Lomandra Basket Weaving Workshop

Our Simple Living Toowoomba group was treated to a very interesting workshop on Saturday when Jo showed us some of her mosiac and leadlighting projects but more on that later. Firstly I want to let anyone know who lives in our area that we have Kate McIvor demonstrating traditional Indigenous lomandra basket weaving on Saturday 10th August. This should be an extremely popular workshop so I would book in early if you plan to come along.   Check out her Facebook page Lomandra Weaving to see some of her work.

As we haven't got lomandra growing here I asked the CEO to check it out at the nursery and he came home with a plant so I had better get cracking and put it in the ground.

It might be a while before I have a big enough plant for basket weaving though :-)

Here are the details of the workshop if you would like to come along:

Lomandra Basket Weaving

Date:    10 August

Time:    10-12noon

What:   In this demonstration Katie will explain and demonstrate some different techniques for basket weaving with natural materials in particular lomandra.  Lomandra is a grassy plant that is found in many household gardens.   

As usual please feel free to bring along any handmade goods or excess homegrown produce you would like to share with those attending the workshops.

Where: Range Christian Fellowship, 15 Blake St, Toowoomba.

Cost:    $10

RSVP:   7 August to simplelivingtoowoomba@gmail.com

Here are some photos taken at Jo's workshop on Saturday. A lot of the projects are works in progress. Firstly she showed us how she prepares her terracotta pots for decorating by painting with watered down Bondcrete which is available from Bunnings.

It is not a good photo but this is a shallow dish she fills with water for bees and birds and the butterflies give a little cover if necessary.

Another work in progress.

She is decorating this for her worm farm. LOL! She picks up bits and pieces from Op Shops to use in her creations.

This is part of her frog pool from memory.

 She had so many different types of projects I can't remember what this one was. Perhaps it was copper foiling.

This kaleidoscope was just amazing.

At the other end of the kaleidoscope where you look through, the different colours of glass make for a fascinating display as the round sections are spun around. You wouldn't believe the amount of work which would have gone into making this.

Jo brought along this beautiful lamp she made which is something to behold. She is extremely creative and we really enjoyed seeing her projects as I have never really been interested in leadlighting and had no idea how it was done. Apparently our local U3A has a leadlighting course for beginners not that I am tempted to go along as I have enough unfinished projects to try and complete in this life already :-)

However, I have been intending to do some mosiac work on a couple of stepping stones I bought a few years ago and will use up some of our leftover tiles from the renovations that are nearly finished. Jo brought along a couple of books about mosiacs for us to have a look at.

I am not sure if our local library has them but, if not, I might recommend them.

So it looks like I am going to have a smashing time soon as I will be wrapping up my tiles and smashing them with a hammer to use on my stepping stones or perhaps on a terracotta pot or on a tabletop or....................!!!!