Anatomy of a Tea Cosy commission, June 2010, FINITO!

Well, I feel it's finished!

The sides are hand-stitched together with a double layer of back and overcast stitch (using upholstery weight Gutermann thread), before the silk binding is stitched around the edges as the final touch.

I've used Hemp denim as the lining as its nice and durable and can withstand tea stains, etc! So here are the images....

Anatomy of a Tea Cosy commission, June 2010, Stage 5 & 6

Ahhhhhh, finally I have been able to spend some really intensive 'quality time' on the cosy and we are now nearing the finish line, which will be later tonight!

So this is the Union Jack side of the cosy, with 1972 Mercedes chain stitched and satin stitched initials of the client's husband....


Then the HP sauce bottle and Bacon Buttie I applied as applique and embroidery above the car...I'm really chuffed with how the HP sauce bottle has turned out, I was really having difficulty finding a good way to do it without spending months hand embroidering all the details, so hopefully this is a successful and lively approach?!


And a close-up...


Now all I have to do is line, stitch and bind the edges of the cosy tonight and photograph it in the daylight tomorrow and show the client to make sure she's happy with the finished product.

I will update the images in the morning for your viewing pleasure!

New cushions for 'Hilbarn New Vintage' store in Tasmania

A friend of mine, talented journalist Hilary Burden, and her partner Barney have opened a lovely little country store called Hilbarn New vintage, at Karoola in Northern Tasmania...and she asked me to make her some cushions for the store (and a magazine feature! Yay, I hope these cushions work well for her and the photographer?!)

Hilbarn also has a fabulous Fresh Produce Delivery service in and around Launceston and this is something I feel passionately about....and just wish we lived a little closer to town to enjoy the benefits of this service (luckily we have productive vegetable gardens and fruit orchards at both our parent's places which we can raid regularly!).



Hand and freehand machine embroidery on silk, with jacquard woven hemp backing and Australian feather inserts, each cushion measures 60 x 30cm.


I'm really pleased with how the Peony Teapot cushion worked out...its quite hard to see this one go away, actually!

I just found this on the blog of some fellow creative and talented Tasmanians, Pip Stafford & Emma-Jean Gilmour...and its a total classic:



I feel so much better now I know how to make tea Properly ;-)

News.......

I have some news....its quite BIG news for me too....
I found out a few weeks ago that I'm unexpectedly pregnant, which explains why I've had three months of feeling exhausted and sleeping all the time and nausea and particular cravings!!!
Its been a total shock, and yet I'm coming to terms with it all now and starting to feel excited about it now that the first three months are just over...

And anyway, I REALLY needed a huge break -after working for months and months every day & all day & usually most of the night too- an enforced break otherwise I was heading for a huge crash, emotional and physical, so I guess a pregnancy is the only thing that was going to stop me!

Out of my slower and calmer days I've managed to make a few things, not many, which is lovely really!
This tea cosy is inspired by one of my favourite French artists, Nathalie L'Ete book my parents brought back from Tokyo for me recently, called The A to Z of Nathalie L'Ete.

It will be on my Etsy store soon too.

Finally...I've made some new tea cosies to show off!

I finished these two coises yesterday and mailed them to my friend Monique Germon's new collaborative retail enterprise, POP-UP CO-OP which is open for one month in the town of Bowral, south of Sydney.

I've been wanting to try freehand machine embroidering in a more 'drawing-ly' manner, so I referenced a lovely Bennison linen printed Toile which has this Pagoda/pavilion building on it..and in my thread drawing on the tea cosy, I have stitched a sprouting tea plant in a pot, to symbolise the cycle of sustainable production, consumption and renewal which I always associate with tea drinking and gardening!





This is the other side of the cosy, where I embroidered the Chinese character for 'Tea' (courtesy of the internet....so please tell me if I've got it wrong?)


This cosy is a follow-on from all the Mexican Teaparty scarves I've been making. This cosy is a little more 'Spring-y' with the flowers on one side. I wanted the skull side to feel a little more Piratical and "You'll NEVER stop me drinking tea, nya ha haaaaaaaaaaa!!" ('til I die), etc etc....and I like my tea cosies to carry meaningful messages!

Nice gift idea

These boxed four cup teapots from Emma Bridgewater are very homely looking and a great gift idea.

They can be ordered online. I've purchased some of the Emma Brigewater tea-towels before and they're favourite items.

I'm just doing some shameless advertising here, as I'm always a fan of teapot vendors....though I do wish they had some really groovy designs that aren't so patriotic and British. We need some unpatriotic Australian Boxed Teapots...and cosies...

New addition to the teacup collection chez moi

I haven't been to any Op-Shops (Opportunity shops, like Oxfam or Emmaus in Europe), in Launceston for so many years...until last Thursday when I was looking for some old black wool felted hats that I can transform for my newest fashion collection, due to go on show in Melbourne at the end of August.

Instead of wool felt hats I found a Chinese enamel tin tray with stenciled flowers, some cast glass bowls with silver banded rims, and this really lovely little old teacup which has a great shape and very lovely blue grasses design in applied deckle on it, made in England. I guess its a 1940's style? (The tea cosy is one I got from the Cancer Council fundraiser tea cosy exhibition I had my cosies in at Bundoora Homestead near Melbourne last year).

Tea Bags!

I've recently been making tea themed purses for retailers and to take to market to sell...and jiggedy-jig the ones that came back are now posted on my Etsy store until the end of August.

I've made them all lovingly by hand and the images on each purse I have freehand machine embroidered and then added to with hand embroidered details in most cases. Each purse has a leather or heavy-duty and tactile (velvety), fabric backing, with cotton or linen lining. All the details are with the images on my Etsy Store in case anyone is interested?

There are more images of other purses and bags in this series on my flickr site too, for your viewing pleasure...

Now I have to make 20 tea cosies for an exhibition in Morpeth, New South Wales, for mid-August, as well as a clothing collection for the DEBUT exhibition at Melbourne's Fashion Exposed! Busy busy busy....
Never too busy for a cup of tea though!

Morning Tea with French macaroons

My sister Renee was on France recently for a figure (ice) skating competition near Grenoble (she came 5th and 6th for something...representing Australia!!)



So Renee came to visit when she got back from Europe and brought some Macaroons with her...the colours are surreal!!


Enjoyed with a nice cup of Mariage Freres Ceylan Tea...it was so lovely of Renee to bring these treats all the way back....

Tea with Friends...

I've decided to start featuring friends on this blog, and ask them to contribute images of their tea cosies, teapots, their most comfortable place to take tea...and any comments and information they would like to contribute.

This post is dedicated to the very talented Monique Germon and her new home in Bundanoon, NSW.


'Afternoon tea at my place consists of lighting the fire, making tea and either talking
to a friend or writing or reading a letter to/from one of my three pen pals;
Olga - an 89 year old Russian ex-mid wife, Sally - artist, writer & twin sister by fate
and Oliver - age 9 going on 29, residing in Stanley, Tasmania.'

A little background info on Monique:
Monique Germon is a hybrid artist-designer who works primarily under an idea-based practice of story-telling. This practice translates through photography, writing, design & installation often incorporating contradiction, irony and a tragicomic perspective. Her work nestles in amongst Humanist & Existentialist philosophies, mostly honing in on the constraints that accompany the prejudices of personal narratives. Monique currently lives & works between The Southern Highlands, Sydney (NSW) & Hobart (TAS).

Monique and I are in an exhibition titled 'Crafty', curated by Cat Badcock, which opens near the end of June 2009.

Monique also has a blog, Public Office where she investigates and expresses her passion for music, art, literature, correspondence, fashion and life, and the connections between these disciplines and a sense of place and geographical location.



I'm a huge fan of Monique's clothing also, and wear her divine antique mangle-cloth skirts based on Victorian-era work clothes...Monique's skirts are real treasures, total staples and I always feel great when I wear them!



The red knitted tea cosy was a gift I gave Monique after I had an exhibition in conjunction with Bundoora Homestead's Tea Cosy Exhibition and auction for the Cancer Council in 2008, and just seemed perfect for Monique's aesthetic...I'm glad it fits her teapot! It's so wonderful sharing the tea cosy love around...I can't wait to do another tea cosy giveaway!!

Teacosy* Number 12; Molker Milch Leibling at the Dairy, 2009

I finished this tea cosy last night to deliver to the Great Western Tiers Visitor's Centre in Deloraine today. They asked me to lend them a tea cosy because a few people travelling through the area have come in and asked for 'the young woman who makes tea cosies', and they want to be able to give people some information about local artists like myself!

The Deloraine area is becoming well known for its English-style hard cheeses and Dairy industry in general, and so this little tea cosy is a quaint honouring of this industry...and uses Swiss cotton checked fabric I bought at a flea market in Zurich last winter, and the cow's neck collar has the Swiss flag on it (my favourite Gruyere cheese is made locally by a Swiss émigré called Frank Marchant who started Heidi Farm Cheese and who now works for Lactos, a big cheese producing company in the north west of Tasmania (his cheese is the best though!)

Hand embroidered Swiss cotton, with applique silk and old fabric name tags 'Mrs Westbrook', silk, Tasmanian wool interlining, Japanese cotton, brass bell.

Dimensions: 30 x 38cm
Collection: Great Western Tiers Visitor Centre, Deloraine
Photos: The Artist

My Newest Delivery...

Last night I finished stitching this tea cosy which some friends commissioned late last year! Time flies when one isn't looking!

The brief from my client friends was to include their dog, Coco, a peony flower and then the rest was up to me...so knowing my friends as I do, I decided to include Tim's vintage Bugatti as well as something a bit silly and English- the rubber duckie with a crown a la 'Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' record cover...Tim is English and has a great sense of humour and works in special effects for film as well as being an artist.

His partner Carolyn I haven't known for as long. She's an artist also and so I hope I've included enough that is 'her' on the side with the flower (there wasn't enough 'comfortable' room for Coco on the Bugatti side)?!

I'll see what they think when they come to collect it!

Hand and freehand machine embroidery on silk, mangle cloth, Tasmanian wool, Japanese cotton lining.

This cosy has an additional removable woollen interlining in case the cosy isn't snug enough on the teapot...and where my friends live it gets very cold in winter!

Dimensions: 47 x 44cm
Collection: Tim Whiteley & Carolyn Edgecombe, Tasmania
Photos: The Artist

Foxy Koala Cosy by Brigette Cameron

This amazing tea cosy, made by a artist friend of mine, Brigette Cameron, who lives in Melbourne, and who I met in the north of Sweden when we both worked at the Ice Hotel in 2005-2006.

I thought would be the perfect starting image for 2009, and an Australian summer!

I dont have all the details about the cosy, which is very lax of me (summer holiday mood!), though I think Brigette made the cosy in 2005, and it was in an exhibition of tea cosies held in Canberra...I'll have to ask her again!

Brigette is a knitter extra-ordinaire!

SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: Teacosy* Number 8; Sugarpink Colonial Cosy, 2008

I am holding a random lucky draw for this tea cosy as a special event!

Je fais un prix de cet couvre-theiere, comme une 'donation chanceuse' de Noel!

If you are interested in putting your name into the draw, please leave me a comment here in answer to this question:
Si ca vous interesse, laissez-moi ici votre reponse du question suivant:

What is your favourite tea cosy/tea drinking/tea party scene or paragraph in a film or novel?
C'est quoi votre souvenir de preference au sujet des cache-pots dans un film ou un roman?

I will then put everyone's names in a tea cosy on Monday the 22nd December and ask the Curator of Decorative Arts at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Mr Peter Hughes, to draw out the winning name.
If you re-check this blog again on that Monday night, there will be the winner's name posted.
Ce lundi le 22 Decembre, je vais mettre tout vos noms dans un cache-pot en attente de la main de M. Peter Hughes (Directeur des collection des Arts Decoratifs au Musee des Beaux Arts de Tasmanie), qui va tiens un nom gagnant. Epuis je vais ecrire le nom ici le lundi soir, donc si vous reviennez voir ce blog, vous le sauriez!

Tea cosy dimensions: (interior measurements) 31cm x 24cm. So will fit a two or three-cup tea pot.
Dimensions du cache-pot: (d'interieur) 31cm x 24cm. Ce cache-pot marche avec un theiere du 2 ou 3 tasses.







Hand embroidery on silk, cotton velvet, transfer print on silk, antique needle lace, wool, hand printed linen lining by Aunty Cookie, vintage brass bits, printed hemp by Pippijoe of Melbourne.

Brodee a la main sur la soie, velours du coton, homme inprime sur la soie, dentelle vielle, laine, lin imprime par Aunty Cookie, cuivre jaune vieux, chanvre imprime par Pippijoe de Melbourne.