Skip to main content

Mermaids, Women and William


What a great day! Today was the first of my 2009 workshops - the beaded mermaid bag or necklace. It was held at Judith Killen's Busy Hen Shed Studio in Dural with a delightful group of very skilled and creative women . They all achieved quite a lot in the day, and were well on the way to creating beautiful mermaids - the process includes stamping onto polymer clay, designing the mermaid and bead embroidering the figure. Here are some photos- all pictured being very conscientious and on task. Thanks and well done Judith, Megan, Johanna, Kellee, Janine, Carole and Toni.



I was very lucky to celebrate International Women's Day with my sister in Townsville last week, with a group of Queensland women educators . The photo below shows us at the function where the special guest speaker was a student from our alma mater, St. Margaret Mary's College.
While I was there, the Unifem function was being held here in Newcastle. My friend and fellow Rotarian, Lyn Thorpe was the guest speaker, and ended up with the handbag I made and donated as one of the prizes... Hope you like the felted bag, Lyn. I called this creation, Earth Bag.

And of course, I remembered...Happy Birthday to a very special little boy, our youngest grandson, William - 1 today !

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

12 Days .... festive or not?

Days 5 & 7 - the Gold Rush Era Stamp Series   It seems so long ago now since we were celebrating Christmas and New Year.... hope you enjoyed a great festive season. I took some time out, not doing much at all but I did set myself a little challenge of doing some tidying up which meant spending a little time each day using scraps of fabric and paper  to create something a little playful or as the mood took, useful!  Unlike the long projects I usually undertake, this was a 12 day project ( 12 days of Christmas ) - completely random, but finishing half done projects or recycling.  For example the first photo shows some collages  I did on days 5 and 7 to use a postage stamp release, the Gold Rush Era series, first issued in Australia 1981 ... yes I probably have had it in my stash since then!   Completing some other little projects was very satisfying .... On Day 1, I assembled a folded  paper folk cube from a kit my daughter gifted to me las...

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...

Too Precious to Waste

 Stitched tea bags/ old doily "tea lights" - Wilma Simmons  More than a year ago, a decision was made.  The annual exhibition of NCEATA ( Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists) 2015-2016 will have the theme "Mottainai". Mottainai in Japanese refers to more than just physical waste (resources). It is even used to refer to thought patterns that give rise to wasteful action. Grammatically, it can be used in Japanese as an exclamation ("mottainai!") or as an adjective phrase ("it feels mottainai"). There is no plural form. The collection of mottainai things could be called mottainai koto ( もったいない事 ? ). As an exclamation ("mottainai!") it means roughly "what a waste!" or "Don't waste." [2]  A simple English equivalent is the saying "waste not, want not." A more elaborate meaning conveys a sense of value and worthiness and may be translated as "do not destroy (or lay waste to) that ...