Over Queens Birthday Weekend this year I attended an event called “Handmade 2011″. This event was held in Wellington. It was a fantastic weekend and I treated myself to two lectures and three classes. Tomorrow the programme for “Handmade 2012” is being released. I would highly recommend this weekend to those that want to try something new, or improve some skills in something particular, or just have a girly get away with friends.
Below is my review of this years event that I posted on my other blog back in June.
Handmade 2011 was awesome, I enjoyed my day and look forward to seeing what events will be on the calendar next year. The lectures I found useful and informative. Sue was fantastic and helpful and Helena and Wendy were also very informative. What I realised from both sessions is that there are so many people out there only too willing to help share their knowledge, tips to help you on your creative journey. These ladies proved this.
My first class was with the awesome Jo Pearson! Jo was a fantastic tutor and did a great job sharing her love and passion of all things treasured and on top of that she makes lots of lovely things that she sells at Craft 2.0. Jo showed us how to make a brooch and bracelet from fabric scraps. The base of my bracelet was a preserving green screw band as seen in this photo on the Perfit site. This bracelet gives a new meaning to the words upcycling. I ran out of time to put my brooch together and when I can find where I put my hot glue gun I can assemble my brooch. I loved Jo’s class for the simple reason that you can create something with meaning from the bits and bobs you collect. You are only limited by your imagination.
My second class was an interactive demo, with the fantastic Anna. She showed us that you can preserve using small amounts of produce in your kitchen. Anna provided useful tips and advice. During the session we helped to make and taste a Ginger and Feijoa jam, a ginger and lemon cordial and a dukkah infused oil. These all tasted great and we got to come away with a little sample. I really enjoyed this session and I am now keen to give preserving a go.
My last class was soap making. Whilst I have dabbled with melt and pour soap making I was never a fan of making soap, the main reason being a lack of confidence with using caustic soda. After seeing this session with Gina from Soapcraft I feel more confident to have a go at proper soap making in the future. I came away with tips and advice and a fail proof recipe which can be used. During the session Gina made two soaps of which we got to bring a sample home. The bottom was a lavender soap and the layer on top was a Neroli and raw silk infused into lye with aubergine mica. The interesting thing was the soap turned brown and within 24 hours the colour changed again to a pale caramel colour, whilst the lavender soap remained cream in colour. I unmolded the soap today and the smells are divine, but I will leave it to cure for six weeks before using.
Such a fantastic day that I would highly recommend to all who might be interested in attending next year. I completed my classes in one day but given the timetable you could have easily spread some of them over the two days.
