Diaspora

Queen Anne's Lace is an introduced flower from Britain that can be found growing abundently in Australia and Canada. As an introduced species I see this plant as a symbol of travel with the ability to adapt to its environment. Dried flower heads have been dipped in a porcelain slip and fired, leaving behind lace like structures. Although delicate in appearance, the plant has adapted to both the cold conditions of Canada and the arid conditions of Australia.

'Diaspora' has been selected to be exhibited in BeLonging, an exhibition curated by TACA (The Australian Ceramic Association) as part of the Australian Ceramics Triennale held in Canberra in 2015. Selected artists created commentaries inspired by place.

The exhibition will run from 27 June to 11 July 2015, at the ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery, 2 Childers St, Acton, ACT 2601. 

Fair isle flower wrist warmers

For Christmas this year I knitted up some wrist warmers for my friends in colder climates.

Using a pattern by Matilde Skår on Ravelry 

'Abra Abra' knitted wrist warmers by Matilde Skar 

combined with a fair isle flower pattern initially designed for socks

Image from http://illusiveweb.com

 I created the following gloves

Such fun! And a great way to use up odd balls of wool.
Happy knitting x

Craft-a-noon High Tea

 A letter arrived in the post late last year.....

It was an invitation to Craft-a-noon tea along with craft instructions and we were advised to bring along an old t-shirt (this was to cut up and shape into chrysanthemum flowers)

When I arrived the table was set with Gran's best crockery. (styling by Leah)

Followed by some flowers artfully arranged in an old jam jar (flowers styled by Sheridan)

Quickly followed by baked treats (there were also freshly cooked scones but they were eaten too quickly to get a photo)

And along came some more delicious goodies, on the left are greek delicacies, right Summer delight peach bites.

After we sampled all the goodies, followed by a good yarn about all things art, craft and design we got stuck into our craft project. 

The above is the result of a fun afternoon shared by all :) Im thinking I will turn my flower into a brooch.

Have a go!
- if you click on the instruction image it will be large enough to read, and you can see they are quite simple. All you need is an old t-shirt, scissors, needle and thread, delicious baked goodies and a group of lovely friends.

oh, and dont forget the champagne.

Kx

Playing in the kitchen - organic homemade moisturiser

This week Ive been playing in the kitchen making my own moisturiser. I was inspired by a recipe found in Jackie French's book The best of Jackie French and made a note to try it when I ran out of my existing face cream. It was really easy to make (no fussing around with weird or hard to find products) and it very nice on the skin. 

Im also making my own lavender oil and rosewater.

Moisturiser Cream

1 tbs lime juice

1 tbs avocado oil (available from Woolies)

3 tbs glycerine 

3 tbs rosewater 

1 ts lavender oil

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake well. How easy is that!

Lavender infused oil

1-2 cups dried lavender (flowers are best but you can also use the leaves)

oil (Im using a good quality light olive oil)

fill a glass jar with a tight fitting lid  

Fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth (I find an old clean tea towel works well)

A dark glass bottle (blue or amber) for the finished product

Place lavender into the clear glass jar and fill with chosen oil. 

Firmly close the lid and put the jar in a warm spot in the sunshine to 'brew', shaking it every now and then to mix. 

Allow the mixture to steep for a couple of weeks.

Strain the plant material from the oil using the strainer or cheesecloth.

Store your finished oil in the dark glass bottle in a cool dark place to preserve its healthy properties.

*if your lavender oil isnt strong enough, repeat the process again using the lavender infused oil to soak new dried lavender flowers.

Rose Water

1 cup rose petals (best picked in the morning before the heat of the day)

2 cups boiling water.

Cover rose petals with boiling water and steep until liquid is cool.

Strain, squeeze the liquid from the petals.

Keep refrigerated in a sterilised jar. 

** And remember, if anything looks or smells weird throw it out and start again **

Have fun x

Cooking with Flowers - part 1

Just before Christmas my roses were flowering like crazy. They're just outside my back door, and stepping into the garden I was immediately surrounded by their heavenly perfume.  It was simply delightful!

The roses were so bountiful I decided to make some Rose Petal Jam. Its really easy and I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Rose Petal Jam

60 roses (petals removed from the stalk)

1kg sugar

1 litre water

1 ts citric acid

Place the rose petals, sugar and water in a large pan and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 20 minutes

Add citric acid and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.

Whilst warm, pour the jam into sterilised jars and seal. (The easiest way is to put them through a dishwasher, or you can wash them in warm soapy water, rinse, and place upside down on a baking tray in a 150 degrees C oven for 30 minutes. The jars should be hot when the jam is ready to pour)

Makes about 6 small jars.

Whilst writing this I remembered that its not always easy to tell when the jam has set. There are a couple of ways to check this. 

1. Keep a small saucer in the freezer and when you think the jam is ready, drop a little bit on the saucer. If the drop gets a skin on it, you know the jam is ready.
2. Another trick is to use a thermometer. When the temperature reaches 105 degrees C the jam is ready.
3. Another trick is to omit the citric acid and replace with Jamsetta (available from supermarkets) this takes the guess work out of it and you get great jam, every time.

The great thing with rose petal jam, is that if it doesnt quite set you've got rose water, which you can also use in cooking.

A great recipe to use Rose Petal Jam is Rose and Almond Shortbread. I found this recipe on www.taste.com.au 

Rose and Almond Shortbread

• 
  
• 180g soft butter
• 125g (3/4 cup) icing sugar mixture, sifted
• 1 x 100g pkt almond meal
• 115g (3/4 cup) plain flour
• 45g (1/4 cup) white rice flour
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tbs rosewater essence (I use rose petal jam watered down)
• 125g (3/4 cup) icing sugar mixture, extra, to dust

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Brush 2 baking trays with melted butter to lightly grease. Use an electric beater to beat together the butter and icing sugar mixture in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the almond meal and sift over the flours and ground cloves. Stir until well combined.
2. Use your hands to roll heaped tablespoonsful of mixture into 8cm long logs. Shape into crescents and place on prepared trays, about 3cm apart. Bake in preheated oven, swapping trays halfway through cooking, for 25 minutes or until cooked through and light golden. Remove from oven.
3. Lightly brush shortbreads with rosewater essence and set aside on trays for 30 minutes to cool and firm.
4. Dust shortbreads with extra icing sugar, turning to evenly coat in the sugar. Set aside for a further 30 minutes or until completely cool.

Enjoy! x