New Fantail Brooches

I'm still making them! Here are a few new ones I have available until I send my order to my new stockist Mattt on Gertrude Street, Melbourne. I'm also looking for stockists in the UK and Ireland. If you're interested please send me an email at bridbird78[at!]hotmail.com.

Two New

Since discovering that I can buy felt balls and realizing I can get them online from here or here I've been making a number of fantail necklaces. They have been received well at market, especially the red ones! Here are two of my most recent pieces.

Also, today on the way back from pilates class I saw an Eastern Spinebill, I think a male. I just looked him up in the bird book now. He was very handsome with a lovely long curved beak. (The photo is not mine, just an image from the internet)

Fantail Flock

After much thinking and working out of finance I decided to buy a new computer instead of trying to get the old PC working again. I thought that if it was going to cost $500 to get the old sluggish thing to work for a few more months, then I might as well spend a bit more on a new computer. So here I am on my new mac. It smells lovely and new and I've already got the Martha Wainwright cd that I borrowed from the library onto my itunes and downloaded BBC radio 4 podcasts! (one of the things I miss most about not living in UK is Radio 4)

So I thought I'd better get on and post on my blog. Here are a few more fantail brooches I have made while the computer has been down.

Also, just to fill you in on the wildlife around here - the Tawny Frogmouth has left his old tree. I don't see him anymore which is sad. Instead I've started seeing yellow tailed black cockatoos over the house and ganggangs over the river, which for inner suburban melbourne I thought was quite surprising. I've also started to see rats in and out of our house which isn't so nice even if I do think they look a little bit cute.

Evolution

I've just been looking at my inactive listings on etsy on my bridbird shop and I found these. They are my very first fantail brooches, before they were fantails! They've all change quite a lot since then, changes that I didn't actually realise while I was making them! I find it interesting to see the evolution of a design.

The first brooches were made with synthetic felt, the colours were more limited and I wasn't so keen on the feeling of the synthetic felt. I stopped making them for a few months, but then I found wool felt sellers on the internet that had a wonderful range of colours and I started making them again. I always thought I'd make these brooches for a short time only, my attention span is sometimes quite short and I don't like repeating the same design too often. I decided I'd keep making them until I got bored of them. The birds soon became fantails because I liked being able to decorate their tails, as well as their wings. 

Now the birds have become more stylised, their heads aren't so rounded and I feel the stitching is more confident. I still love making them, I think because each one is different. I'm not going to stop making them any time soon, only when my eye sight starts to go!

More New Felt Brooches

Here are a few new felt brooches listed on my Featherstitch Fantail Blog. I've also listed a number on my etsy shop.

Mission Accomplished

I've been wanting to do this for ages...

...and now finally I've managed...

...thanks to Curious Llama who I met at the Melbourne Etsy meet up a few weeks ago I found an outlet that supplies wool felt balls. I had started trying to make the balls myself, but they were just taking far too long to make it possible...

...but now I can spend my time on embroidering the felt balls and piecing them together...

...to make a fantail felt necklace!

I'll bring it with me to Rose Street Artists' Market this Saturday. There is a fashion show happening this week which should be fun and hopefully bring lots of people. I've heard the market is going to be chock-a-block full of stalls, so it would be a good week to check it out if you haven't been before.

Fantails For Sale!

Here are a few more new fantail brooches I've added to my Featherstitch Fantail blog. I'm very pleased with myself for working out how to use the paypal thingy! Also I have donated one of my brooches to the Australian Bushfire Appeal shop on etsy which is still full of lots of delightful goodies and all proceeds go to the red cross to help victims of the Victorian bushfires.

Fantails and Frogmouths

I've been goccoing again after a long time of it sitting on the shelf. I've been meaning to try this idea for a while now, and now that I have done it I really like it and need to buy more gocco supplies because I've very quickly run out AGAIN!

If you're new to my blog and don't know what gocco is have a look at my post on the technique.

My idea was to make prints inspired by the colours and patterns in my featherstitch fantail brooches. I've made the print in a number of colour combinations and listed one on etsy. More will be listed soon.
I've also been making lots of new fantail brooches, I try and make at least 6 a week. They are so slow to make and I have so many other things that I should be doing, that when I just sit down to sew I feel I should be doing something else. So they always get pushed to the back of the 'to do' list, which is a shame because I do quite like making them. Here are a few of my favourites at the moment, including an experimental square one. I'm really into the soft yellow these days.

I've changed my Fantail website a bit to make it easier to purchase, there is now a 'buy now' button on each brooch. I've also mentioned that buying my brooches on a friday, saturday or sunday from the website may create difficulties because I take all my available brooches to market with me and I can't update the website until I return home after market (often with a few gin and tonics in me!)




I thought I'd also keep my readers up to date with my Tawny Frogmouth. I was worried last week because he wasn't in his usual tree along the Yarra River, but I walked (even ran some way!) along the river this morning and there he was sitting in his tree accompanied by another Tawny Frogmouth! They were snuggled up together on the branch. I wish I had brought my camera with me, but I only had my ipod and a hanky! I only stopped one person this time to point them out and she was very appreciative and we had a little discussion about other birds we'd seen along the river. I have to keep an eye out for kingfishers apparently.

Feather In Your Hat

I've been stitching and stitching trying to get ready for Christmas. I've started making more of my fantail hat/ lapel pins since they seemed popular at market last weekend. They are made up of the same layering and hand sewn embroidery as the Featherstitch Fantail brooches with hand felted balls to embellish!



I'm also happy because I have finally sorted out my packaging for my brooches. I bought myself a rubber stamp of my "Bridbird" label and I found the most perfect little boxes, in a $2 shop would you believe! Unfortunately the shop has now run out of boxes but I think I may have found a (very cheap) supplier online. I've given them my card details and now waiting to see if anything arrives! Hope they come soon, fingers crossed they come at all!


I've added more brooches onto my Featherstitch Fantail sight too!

Boxes for the Birds

OH! I've just bought the most delicious new felt in gorgeous colours! Soft greens, rose pinks, a lovely light turquoise, wait till you see my new colour combinations, I'm so excited about them all!
I'm also excited by my new boxes in which to display the birds, I'm playing around with ideas at the moment, but I'm loving making these little birdies and I think I might really concentrate on them. I'm thinking also of starting a special blog just for them, I'll keep you updated as to what happens.


I'm sorry I've been so tardy at my blog lately, new things have been happening including I've been on the look out for a studio, AND now, I've found one! Hooray! No more trying to work in my living room on the floor, creating havoc and making Jeremy's home life a misery of mess! I'll be moving in over the next few weeks, I can't wait.

Felt Birds on Etsy and Great Sushi

I thought I'd give my felt bird brooches a go on etsy. I was holding back until now because I needed them for market, but I've been so busy making them that I've got a few to spare for my etsy shop.
Also I'm trying to get to my 100 sales goal, when I reach it Jeremy is going to take me out for dinner. Hooray! I've decided I want to go to Wabi Sabi, a great little Japanese restaurant on Smith Street. I go there for sushi takeaway every time I'm at the Print Workshop. They seriously do the BEST sushi in the city, so good infact that I can no longer eat sushi anywhere else. So I'm going to give a free gift to the buyer of sale no. 100 in the form of one of these little felt bird brooches to say thankyou for helping me get to my favourite restaurant!

Gum Tree Blossom

I was at the Abbotsford Convent Maker's Market today, slightly hungover without deserving to be, when I looked down and found this pretty little gum tree blossom. I thought it so pretty that I wanted to recreate it with my felt and thread and make it into a brooch, and so I did.


I love the exotic looking plants and flowers and blossoms here in Australia, some are quite extraordinary looking.


Now I'm going to see Mama Mia with Christina so I'd better get on my bike and dash.

I'm a little husky!

No, not the dog. My voice. It's on its way out. Well, I don't need it for on here so I'm alright!

I've been busy sewing at Thread Den making new brooches. (I don't have a sewing machine at home yet.) Here are a few, I've listed this lot on Dawanda.




I've also had some of my screen printed birds made into button brooches, I'm pleased with the result. As soon as my new gocco supplies arrive I will make more in other colours.



I'm also very very happy to say that the Australian Print Workshop, where I do all my etching, has given me a scholarship for this year! This means I am free to use the facilities and I will have an exhibition at the end of the year along with the other two scholarship printmakers. I'm very excited and I have new ideas running through my head for new projects and things to try. Keep watching!