Bilums, buttons and broken bones

Why bilums, buttons and broken bones? They were certainly contributors to a very hectic week for me last week. I finally got around to doing the washing from our trip to Papua New Guinea, and the biggest job of all was soaking the many bilums we received and washing and drying them . Bilums are beautiful traditional PNG needle woven /string looped bags used for carrying all sorts of things from babies to kau kau ( sweet potatoes). Thank goodness for modern products like Napisan - it makes the job easier, but not less time consuming. But the result is worth it - I love these bilums.

Next, the buttons.... Earlier in the year, I had agreed to running a felted accessories workshop at my friend's studio LamboArt on 27 June. I thought ... no problem ... a week between getting home from PNG and the workshop ... plenty of time to get organised. All the felt project samples were made well in advance, but one of the workshop projects is what I call a felt button brooch - a beautiful but simple flat piece of handmade felt with a feature button. These buttons were going to be Australian timber buttons handmade by my husband, Jim who was to make them last week. You probably realise by now he has the broken bones, and was in hospital all of last week recovering from surgery following his accident in PNG! So I spent a couple of days ( in between hospital visits) searching op shops, antique shops, haberdasheries and going through my own stash for interesting and special buttons for the workshop participants to incorporate into their work. I did find some special metal and plastic ( not as good as timber) buttons which looked okay. Anyway, we had a great day on Saturday, and all seemed pleased with their results. Wow - check out those beautiful merino scarves made by Julie and Karen!

I must admit I was very happy to have Jim in hospital back here in Newcastle during the last week - in the seemingly absolute luxury of Warners Bay Hospital, operated on by a wonderful surgeon and in the care of fantastic health professionals. I certainly didn't mind visiting him in such a reassuring environment - it was such a relief to know Jim was in such good care. Here he is looking longingly at one of the floral arrangements from a friend - it included a bottle of Crown Lager!

Not that we had any complaints about the care in Papua New Guinea. The photos tell the contrasting story of lack of resources, there was still genuine care and commitment - village women wrapping Jim's leg in aloevera leaves, being "plastered" over a bathtub in Goroka Hospital, and the very heavy, rather clumsy plaster.

While it may have been a hectic and somewhat worrying week, it was a happy week with wonderful outcomes - beautiful bilums,( with wondeful memories of PNG), a successful felt workshop and mended bones!

"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 ...

Bilby Infatuation

Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016 Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations... With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly. There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds. Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food...

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary. Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers). This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach. Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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