to have an open account to buy the stones and gems for that!

making books

A delicious day planned of making books, blank journals mostly, but I never know what will emerge by the end of any crafting session. I love everything about book making, even folding the signatures is relaxing.

Today is gorgeous with warm sun and lots of autumn colour. From my studio I can see trees, birds, my washing, Hanging Rock, it's all beautiful today.

Making does not put the same creative pressure on me that writing does. I can talk, listen and be involved with the household on a number of levels, without going quite so crazed. Which doesn't mean I don't love it if they just leave me alone too... I do love them really!

Glue, bone folders, linen thread, beeswax, paper, card stock, book board, double sided tape, hand printed cards; these are my toys today.