Week 29/2026: Arty and crafty things
Week of 13 July 2026
This weekend was full of arty and crafty things and I had a great time.
This post is wholly researched and written by me, a human. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice. I do not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in my writing. If there are any em dashes in this piece, I put them there. I do not consent to have my work used for training AI.
Arty and crafty things
Crafty things
My sister and I went to a workshop called Slow stitch a miniature felt teddy bear, which was part of Kingborough Council’s Learning for Life program.
This was
a tactile class designed for those who appreciate the slow, intentional art of making. Over the course of the session, you will transform locally hand-dyed wool felt and natural wool stuffing into a charming, heirloom-quality miniature bear.
Now, I don’t know anything about stitching other than you do it with a needle, needles are hard to thread, and there are many different types of stitches you can do if you know what you’re doing. So when the instructor, Katrina, asked what experience we had, I kind of nervously nodded and smiled and said, “last time I did any of this I was probably in primary school”.
Fortunately, Katrina was there to help, as was my sister, who is a far more crafty and dexterous person than I am.
We had all the little bits and pieces laid out for use ready to go: the future bear’s head, body, nose, ears and arms and—cute—a tiny little bear for it to hold, and we spent the next two hours constructing as much of it as we could.
With my lack of sewing skills, you might imagine I felt a little awkward, but my mantra for the day was “reject perfectionism”.
I was really happy with what I got done. I had sewed the body using blanket stitch, sewed the face, stuffed both parts and was ready to finish stitching them up when it was time to go. That two hours went VERY quickly!
I took enough thread to finish it off which would involve stitching the head to the body and attaching the arms, and my challenge is to do this sooner rather than later and have a finished bear rather than one that sits in the box of shame (aka the unfinished projects box) ….
Arty things
On Saturday I went to the Bett Gallery to see Amber Koruluk-Stephenson’s exhibition, Mother’s Tongue, an exhibition that
considers personal, cultural and maternal notions of legacy and inheritance, blurring boundaries between histories and possibilities of place. This exhibition draws on European mythologies and ideals, art history, popular cultural narratives and the natural environment to interrogate the artist’s own position as woman artist of recent migrant ancestry and the complexities of identity, place and belonging in settler-colonial Australia.
There were some really interesting works, including two paintings set in Stanley that feature Dorothy’s ruby slippers stepping on emu eggs. They recall the last known colonial image of emus in Lutruwita/Tasmania painted by William Porden Kay in the 1840s.
There was also an exhibition by Tim Burns featuring paintings of empty vases found in op shops, titled “Fourteen empty vases—Where have all the flowers gone?”
Tim writes
Each vase feels the melancholic absence of their flowers.
They each speak of our increasing alienation from, and willful destruction of nature.
They now hold only the memory of the natural world.
I feel like that sentiment also reflects that way Amber’s images of the emu eggs “[echo] … the destructive impact of colonial power in Lutruwita/Tasmania” (Eliza Burke.)
Photo walking in North Hobart
Sunday’s adventure was a photowalk with the Hobart Photographic Society, which I’ve recently joined.
We spent a couple of hours in North Hobart and I met some new people, talked photos and cameras, and explored an area I don’t visit very often.
It was fun.
Habit tracker
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 3/7
- Walk (7 days): 5/7
- 15 minutes writing (7 days): 2/7
- 9.30 shutdown (6 days): 5/6
Physio exercises
- Calf exercises (7 days): 7/7
- Hip exercise (5 days): 5/5
- Bridge (5 days): 5/5
- Chair squats (5 days): 4/5
Summary of the week
This week I learned
Received Pronunciation is the type of English accent that the British upper class and royalty use.
The “yod” relates to the way the letter “u” is pronounced. In some words, “u” is pronounced with a y-sound (e.g. in volume, menu, new). This “y”-sound is known as a yod. Leaving the yod out (e.g. “noo” instead of “nyew”) is known as “yod-dropping”.
It varies in different words. You might still hear royalty say “luh-yew-cid” whereas we would say “lucid”. And for the word Tuesday, a person speaking with a Received Pronunciation accent might include the yod and say “Tuh-yews-day” whereas Americans would drop the yod altogether and say “Toosday”. In Australia we’re more likely to say “Choos-day”, avoiding the problem of having to say “Tuh-yew”.
This week I noticed
Double crossed.
The crane at the NAB building.
Light on the former Commonwealth Bank building.
Reading
- Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Dave Browne and Renni King
- The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody by Cadance Bell
- How To Try Again by Steve Kamb
- Bridget Crack by Rachel Leary
Listening
- WOMB by Purity Ring
- Gottfried Finger: The complete music for viola da gamba solo by Petr Wagner
- Betwixt The Sheets
- graves by Purity Ring
- Little Shop of Horrors Original Cast Recording
Watching
- Ground Up
- Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks
About The Author
