SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺

@seaflowerspins

Alison | she/her Spinner, weaver, perfecting post-apocalypse skills. Canberra, Ngunnawal land 🇦🇺 GNU Terry Pratchett

914 Folgt572 Follower351 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir seaflowerspins.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 20d

All the pieces I made for the #cdccreativechallenge26 from 1 to 21 July 2026. I connected them with a raised fist in black and yellow threads + knitting needles for my favourite dissenters, the Knitting Nannas. Handspun yarns with supplementary tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A collection of tapestries from the final 2 weeks of the craft+design Canberra creative challenge.
Top row: glitch (a bird in silhouette with glitch lines represented in irregular hatching); spark (a purple-headed matchstick); static - a spark leaping to a point); unbind (a dark-faced featureless girl with one braid, the rest of her hair unbound).
2nd row: ferment (a foaming gear mug); misfit (three figures in grey looking at a vivid red figure); gather (a small basket full of greens).
3rd row: freedom (a fluffy cloud against a blue sky); emerge (a green shoot emerging from dark soil); noise (blocks of white and dark with regular hatching to represent noise).
Bottom row: artificial (a brain in a jar, a comment on AI); provoke (a hand poking a bear); grace (an open mouth and the word ‘tame’ referencing Grace Tame); quack (a mallard duck in front of a Victorian cobalt medicine bottle). In the middle of the combined tapestry is a raised fist worked in yellow and black knots at the front of the tapestry - the fist is holding a black and a yellow knitting needle, referencing the Knitting Nannas.

Tapestry pieces for the first week of the craft+design canberra challenge. Top row: whisper (a bot whispering disinformation); play (random tapestry elements including pick-and-pick and eccentric weaving). Bottom row: UNCEDED (a sunrise in the colours of the Australian Aboriginal flag); smudge (smoke drifting around a tree); justice (the trans flag); bloom (representation of Bob Katter and his crazy ‘let a thousand flowers bloom’ doorstop speech).

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 22d

Day 21 | SPARK #cdccreativechallenge26 One spark is all it takes to set the world on fire. Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A small tapestry of a red match-head against an orange backdrop.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 24d

Day 20 | GLITCH #cdccreativechallenge26 Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry of a bird in silhouette. The bird is in dark yarn while the background is pale tinted with purple. The tapestry uses irregular hatching to break up the silhouette and make the image look ‘glitched’.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 25d

Day 19 | STATIC #cdccreativechallenge26 A spark leaping. Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. • #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

Tiny tapestry - a jagged white line leading to a star to represent static leaping. Star and line are woven against a predominately blue background shot with yellow, green, purple and red.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 25d

Day 18 | UNBIND #cdccreativechallenge26 I am my mother’s savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot, Cursing sharp stones - I am my mother’s savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice. -Sarah Hester Ross Handspun yarns with tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry- against a silky blue-green background, a featureless dark face with rich long hair in brown with yellow and orange highlights. A braid curls around the face on one side.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 27d

Day 17 | MISFIT #cdccreativechallenge26 Misfit or neurodivergent? I thought I was one for most of my life but it turns out I’m the other. Handspun yarns with supplementary tresses. • #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry showing four amorphous human-like figures against a white background. Three of the figures are grey; the fourth, which is smiling with one arm raised, is bright red.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 28d

Day 16 | FERMENT #cdccreativechallenge26 It starts unseen, bubbles to the surface and builds to a head. Ferment and foment are not so far apart in meaning. Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A small tapestry of a pale green glass beer mug on a purple background. The mug is full of beer which is foaming over the top of the glass.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 28d

Day 15 | MEND #cdccreativechallenge26 Creative visible mending challenges the waste of fast fashion. Vertical lines in tapestry create deep channels that need to be sewn up invisibly - I made them visible mends. Handspun yarns. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A small abstract tapestry - three green and purple-toned blocks with deep channels between them. The blocks are stitched together with crosses of orange yarn.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· 28d

Day 14 | GATHER #cdccreativechallenge26 Little watercolour now translated into tapestry. Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry - a yellow basket on a blue background. The basket is full of green leaves and purple fruits.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 13

Day 13 | NOISE #cdccreativechallenge26 Flooding the zone. Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry representing noise. It features white and dark triangles, with hatching drawing the shapes together. The dark yarn is multicoloured dark shades of purple and green with occasional pops of bright blue and green.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 12

Day 12 | EMERGE #cdccreativechallenge26 A seeding emerges from the soil, full of promise and tenacity. But whether it is good or bad - that’s all a matter of perspective. • Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. • #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry of a green shoot emerging from dark soil against a pale background.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 11

Day 11 | FREEDOM #cdccreativechallenge26 Perhaps, when everything costs, an act of dissent can be to free your mind. In meditation I was taught my mind was the sky, and my thoughts clouds which drift by. Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. • #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A small tapestry of white and grey clouds against a blue sky - I was going for a Studio Ghibli vibe.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 10

Day 10 | QUACK #cdccreativechallenge26 A duck and a Victorian medicine bottle. Isn’t the English language grand? 😊🦆 Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplementary tresses. • #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A small tapestry depicting a mallard duck no front of a blue antique medicine bottle.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 9

Day 9 | GRACE #cdccreativechallenge26 Grace Tame - a courageous young woman who fought back against her abusers, would not smile when powerful men thought she should, and who speaks up for those who have no voice. Handspun 2ply yarns + supplementary tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A small tapestry - the background is pink and orange toned, and at the bottom in blue is the word TAME. Above the word is an open lipsticked mouth.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 8

Day 8 | PROVOKE #cdccreativechallenge26 Poking the bear. Handspun 2 ply yarns with fine tresses. • #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry - a red hand reaches out to poke a brown bear in the snout. Woven with a background of orange and yellow.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 7

Day 7 | ARTIFICIAL #cdccreativechallenge26 Brain in a bell jar. Handspun 2 ply yarns with fine @austapestry tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A small woven tapestry featuring a pink brain with green and white eyes under a pale blue bell jar on a darker blue background.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 6

Day 6 | PLAY #cdccreativechallenge26 Play and finding joy in play is a subversive act when big money interests want you angry and unhappy and dissatisfied so that you continue to want and consume. Handspun 2 ply yarns with supplemental tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

Small free-form tapestry using techniques including meet & separate, pick & pick, and eccentric weaving. Colours are pinks, purple, yellow and green.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 5

Day 5 | WHISPER #cdccreativechallenge26 This was a dark fantasy riffing on bot farms and the corrosive whisper of algorithm-targeted, AI-created disinformation. Handspun 2 ply yarns with fine @austapestry tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tapestry depicting a little red bot constantly whispering AI-driven disinformation represented by blue rectangles - the background transitions from a soft purple to a more corrosive orange.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 4

#cdccreativechallenge26 Day 4 BLOOM ‘…people are entitled to their sexual proclivities. Let there be a thousand blossoms bloom... But in the meantime, every 3 months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland.’ Bob Katter MP, 2017 #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

Mini Bob Katter tapestry, 4x7.5cm. A stylised white-haired figure in blue trousers, white shirt and paler blue tie. A slim red-petalled flower grows in front of the figure which stands against a green background (to represent north Queensland crocodiles). Bob Katter is a ‘colourful’ (ie incoherent oddball) conservative Australian politician who represents an electorate in North Queensland in the Australian Federal Parliament.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 3

#cdccreativechallenge26 Day 3 | JUSTICE Trans rights are human rights. Handspun 2 ply yarns with fine commercial tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry depicting the trans flag in blue, pink and white. A dark line travels through the flag colours.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 2

#cdccreativechallenge26 Day 2 SMUDGE A small smudge fire for your billy, smoke wreathing the trees at dawn. Magpies herald the day as you drink strong sweet tea, while the smoke stings your eyes. Peace. 5cm x 5cm handspun 2ply yarns with fine tresses. #australiantapestry #handwoven #dissent

A tiny tapestry - a dark brown shape like a tree trunk rises through a white ground, with a drifting grey shape stretching across the piece to represent smoke.

To the left are partial shapes in red and yellow - this is yesterday’s tiny piece nestled against today’s.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jul 1

I’m doing a creative challenge in July. Day 1 | UNCEDED #cdccreativechallenge26 Another day living on unceded land. 5cm x 5cm Handspun 2ply yarns with fine tresses. #australiantapestry #handspun #handwoven #australian #craft

A tiny tapestry in colours inspired by the Aboriginal flag. A dark red hill in the foreground shot with yellow threads; a dark sky speckled with red and yellow; a shape behind the hill in yellow that may be a rising sun.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jun 18

Still 100% correct. #auspol

Image of past Australian prime minister Paul Keating and an extract from his 1996 address ‘For the new Australia’ which reads:

The great tragedy of the shamelessly regressive politics of Pauline Hanson is not so much that it is rooted in ignorance, prejudice and fear, though it is; not so much that it projects the ugly face of racism, though it does; not so much that it is dangerously divisive and deeply hurtful to many of her fellow Australians, though it is; not even that it will cripple our efforts to enmesh ourselves in a region wherein lie the jobs and prosperity of future generations of young Australians, though it will—the great tragedy is that it perpetrates a myth, a fantasy, a lie.

The myth of the monoculture. The lie that we can retreat to it.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jun 17

Teeny tiny swatch - this is handspun laceweight mulberry silk. #australian #craft #handspun 🧶

A small knitted swatch. The yarn is white laceweight mulberry silk knitted on 1.25mm needles. It’s lying on a wooden table, and an Australian 5 cent coin (approx. 19mm in diameter) is placed on top of the swatch to show how fine and small both the knitting and the yarn are.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jun 10

Finished test octopus, knitted in handspun yarns. Glad I made a test one, because I made plenty of mistakes, which I choose to call learning opportunities 😊 Next one will be handspun silk! #octopus #showusyourknits #australianhandspinnersandknitters 🧶

A knitted octopus in pink and green yarns rests on a cup set on a wooden floor, with a green couch in the background. The octopus’s body and the top of its tentacles are knitted in 2ply handspun merino and tencel in a deep vivid pink; the underside of the tentacles is knitted from a soft green handspun blend in 3ply.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Jun 7

Black cockatoos at sunset.

Four black cockatoos flying across a dusk sky above a lake. The pinks and blues of the sky are reflected in the lake’s still surface, and between lake and sky is a line of low purple hills covered by dotted with wind turbines.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· May 19

A so-far single-tentacled octopus. And even that single tentacle needs to be ripped back, as I made an error no amount of blocking will fix 🫩 #showusyourknits

A knitted octopus in progress - its body is complete but only one tentacle is finished. The body and top of the tentacle are knitted in a handspun pink Cheviot and tencel blend, while the contrasting underside of the tentacle is a handspun green wool blend. The octopus has small blue safety eyes and the circular needle used to knit the body is looped underneath it. It is resting on a grey fabric upholstered bench.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· May 14

If you take all the colour out of your photo, you can determine if there’s enough contrast. Your pink specks on white are ok but the contrast between the two colours isn’t high enough for the white specks on pink. 😊

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Apr 29

There’s no bird quite like an Australian magpie - smart, curious, bold and occasionally terrifying. Their little red eyes look hard and full of evil intent, but they sing like angels. Win their trust and their whole family will embrace you.

SeaFlowerSpins 🇦🇺@seaflowerspins· Apr 28

Saw the wonderful 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain at the National Gallery of Australia on the weekend, the exhibition’s last day. These four pics are a glimpse that don’t really do the whole justice. Moving and thoughtful works.