The latest blog posts by everyone in the Inspiration Room.
- First blog post
- Posted on
- 13 Mar 2009
- Setting up the new Spotlight website has been a fun project - no fabric or threads involved - but it's still had a wonderful, collaborative 'making & creating' feel to it. We hope everyone enjoys this new site and gives us lots of feedback so it can get even better!
- Knitting in Code
- Posted on
- 22 Apr 2009
- Mario and pacman eat your heart out -- it doesn't get much geekier than this: A subset of nerdy knitters are parading their geek credentials by converting messages into binary using a tool like this online translator, incorporating the code into a pattern and knitting it into garments with surprisingly ...
- CB Help: Stumped On Polar Bear Fabric
- Posted on
- 07 May 2009
- You know, I bashed about some other titles for this post, along the lines of “gone cold on ideas for fabric”, lots of chilly references and at one point even a bear pun, but they just didn’t work, I fear I’m losing my knack!
- The making of a Knitting Book
- Posted on
- 19 May 2009
- The company, commonly known as ACS, is situated in Brunswick, Victoria, and it produces around 600 patterns every year for more than 50 knitting books featuring Patons, Cleckheaton, Panda, Rowan and Shepherd yarns. The opening promise, by the way, is genuine. The experienced, enthusiastic and extraordinarily patient designers, administrators, pattern ...
- Yarn - get the basics
- Posted on
- 02 Jun 2009
- 'Basics' Harvest (50g) 100% wool; available in up to 23 colours. Knit or crochet fashionable garments and accessories. This pure wool is great for felting. 'Moda Vera’ Grace (100g) 80% acrylic, 20% wool; available in up to nine colours. Great for cushions and throws. 'Basics' 8 Ply Pure Wool (50g) ...
- Artist Profile - Lisa Daehlin
- Posted on
- 03 Jun 2009
- There’s something about the Big Apple - that old town New York - that breeds uber-talented knitters and artists of all types. Could there be something in the water? Certainly there seems to be inspiration in the air. Our latest Manhattan discovery is opera singer and knitting designer, Lisa Daehlin, ...
- Jenny King
- Posted on
- 04 Jun 2009
- Regular readers of the 'get creative' magazine and visitors to Quilt & Craft Fairs around Australia will be familiar with the woman we have, in the past, referred to as a doyen of the crochet world. Queensland-based Jenny King is a one woman revolution in the crochet and yarn field ...
- Non judgemental knitters - knitting for Brisbane’s needy
- Posted on
- 04 Jun 2009
- A chance introduction with a pastor at a local church led Queensland woman, Karen Croke, to begin knitting for the homeless and underprivileged in Brisbane. Two years later 164 members have joined her cause and all of them are learning valuable lessons along the way. “I can knit, I learned ...
- Max Walters
- Posted on
- 04 Jun 2009
- Max Walters is a creative explosion. Stationed at Spotlight’s new South Melbourne store, he is an inspiration to all he meets and, after only months living in the city, has already forged friendships and working relationships with creative groups in the local community. Max sees purple as his “royal colour” ...
- Artist profile - Ann Baldwin
- Posted on
- 05 Jun 2009
- In 2000, after 25 years teaching English in high schools in England and middle school in California, Ann Baldwin decided to take the plunge and try forging a career as an artist. “I had been painting passionately since 1991 and was already exhibiting widely and selling my work, so it ...
- Crochet terminology
- Posted on
- 05 Jun 2009
- Terminology between USA & Australia/International
- Art emotion & letters
- Posted on
- 10 Jun 2009
- Calligraphy - what is it? Calligraphy comes from the Greek words ‘kallos’ and ‘graphos’ and means ‘beautiful writing’. It is a traditional art - gestural drawing or painting that illustrates and illuminates the written word in a sumptuous, spontaneous and sometimes elaborately unintelligible way. In the western world ...
- A brief history of... Origami
- Posted on
- 10 Jun 2009
- Like many of the world’s ancient artistic forms, the earliest origins of Origami can be debated but some say this Japanese art of paper folding was practiced in Japan as early as the sixth century. The word itself is made up of two Japanese words - ori, meaning fold and ...
- Artist Profile - Claire Aristides
- Posted on
- 10 Jun 2009
- Claire Aristides describes her new jewellery making book, ‘Bejewelled’, as the first of its kind because it takes a high fashion, magazine editorial style approach to the handcraft. “I think it’s fair to say it’s the first of its kind,” says Claire. “Everyone’s very excited.” Whether she’s on Channel 7’s ...
- Sister Sheila Flynn - Keeping five stitches ahead
- Posted on
- 11 Jun 2009
- At the 2008 Australasian Quilt Convention (AQC) one of the most striking exhibitions did not come from Australian quilters. Instead, it came from embroiderers working in South Africa as part of the Kopanang Project. In an environment wracked with poverty and HIV/AIDS, this ancient craft is proving a financial and ...
- Skirtgirl - Alison Willoughby
- Posted on
- 11 Jun 2009
- British author and textile designer Alison Willoughby creates gloriously sculptural skirts that look as sensational on as they do hanging in the grooviest galleries of Europe and the USA. Describe Alison Willoughby as a craftsperson and she’s liable to wince. The acclaimed graduate of London’s Royal College of Art admits ...
- Where quilt police fear to tread
- Posted on
- 11 Jun 2009
- Seeing the women behind Bathing Belles, the seabreeze Quilters’ delightful, semi-autobiographical work-in-progress, try to stop giggling long enough for a group photograph to be taken is a bit like watching school girls, bursting with stories & secrets, trying to keep quiet during class. Community quilting groups like Seabreeze, which meets ...
- Memory Art - Where life is your muse
- Posted on
- 14 Jun 2009
- Memory art is a term that has been used in recent terms to describe a new wave of creative work being produced by people whose original scrapbooking forays have evolved, now, into works of creative wonder. Three leading women in the field - Carol Wingert, Helen Bradley and Nic Howard ...
- 3D textile art - Art you can grab hold of
- Posted on
- 15 Jun 2009
- International magazine contents, new books on the market, work on display at local galleries or on sale at various shows and stores all indicate that three dimensional textile work is growing in popularity. Textile art, as a segment itself, is a constantly moving feast but many of its players struggle ...
- How to - back stitch
- Posted on
- 15 Jun 2009
- Bring needle up through the fabric, one stitch ahead of the starting point. Go down through the fabric one stitch behind, then out again one stitch ahead. Continue in this way.
