Turtle and Rose Creations

04/09/2026

07/08/2026

We're preparing for several markets over the next few months, so we visited Thor's Hammer | Canberra Recycled Timber Experts to pick up some reclaimed timber. After many dimensioning cuts, we have laid out 6 full size chopping boards/serving boards - some have already been glued up, others are waiting for some clamps to be freed up! Keep watching to see more photos as these products develop, and feel free to reach out if one of them takes your fancy!

28/07/2026

We are participating in the July Word A Day Challenge run by Craft + Design Canberra. The theme this year is 'Dissent'. We have decided that all of our responses will be made of reused or recycled products, because we dissent in the face of our wasteful, throwaway culture. We hope to contribute to highlighting the opportunities for creative and unique pieces, in our responses.

Here is an itemised list to demonstrate the difference we have made through our dissent against throwaway culture. 21 days of one deliberate decision per day has led to the re-use/re-imagining of:
* 1 small world globe decor item;
* Timber from a discarded piece of furniture
* 1 secondhand book
* 1 embroidery hoop
* Reused scrap/leftover fabric ribbon
* 1 secondhand glass bowl
* 7 secondhand beaded necklaces
* 1 secondhand jewellery box
* reused fabric scraps/leftovers
* Scrap foam
* 3D printer filament 'p**p'
* 1 secondhand letterbox
* mistinted paint colour
* discarded padding and fabric cover from camp chair
* chain from secondhand hanging basket
* secondhand bed slats
* 1 secondhand music scroll
* 1 embroidery frame
* secondhand christmas decorative pearls
* scrap plywood
* secondhand perspex
* 5 boxes of waterdamaged river red gum floorboards
* 1 tree branch, discarded by the gum tree in our front yard
* 1 secondhand small suitcase
* 1 set secondhand computer speakers
* wood scraps/leftovers from our woodshop
* secondhand wooden frame
* secondhand children's toy hammer
* secondhand small metal hammer
* 2 reusable fabric shopping bags
* 1 shattered coffee mug
* 1 secondhand mdf tray
* 1 secondhand small demijohn
* 4 recycled ginger beer bottles
* magazines and junk mail
* 1 secondhand metal tray
* 1 secondhand puzzle
* 2 damaged elecrical charging cords
* 1 secondhand box tv frame
* scrap/leftover yarn
* 6 unneeded compact discs
* 1 reused hanging bird cage stand
* 1 secondhand metal lantern frame
* 1 secondhand glass vase.

One decision a day can make a big difference! A good thing to remember when the problems of the world seem insurmountable - you can make a difference, one decision at a time!

28/07/2026

We are participating in the July Word A Day Challenge run by . The theme this year is 'Dissent'. We have decided that all of our responses will be made of reused or recycled products, because we dissent in the face of our wasteful, throwaway culture. We hope to contribute to highlighting the opportunities for creative and unique pieces, in our responses. The word for day 21 is SPARK.

One of the wonderful things about this world is that every person is unique. We all have something that lights our world, sparks joy or passionate convictions, makes us tick. Those sparks are perhaps one of our most true expressions of who we truly are - therefore one of the greatest gifts we can share with those we love.

For us, we have found our spark, what makes us comell alive. Creativity, inspiration, reimagining, ideas, designing, making and sharing our work lets us share some of who we truly are, both individually, and as a couple.

This light is a beautiful piece made from an old bird cage hanging stand, an old lantern case and a glass vase from our local op shop. It provides light to whichever room it's in - in this case, our loungeroom - sharing both its light, and our spark, with whomever we welcome into our home.

27/07/2026

We are participating in the July Word A Day Challenge run by . The theme this year is 'Dissent'. We have decided that all of our responses will be made of reused or recycled products, because we dissent in the face of our wasteful, throwaway culture. We hope to contribute to highlighting the opportunities for creative and unique pieces, in our responses. The word for day 9 is GRACE.

Grace is a funny concept. Often it seems to be thought of as a religious concept, but grace is also necessary in human relationships. Without grace, there can be no forgiveness, and with no forgiveness, there can be no reconciliation after a dissent.

We were so thrilled when we walked into one day to find a huge collection of these paper strip music box rolls. We grabbed as many as I was allowed to by my beloved (and much more practical!) husband and business partner.

For this project, we chose this sheet music, 'Abide with Me' as we felt that it could reflect either or both of the religious and human elements of grace.

From there, we mounted the sheet music scroll onto an embroidery frame (also a Goodies Junction find!), placed some fairy lights behind it as a light source, hung some second hand Christmas bead decorations as an accent and protected the whole project with a sheet of recycled clear perspex.

27/07/2026

27/07/2026

We are participating in the July Word A Day Challenge run by . The theme this year is 'Dissent'. We have decided that all of our responses will be made of reused or recycled products, because we dissent in the face of our wasteful, throwaway culture. We hope to contribute to highlighting the opportunities for creative and unique pieces, in our responses. The word for day 20 is GLITCH.

We recently discovered our long-forgotten folio of music CDs. This folder used to live in our car, a key component of most drives, regularly opened and flipped through to find the perfect music to match each mood.

CDs, like other physical music mediums before them, were fragile. One tiny scratch in the wrong place on the disc could disturb the musical experience, glitching repeatedly in the same place, over and over again.

What was worse was the ongoing risk of accumulating more damage, more glitches while driving. Hitting a big pothole or misjudging a curb might lead to further scratches, more glitches, on the CD.

Like scars on a body, these scratches on a CD, and the accompanying glitches in the music, can become badges of pride and survival or the introduction to an entertaining story to be told. Singing the music with the glitch can be a private joke well after the CD has been replaced by music streaming. A glitch only remains a glitch if it is allowed to fester - better to find a way to respect, and maybe even enjoy, the change.

These are our old CDs, some of which are having the labels removed and scratches carved into the disc then painted, to create a colourful drinks coaster.

26/07/2026

We are participating in the July Word A Day Challenge run by Craft + Design Canberra. The theme this year is 'Dissent'. We have decided that all of our responses will be made of reused or recycled products, because we dissent in the face of our wasteful, throwaway culture. We hope to contribute to highlighting the opportunities for creative and unique pieces, in our responses. The word for day 19 is STATIC.

It's funny how to world changes. Once upon a time, our devices would pick up meaningless random transmissions and interpret them in the form of static. Most people didn't find the snow show very interesting, and instead would find another way to entertain themselves, or went to bed.

Now, when our devices pick up random fragments of information, we call it social media and people spend all their time and attention staring at it, neglecting sleep and the people around them in order to watch the modern version of static.

If our social media worlds were full of joy, beauty and shared passions, there could be some favourable comments to be made. But the evidence clearly demonstrates that the forces behind the dissemination of modern snippets of information give preference to darker content, deliberately increasing discontent and dissent in our society.

We picked up this old box TV from Goodies Junction. It had been turned into an aquarium, but we had different plans for it! Unfortunately the original chipboard was quite fragile so we have replaced the outer pieces with water-damaged timber floorboards to restore the box TV shape.

In reality, our menagerie of pets provide better entertainment than most things on 'the box' these days. So we turned this old TV into a spacious bed/hidey-hole for our 3 cats. Interior design used leftover wool, while the 'static' is an old jumper with perfect patterning!

Product models are Quince and Juniper 🥰

25/07/2026

We are participating in the July Word A Day Challenge run by . The theme this year is 'Dissent'. We have decided that all of our responses will be made of reused or recycled products, because we dissent in the face of our wasteful, throwaway culture. We hope to contribute to highlighting the opportunities for creative and unique pieces, in our responses. The word for day 16 is FERMENT.

Our response started from the small demijohn we recently picked up at . After all, the vessel itself speaks of fermenting, bubbling, maturing, the interaction of different elements coming together.

Shared conversations can be much the same. Perhaps it is old fashioned, but there's something that appeals to us about sitting around with friends, sharing a beverage and creating a thoughtful conversation together. A cosy fireside chat. The individual contributions from each person, mixing together, blending to create something new, maybe occasionally bubbling up into something a little more fiesty, then sitting and further fermenting in the minds of its participants well after the conversation is over. Chats like this can eventually even change the world; spark a movement of dissent or motivate someone who goes on to lead or contribute in previously unexpected ways.

So our response to 'ferment' is this conversation set using the demijohn, a serving tray donated to us several years ago by a friend who was clearing out her house, and the bottle remnants of the drinking habits of one set of parents from when they last visited. The ginger beer (also fermented!) bottles were cut and reattached so as to form elegant drinking glasses over which to ferment ideas through conversation.