Skip to main content

Crafty Cousins


Each month, the younger women in the Simmons family enjoy a Sunday afternoon get-together, usually without children, husbands and partners. My daughter-in-law Kellie, my daughter Naomi and her cousins Lisa, Melanie and Natalie share their creative skills, produce beauitful handmade things and generally chat, advise and support one another. Last Sunday, they all came to my place and asked me to to get them started on " something different", a creative challenge. Occasionally, the "mothers" are invited to share in the group, but generally, we do not interfere! This time, while Kellie did some scrapbooking, some made beaded art dolls with forms I prepared, and the others went through my button stash and made funky bracelets and necklaces. Naomi also finished another baby blanket, after learning to crochet late last year. It is so wonderfully comforting and reassuring to see such talented strong young women in our family enjoying each other's company. They all lead extremely busy lives with their own families and their work and study commitments and these few hours they have together just once a month must seem like a gentle reprieve from their hectic everyday schedules. What they produce is not important, but their creative spirit is what is needed to ensure "handmade" is valued by future generations.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Designing with Grids

  Wilma Simmons: Magpie Grid, 2026  Straight lines - no not my style! However, here I am stitching grids to create net like structures.  In a recent Stitch Club   workshop by Eszter Bornemisza,  the brief was to create small, transparent textile samples consisting of airy, net-like structures made from a variety of leftover and recycled materials. Using machine straight stitch, small scraps of material including transparent fabrics, lace, cotton and paper were secured  onto water-soluble stabiliser or a layer of paper napkin tissue, or mulberry paper. In the sample pictured above, I used cotton fabric scraps and some roughly cut out motifs secured to a paper napkin with stitching. I washed away the paper napkin , leaving a net like composition, inspired by magpies strutting about in the garden.   Eszter Bornemisza's s innovative technique has been developed over many years, and her gird designed map like installations are world renowned.  Esz...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
3 comments
Read more

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

 Background Information:  Temari (literally translated “hand ball”) is a Japanese folk craft that is alleged to have originated in China and was introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. Traditionally, the balls were constructed from wrapped kimono fabric remnants and silk threads. They were made by mothers and grandmothers for children to play with. Nowadays, decorative embroidered temari represent a highly valued and cherished gift symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Recently I've wondered if your don't use traditional techniques whether you should call what you create "temari". That is an ongoing debate but today I share what I do to make a "non-traditional temari".... 1.I start  with a polystrene ball ( traditionally the balls were wound  silk scraps or other organic materials) and begin to wrap with approx 4 ply wool, turning the ball as I wrap.  2. I then wrap another layer of wool in a similar fashion , this time a 3 or 2 ...
8 comments
Read more