Exploring Felting - and making a felt flower

 Hi everyone. I hope you and yours are well. In the northern hemisphere I know there have been very hot summer temperatures and devistating fires, while down here in winter-time Australia we have had a lot of rain in the south and floods on our east coast. It is cold and wet where I live in the south west of Western Australia. But I am grateful for the rain though it does sometimes interrupt my daily walk.  

I have never been much intersted in felting. But a few weeks ago I "discovered" the Felting Pot Sudio in the lovely Fullers Coop - basically a big shed with lots of artisans in their own lock up spaces. They are mostly open Thursday to Saturday - with the cafe open Monday to Saturday. It is our new favourite place for lunch with friends. Only about 15 minutes from my home by car and no problem with parking. There are even comfy chairs with knee rugs if you are feeling the cold. 

Anyway after I discovered the Felting Pot Studio which I must say is full of deliciousness for crafters, and chatted to the owner Natalie, I liked them on Facebook and then saw an advertisement for a beginners felting workshop - a day workshop where you make a felt flower. So I enrolled. What a great day I had with a lovely group of ladies. Natalie went through the steps so clearly and we all came home with a felt flower. 

Now I am not going to pretend I know much about felting - you would need to go to a workshop yourself - and there are You Tube videos - but I think a hands-on workshop is a much better idea. 

Felting is I discovered very labour intensive! There is a lot of pulling, rubbing, pounding and rolling, soap and water involved. And surprising to me - bubblewrap! 

Starting with a selection of "wool top" (top left below) we all ended up with a beautiful felt flower! Below you can see my finished flower on the right. I added some gold thread stitching and some little beads I had at home left over from some other long forgotten project. I was really happy with the result. 

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Wild Orchid time is starting!

 Hi everyone. I hope you and yours are well. 

Just a short post from me today as we are busy helping our son and daughter-in-law paint their new house. Very exciting times for them. 

It is winter here in Australia and some of the wild orchids are starting to appear in our bushland. Orchid hunting is one of my favourite things to do especially as it gets us out into natural bushland. We are lucky to have a few places to find orchids in our area. 

Last Friday we went walking through the Manea Park Reserve as a fellow orchid hunter had told me where to find the helmet orchid - Corcybas recurvous. This is an orchid we have been unsuccessfully searching for for years. So I really felt lucky to have someone tell me where I might find them. Even with directions it took a little hunting, and then there they were!

They flower from June to September and only in a relatively small part of the south west of Western Australia. We found these in dry leaf litter under tuart and peppermint trees. 

These orchids are tiny, and like to hide in leaf litter so you really need to look carefully and then be careful where you tread. The leaves are only about 8-20mm across. They grow in large colonies, but only a few flower each year, so I think we were very lucky to see so many flowers. 

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