tassels and embellishments
for Vaucluse house

April 5, 2017 by Morrison Polkinghorne handmade Technique Vaucluse House

Morrison_Polkinghorne-Passementeries-vaucluse-house-tassels-trimmings

One of Australia’s most prestigious colonial properties, Vaucluse house in Sydney, has a revamp! We at Passementeries were asked to help in the reconstruction, specifically crafting sixty tassels and three hundred embellishments for the drawing room , all based on original 19th century designs. We reproduced the tassels from original prototypes at Sydney Living Museums archives of their Caroline […]

weaving a twisted tassel fringe

March 29, 2017 by Morrison Polkinghorne Technique Vaucluse House

Morrison_Polkinghorne-Passementeries-fringe

Twisted silk threads are woven around a board to create the skirt of the tassels.

new tools for Vaucluse House

March 28, 2017 by Morrison Polkinghorne Technique Vaucluse House

Morrison_Polkinghorne-Passementeries-spinning-machine

When I got the go ahead to work on the new Vaucluse house renovations, the first thing we needed to do was to make some new tools. Part of making tassels incorporates wrapping beads which can either be wrapped horizontally or vertically. Wrapping vertically is done by hand, but horizontally it is virtually impossible to hand wrap the threads straight. The use […]

Lotus weaving in Myanmar

October 17, 2016 by Morrison Polkinghorne Myanmar natural fibres Technique travel

Lotus weaving on Inle lake in Myanmar. Fabrics derived from lotus fibre are strong, soft and to put it succinctly, it takes a long long time to make one simple scarf. The fabric is a simple weave, either a plane or a twill weave. But it is the thread that is the time consuming aspect of […]

Gold leaf making in Myanmar

September 29, 2016 by Morrison Polkinghorne handmade Myanmar Technique travel

Head to Mandalay for gold leaf making. Here, you will find numerous noisy, sweaty and glistening locations. Myanmar gold leaf is handmade in time-honored fashion from 24k gold. In one day a worker at this factory will painstakingly turn 32 grams of gold into about 750 layers of finished sheets of gold leaf. Between the layers of gold […]

how we make 350 identical Pom Pon’s

June 7, 2016 by Morrison Polkinghorne Fringe handmade Technique

Morrison_Polkinghorne-Passementeries-how-to-make-a-pom-pon

It’s very easy to make a pom pon, or so I thought when I was taught by my mother at an early age. She began by cutting two donut shaped pieces of cardboard, then had me wrap them with threads. Wool was the easiest textile to use, as as it effortlessly made the pom pons […]

Wrapping Julie’s Christmas cookies for Westinghouse

December 15, 2015 by Morrison Polkinghorne Packaging Technique Workshop

Julie Goodwin made a batch of Christmas chill mango chutney and some Ginger cookies but I was in Myanmar at the time, so Westinghouse especially flew me from Rangoon to Sydney to teach how to wrap the jars in fabric. www.juliegoodwin.com.au WESTINGHOUSE and MORRISON POLKINGHORNE Ginger Cookie Wrap from Globetrotting Gourmet on Vimeo. WESTINGHOUSE MORRISON POLKINGHORNE Double jar wrap from Globetrotting […]

How to make Paper Snowflakes

December 3, 2015 by Morrison Polkinghorne handmade Technique Workshop

Morrison_Polkinghorne-Passementeries-Paper_Snowflakes-7

I decided this year to make Paper Snowflakes for our Christmas decorations. Simple and fun, but watch out for that dangerous blade. Items required: Card Sharp Knife Metal Ruler Cutting Board Double Sided Tape Scissors Needle and Thread Cut a rectangle piece of card, two thirds longer than the width. The width should be […]

Wrap a present and finish it with a decorative knot.

October 16, 2015 by Morrison Polkinghorne Packaging Technique Workshop

how to wrap a gift and finish it with a decorative knot

To estimate the length of cord: To make a single layer knot, measure the circumference of the box + 30cm of cord To make a triple layer knot, triple the above Step 1 Fold the cord in half and start with this point. Pull the bottom cord under and up to the top right […]

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