Shibori with Screen Printed Fish

These cushions I also printed while I was living in Melbourne, as a wedding present for Nick and Sian. I had recently bought a book called Australian Marine Life at the Melbourne Museum and was spending my weekends drawing fish from this book.
This design is based on the Pterygotrigla polyommata, which has wings like a butterfly - very beautiful. The fabric is Thai silk, dyed for a water like effect using the Arashi Shibori technique and the fabric used for the back is green velvet.

Cushions with radial design

These photos are of some large cotton cushions I printed as a present for Mum, while I was living in Melbourne. The design was inspired by the drawings of Ernst Haeckel, whose book 'Art Forms From The Ocean' I'd recently discovered.
I haven't done any printing since I left Melbourne, as there I had the luxury of a huge garage in the back garden for a studio. So, I wanted to add these as a reminder to myself. It's a bit difficult to do any large (or even medium) scale printing in a small apartment in Madrid (I think Alvaro would go crazy!), but maybe something small?

Flower Earrings

Red Rose

Green Fans

I started these crocheted earrings early last week but I didn't have the beads to finish them until Thursday. I wanted to make them with a brushed silver bead for a more antique look, but after searching through the bead shops I know of in Madrid I couldn't find what I was looking for. I think these bright silver beads also work really well.

Ruffled Circle with 3 strands of beads

In Pink and Copper
I finished these earrings on Friday and they are my favorites so far!
I made them using two types of cotton thread, beads and small pieces of chain. Like the motif for the necklace they are also finished to be set hard. Hopefully this week I'll get to make some in different colours.

Red Sun Necklace

This is the first crochet piece which I've made using one of the 'muestras de crochet' as a pattern. I've also started to coat the final crocheted piece to make it hard, which makes it much more usable for jewelry.
Madrid's been really grey over the last week or so but now the sun's back and I've been able to get some photos, finally! Alvaro took these for me over the weekend.

Muestras de Crochet

I was recently given an album by Mari Carmen which she put together for me, full of crochet samples which her grandmother (Alvaro's great grandmother) Carmen Matias Rodriguez made over her life time. It's amazing, there are hundreds of them and these are just the samples. Apparently she was always crocheting and always had a hook and thread with her. If she saw a crochet design in a shop she liked she would go in make a quick sample.
It was the most beautiful present! and I've been looking at it everyday since. So far I have copied a circle design to add to a necklace I'm working on at the moment. It's a never ending source or crochet designs.

Introducing, Purple.

Cake for Morning Tea

I've been trying to keep relatively healthy snacks in the house as I'm here all the time and around 11am start searching for a little morning tea something. The Bliss Balls are good for that, but for some variation I made this cake.
The recipe uses Spelt flour which can be used pretty much in the same way as wheat flour. The benifit of spelt is that it is generally well tollerated by people with allergies to wheat.
Another good thing is that it's grain grows in a very think husk which protects it from being damaged or eaten by insects. Therefore unlike other grains it is not normally treated with pesticides or other chemicals.
If you can't get your hands on spelt flour use whole meal wheat flour, to me it tastes almost the same.

Apple Spelt Cake
Use
4 tablespoons soft butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce (see below)
2 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups spelt flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 apples peeled and chopped
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the apple sauce, eggs, orange juice and vanilla.
In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, orange peel and salt.
Stir flour mixture into the butter/ egg mixture until just combined.
Stir in apple, sultanas and sunflower seeds.
Spoon into oiled or buttered cake tin.
Bake 30-45mins (until golden brown and skewer pulls out with no mixture on it).
Note: You can also substitute the apple, sultanas and sunflower seeds for 2 cups of blueberries which is also really yummy.

Apple Sauce
4-5 apples (or as many as you think you need really)

Place cored apples (leave the skin on) in a saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Stir often, until apples are soft, about 20 minutes.
When ready strain and put back in the pot (or a bowl) and allow to cool a bit. When ready puree with a hand held blender.
Store in sterilized jars in the refrigerator.