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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Wednesday Craft Group - Seagrass weaving

(yes, it is Thursday now...been a busy couple of days!).
We are very lucky, at our beautiful school, to have the talents of so many clever people who are willing to share their skills. Yesterday Sonia, the upper primary and high school craft teacher, came to show us how to weave a small basket or disk with sea grass using lazy squaw stitch.

Weaving is taught in class nine and these pictures are a few of the samples Sonia brought along to show us.
It is amazing how much sea grass you use; the tiny little rainbow one in the middle took two metres and the ones with handles about five! They are woven together with an 8ply cotton yarn, except the large rainbow one at the back which Sonia used fleece for (she dyed it, pulled off lengths and then rolled them on her knee til the fleece would fit through her wool needle and away she wove - it was quite fluffy and soft.
Once you get started it is simple and quite meditative, here are some of the efforts of the morning - fabulous aren't they?

I made one of these little baskets a few years ago so wanted to do something a bit different. Remember all those little bees? Well I made them a home, ready for summer. (I had to kinda make it up as I went along but I am pretty please with how it turned out).

5 comments:

Linda said...

This is amazing! Wow:)
xo

stephanie said...

They look fabulous! I would love to know where you get the seagrass twine. I have had ambitions for years to make one of those bee hives. I have only just discovered your blog and it looks wonderful :)

Ronnie said...

Hi Shannon,
I love your bee hive - just the thing for a spring/summer nature table.
I am also curious about the seagrass twine - where is it from?

Thnaks for sharing

Bees Hive said...

Shannon, so excited to see the beehive and your handmade bees.
Please contact me at
georgie DOT beehive AT gmail DOTcom

i would love to feature your work and your blog on Bees Hive - everything Bee

Mama Goose said...

I have been wanting to learn how to weave a basket for the longest time. Thanks for posting - it is so adorable, and practical too!