Felting and Fabric Cats

It's been a great start to the new year - a few days at the beautiful and peaceful Bodhi Glades in Wentworth Falls (Blue Mountains), lots of successful sales on ETSY, a visit from Riikka's mother and sister from Finland, a lovely "welcome to Australia' with friends (24 of us in total) on Monday night at our place, and the usual busy days with Dylan and Brandon, our older grandsons ... as well as some creative work, of course. I have been trying to get some samples prepared for my workshops with The Eclectic Studio in Sydney later in the year. I even had to write an artist bio - I felt a bit stange having to do that, but you can check it out on the studio's website : http://www.eclecticstudio.com.au/ and follow the prompts from "class and workshops" to "meet the teachers". While you're there, please check it all the great stuff and workshops Roz is offering this year.

Anyway, this week I did manage to complete a sample (pictured) - a kind of "sea" bracelet made of felted beads, embroidered with glass beads and accompanied by foil glass beads. Even if I say so myself, it looks quite spectacular when it is worn. I have also half -made a necklace in similar colours with an elongated focal felted bead perhaps a photo next week? The beads are needle felted, wet felted and then finally needle felted again to make them really firm - I am not sure if this is the usual technique other felters use, but I found it the best way to make beads as firm as a tennis ball, whatever the size. I remembered this time to weigh the wool roving before felting so each bead is the same size.

I have also been making fabric cats this week. I purchased some metres of Laurel Burch cat print fabric soon after she tragically died last year, as a sign of the great respect I have for this exuberant designer. I am not really a great lover of cats, but I do love the fabric. Like a lot of things in my stash, they stay there for ages until almost forgotten and suddenly, I do something about them. Late last year, I made quite a few of these cats for an exhibition at Lorne Gallery. Since then I have adapted the pattern, and finished these four yesterday... actually I made five,but Brandon wanted one of them which had a fabric depicting planets and stars, so only these four made it to my ETSY shop. 1. Carnelian Cat, 2 Chinese Fortune Cat, 3. Hydrangea Cat and 4. Valentine Cat For a better look and more detailed descriptions, please have a look at them listed in the ETSY shop http://www.empresswu.etsy.com/.

While I was in my workroom yesterday trying to finish some alterations to newly purchased clothing for my daughter , Brandon (grandson, nearly 5) also did some needle felting - I have a Clover needle felting tool which is excellent for small children as it has a safety cover around the needles and a locking mechanism. I also gave him some large biscuit cutters and egg rings and he placed the wool inside these shapes, and kept his fingers on the outside - safe felting! Here is a photo of his work in progress - a lot more was added throughout the day.

Hope you all have a creative week , Wilma

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks .... The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or my husband or from off cuts gifted to us from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks. Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Fabric Tags for Tag Tuesday

At Tag Tuesday, this fortnight Sandie is hosting the Steampunk/Mechanical challenge. Although this isn't a theme I usually tackle, Sandie's tags are so fantastic and inspirational that I was motivated to create a tag this afternoon. I had some fabrics on my desk which I discharge dyed last week.and this piece with the addition of a few copper cogs reminded me of " industrial and mechanical" . The way the background fabric was created was by applying bleach gel with a roller over the top of a plastic stencil. The fabric was originally a bluish dark grey cotton, When the bleach had removed the colour, the process was halted with a commercial neutralizing solution called AntiChlor. I have been told that a vinegar solution will also stop the discharge of colour and act as a neutraliser. The metal cogs were stitched on to the fabric by hand. Here are a couple of great resource sites for discharging colour with bleach. - Threads ...

Lilly Pilly

Today is Australia Day. I chose a photo of some Lilly Pilly berries as a celebratory image for this national day. Lilly Pilly is a common name for a plant, Syzygium smithii which grows mostly in Eastern Australia, from the northern rain forests of Queensland, throughout NSW to the southern Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. In New Zealand it is called "monkey apple, but other names used in Australia, besides lilly pilly, are Eungella Gum and Coast Satinash. The largest Lilly Pilly recorded was found in Dingo Creek Flora Reserve, near Tenterfield where I once lived. The tree now growing in my garden was once a small seedling which I was gifted when I left Woolgoolga, a small coastal town in northern NSW. Its name is said to come from the Aboriginal word 'weelgoolga' describing the lilly pilly which grows in profusion there. It is probably no surprise that the lilly pilly berries are edible as bush tucker, and make a beautiful jam or jelly. I have even seen re...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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