gather and collect

My daughter and I are great collectors. From an early age she would pick up beautiful coloured leaves and moss covered stones and the tiniest of shells whenever we went walking. We still like to gather all manner of natural objects - stones, feathers, leaves, wood when we are exploring the outdoors but also when we are simply walking to the local shops or down our street.

                

It is something about the transition from found object to handheld art that is so special – the ritual of gathering and collecting runs deep within us and these, sometimes inconsequential ‘finds’, become treasures and keepers of our memories.

Needless to say, our home is adorned with all our finds. Some dated and labeled, some held within the pages of books to press and others melding into the fabric of our everyday lives to remind us of the beauty of the world around us.

                                             We are finders and keepers!

Feathers and Vine

We have just sent four nests off to the beautiful store in Deloraine - The Black Hen. It is so nice to have our handmade nests available in the south of the state, at Gather - Handmade in Hobart, and also at The Black Hen in the North West. We have been collecting feathers from the local ducks that live in our nearby rivulet and the vine is foraged from Bruny Island -  it is lovely to make our nests from materials sourced close to where we live.

Notebooks and journals

The lovely store 'Gather ' in Hobart recently asked us to make them some small notebooks so this post shows you our first designs - the Nature and Woodland series. The books have unlined 110gms cartridge paper and are stitched with black waxed linen thread. The large ones have a pocket in the back to store bits and bobs and also come with two large, woodland inspired luggage tags.

The 'Woodland' notebooks are A5 size and the smaller ones - 'Nature' notebooks - are A6 and come with three tiny, nature inspired luggage tags. They are pocket sized and perfect to keep in your handbag to jot down everyday notes and messages.

These are our first steps into journal and notebook making but we have already started to think about new ideas and designs for more 'two in a teacup' stationery products - we will keep you posted!

Eggs!

It was lovely to recently see 'two in a teacup' eggs on an Instagram feed so nicely displayed. These were ordered from The Black Hen in Deloraine and sent to Adalaide.

For our own Easter table we brought out the old nest that has become quite bowerbird like now. Each year we dress it with new Autumn leaves, rose hips, our painted enamel eggs and of course the odd chocolate one!

We are looking forward to next years Easter break already! It is such a wonderful family time - gentle sun, autumn colours, a welcome break from work and time to cook and eat chocolate together!

Easter

Easter is such a special time of year. A time to spend with family and enjoy the gentle rays of the Autumn sun. We like to cook our favorite chocolate cake and of course it is not Easter without an Easter egg hunt in the garden! This year we have made some tiny boxes with a small text covered egg inside sitting on a bed of moss and twigs from our garden. A keepsake when all the chocolate has been eaten! These little boxes are on sale in the lovely store 'Gather' in Hobart.

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts

Oh how we love collecting heart shaped rocks. We gathered a small selection recently and added a text covered heart we made and a tiny smooth stone onto which we gilded a small heart.

Nesting time again

With Easter on the horizon we have begun making our nests and eggs again. We are also very excited to have them in the beautiful store - The Black Hen - in  Deloraine.

This photo is from The Black Hen's Instagram page @theblackhen    Looking forward to the joy of family time this Easter.