Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

The Big Events coming soon ... World Day of Prayer (6 March) and International Women's Day (8 March) are important days for all women to celebrate. I'm mentioning them this week, so you will have time to put them on your calendar. This year, the World Day of Prayer reflects on the women of Papua New Guinea. As most of you know, these women are close to my heart, from my time in the Eastern Highlands, PNG last year. The photo above is of a Mando woman making a bilum. From the World Day of Prayer website ... Papua New Guinea has one of the most heterogeneous indigenous populations in the world. More than 800 languages are spoken. Their diversity is expressed in this saying, “For each village another culture.” Yet, the bilum, a traditional string bag is found nearly everywhere. Bilums come in many colors, sizes, shapes, and styles and often the creative designs identify where the bilums were made. Men usually prefer a long handle style that is worn over the shoulder. Women carry t...

Finally Mrs Chalumeau takes a bow …She is a Pearly Queen … 695 buttons on the doll and 10 on the journal.(I think – could be more). I would like to thank Paula from Antiques and Collectables here in Hamilton, Newcastle and Raku Buttons ETSY seller for supplying me with about 500 of the vintage mother of pearl buttons, and the rest I had in my stash. I think they look great on my pearly queen, but I am truly tired of sewing on buttons. It made me think however, how many buttons must be on the elaborate clothes of the real pearly Kings and Queens! I drew my inspiration from the lovely lady pictured here, and the following description from Wikipedia. ... A Pearly King ( feminine form Pearly Queen) is a person dressed in a traditional Cockney costume covered in mother-of-pearl buttons. These costumes were treasured heirlooms, hand made and sometimes representing much of a family's wealth. .... This doll is all cloth – a little different from most of my other dolls which generally h...

FEATURED ARTIST: I have decided each month, to feature someone whom I admire as an artist. For February, I’m featuring a wonderful craftswoman, my mother, Joyce Chock Man. She is very creative - beautiful embroidery, fabric and beaded flowers, sewing, knitting and crocheting - all kinds of crafts. Here is her latest work – temari. What is temari? From the photos, you can see it is thread wrapped in patterns around a sphere. A thousand year old craft from Japan, Temari is traditionally given as a gift. From humble beginnings as simple toy balls for children's play, Temari create a magnetic effect on viewers today. As a spectacular decorating focal point, the puzzle of the design is mesmerizing. The concept is elegantly simple; the end result is simply elegant! ( from http://www.temari.com/ ) My mother is 84 next month, and we all hope that when we are that age, we will be as creative, active and keen to learn as she is. Congratulations Mum - your work is really beautiful and you a...

I am inspired mostly by what I read . This week, I've been reading this book China Revealed . a Christmas gift from my friend, June. It is a book of powerful images and very informative accounts of the journey of a Hong Kong based Chinese photographer to every province in China. It captures China today - the new urban wealth and the rural poverty, the stark and the lyrically beautiful. The dust cover says, " Never before has such an ambitious journey - 'contemplating the orchids from a galloping horse ' as the old proverb has it - been undertaken . China Revealed is a profoundly important and visually stunning record. " The photos also show one of the little boxes I made this week. It opens out flat and is meant to be gift box and greeting card in one. Clever? I learnt this in my card making class. Mrs Chalumeau , my doll for the exhibition in a couple of weeks, is making good progress. I don't think she should be revealed yet , but here are some photos of her...