Lucy Patterson HANDS-ON

Crafting with Hill Tribe fabrics

Posted on Tuesday, 21 May 2013

I love crafting with these vintage Hill Tribe embroideries and bright cotton prints that I brought back from Vietnam.

The colours and patterns are so delicious.

I’ve made plump, rectangular cushions and small zip purses…

And satisfyingly heavy floor cushions stuffed with fabric scraps, which I blogged about here a while back.

Even the tiniest leftover scraps of these vintage embroideries are delightful to me, and it pains me to throw them away, even when they’re just too small to work with anymore.

You can see I felt like I had to do something to celebrate the scraps before saying goodbye to them…! (The socks I’m wearing are hand-knitted ones I bought in Himachal Pradesh, North India nearly 20 years ago. I’ve worn them every winter since and they’re still going strong. I guess that’s the difference between quality handmade-to-last, and cheap mass-produced clothing…)

It’s interesting how similar the colours and use of geometric shapes are between the Indian socks and the Hill Tribe embroidery.

Posted in Craft projects, Feet photos, Hill Tribes, My work space, Vietnam, Vintage | 1 Comment

Beach art on the Kapiti Coast

Posted on Thursday, 16 May 2013

My man and I recently went on a five day road trip down to Wellington (approximately 1500km / 930 miles return). I was selling at Wellington’s Craft2.0 market and we’d arranged it so I could make some new wholesale contacts for my range of craft kits while we were out and about. We also enjoyed a visit with a close friend from school who I haven’t seen for a few years, and had some wonderful moments taking in the beauty of New Zealand’s landscape. It was a very busy, productive and happy trip!

On the evening after the craft market, as we started to head back north towards Auckland, we stopped off at the Kapiti Coast to get some fresh air and a bit of a nature fix.

The beach at Paekakariki has mounds of driftwood in all shapes and sizes. We had so much fun finding unusual shaped pieces that were crying out to be made into pictures. Like the head of this snake!

I loved the colour of these pink seaweeds and the way the big piece looks like a scrap of dyed and bleached fabric.

Writing our names on the sand…

Obviously missing our dogs!

Looking out to Kapiti Island as the sun was setting…. Food for the soul after a good day’s work!

Posted in Artwork / Illustration / Design, Nature, New Zealand | 2 Comments

Travelling feet: street stalls in India

Posted on Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Here’s a collection of feet photos from when I was in India earlier this year travelling through Rajasthan with my sister. So much happens in India at street level – you can get your teeth pulled out, your shoes mended and cleaned…and of course you can buy just about anything.

Marigold malas (garlands) near the Red Fort in Old Delhi

Woodblocks in Pushkar

A roadside dentist in Bundi (specialising in extractions)

Vintage tins in Udaipur

A cobbler’s tools in Bundi

Rolls of vintage Gujarati skirt borders in New Delhi

Scissors and knives in Jodhpur

Peacock feather fans in Jaipur

Vintage Gujarati embroidery purses in New Delhi

Terracotta pots in Bundi

Glass bangles in Jodhpur

Posted in Collections, Feet photos, India, Markets, Shopping, Travel | 2 Comments

Craft market madness!

Posted on Friday, 19 October 2012

I didn’t mean to be away so long! I’m in the midst of Christmas craft market-preparation madness. On the right hand sidebar you can see a list of the markets I’ll be at (there are a couple more that I’m just waiting to confirm). I think in total, over the next 8 weeks, I’m going to be at 18 markets! If you’re in the Auckland area, it would be lovely to see you at one of them. Do drop by and say hi! Tomorrow (Saturday, 20 October) I’m at Crafternoon Tea Craft Market in Kingsland.

I’ve completely changed my market stall setup with some wonderful, painted wooden display boxes that my man built for me. They fold up so I can transport some of my stock in them, and then open to create a hanging rack for my craft kits and lots of extra shelf space.

Above are my new kimono felt Puzzle Ball kits (now available online!)

My new Sock Horse and Friends sock toy kits for making delightful horses, donkeys and zebras out of socks (socks included in the kits!).

My Kimono Paper Craft kits, with 56 different vintage kimono prints to cut up and craft with.

A bowl of my mini matryoshkas.

…and postcards and sets of Paper Fan Inspiration Cards in their little kimono fabric purses.

From the back of my new display I now also have a very handy hidden shelf for all my point of sale stuff like paper bags and stickers, my mobile Eftpos machine (it’s great being able to take cards now!), and my money tin which is an old incense tin with the Hindu goddess Lakshmi on it. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth, prosperity (both material and spiritual), fortune, and the embodiment of beauty. I like having her around my stall!

Happy weekend! x

Posted in Kimono Paper Craft, Markets, My Shop, My work space | 1 Comment

Spring flowers and feet

Posted on Thursday, 27 September 2012

Cherry blossom in pale and dark pink; fallen petals, daisies and forget-me-nots; gumboots in wet grass; and old sneakers on the way back from the market, pausing to enjoy this Spring moment.

Posted in Feet photos, Gardening, Nature, Seasons, Spring, Where we live | 3 Comments

Plum Cat says mraaow!

Posted on Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Our cat Plum is very talkative. He has something to say about almost everything! He’ll tell you off if he doesn’t like what you’re doing, he’ll thank you for opening the door (because it’s much more civilised than going through his cat door), he makes big announcements any time he enters a room, and he’s great at all kinds of greetings.

I made this simple animation of Plum from a couple of photos I took of him when we were out doing some gardening on the weekend. It’s so Plum! It’s like: Mraaow! What? Mraaow! What?

Plum (his baby name was Plumkin), is half Siamese (he’s got that deep, gravelly Siamese voice), and half big-black-wild-tom-cat. He’s a delightful mixture of sophistication plus street cred! We love him. He sleeps with us every night. He’s a truly original character, and a great friend.

Posted in Our family and animals, Where we live | 2 Comments

Home textures: bedroom

Posted on Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Here are some pictures of the textures and details of our bedroom.

White, 100% cotton bedding from Ikea (I wish they had Ikea in New Zealand!). Two Hill Tribe bedspreads from North Vietnam to give us extra warmth. Two vintage carpet cushions bought in Morocco. Floral fabric bought in Rajasthan and later made into a cushion, and a page-sized piece of vintage mirror-work embroidery (also from Rajasthan), that I added green pompoms to at a later date.

My friend, Amy, got me this Chinese lantern in San Francisco. I hung it up with neon ribbons. The photo of a statue of Ganesh, covered in red powder, was taken by my brother. I bought the brass Hand of Fatima in Morocco, and the vintage postcard came from my grandparents.

I bought the vintage Hill Tribe bag at the front (one of my most favourite travel purchases ever!) in Chatuchak market in Bangkok. The scarves are ones I’ve picked up here and there, in sales, or what have you.

Our collection of Japanese yukata dressing gowns. Some are getting quite sun-faded and patched now, but I still use them almost everyday. I always take one if I stay away from home for a night or several, for modesty, home comfort or even as an extra pillow covering.

One of the vintage rugs I bought in Morocco. I love the bold geometry, neon colours, and the way the background red is so uneven.

Posted in Hill Tribes, Morocco, Shopping, Travel, Vietnam, Vintage, Where we live | 1 Comment

New additions to our flock

Posted on Monday, 24 September 2012

We’ve had one of our hens, Frex, sitting on 10 multi-coloured eggs for the past three weeks and yesterday nine of them hatched into the cutest mixed-bag of chicks! I have to keep going out every half-hour to have another look at them… Aren’t they just adorable!

The eggs came from one of our two flocks (known as the ‘Gate Chooks’ because they live hear our front gate). The Gate Chooks’ rooster is a very handsome Lavender Araucana-Black Orpington cross called Cuckoo, and his six hens are also araucana-crosses of various descriptions. Most of these hens lay blue and green eggs, but there are a couple of peachy-fawn egg-layers too. We’re very curious to see how the genes sort themselves out in the chicks.

Frex is such a great mummy hen. Fiercely protective of her chicks, she’s in a constant state of puffed-up-ness so all her chicks can snuggle underneath her (she’s actually a very petite little bantam hen), and she purrs to them in the most endearing way.

There are three black chicks (with very cute yellow under-bottoms); one charcoal; one all-over pale yellow; one gold with a dot on its head; one gold with polka dots all over its head; one all-over stripy; and one boofer fat headed one that has a bold mohawk stripe down its head and back, and at one point yesterday was dangling off ‘his’ mother’s ear by his beak! We’re hoping they’re all girls because we don’t need anymore roosters, but I have a funny feeling out this Boofer Mohawk guy…

Posted in Chickens, Nature, Our family and animals, Where we live | 2 Comments

Giveaway!

Posted on Friday, 21 September 2012

I’m helping my talented friend Josie Skipper, of Love Ideas Ink, celebrate the first birthday of her beautiful, sweet, papery business, with a special giveaway of my products.

Click here to go to the page where you can ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Seeing as Love Ideas Ink is all about the joy of paper (plus paper is the gift for first anniversaries), I decided to put together a prize pack made up of some of my own paper goodies. Here’s what you could win:

A pack of my Kimono Paper Craft.

Two packs of Kimono Paper Tape (one in the ‘hot‘ colours, and one ‘cool‘).

All three of my matryoshka postcards.

And my three vintage kimono postcards.

GOOD LUCK!!!
And have a great weekend!
Lucy xxxxx

Posted in Friends, Giveaways / Competitions, Kimono Paper Craft | 1 Comment

Vietnam blue

Posted on Friday, 31 August 2012

A collection of blue photos from my trip to Vietnam earlier this year.

Lanterns in Hoi An and Spring blossom in the northern mountains.

A kite flying high over the Mekong; an old man sitting on a bridge in the imperial city of Hue; a broken pottery wall in Hue; and more lanterns in Hoi An (surely the unofficial lantern capital of the world!).

Boats on the Mekong (a home, a floating banana stall and water taxis); An Bang Beach near Hoi An; seating and bowls at a street cafe in Hanoi; the Turtle Temple in the centre of Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem lake.