Skip to main content

Closer to Christmas.

To state the obvious, Christmas is closer than you think! Each day, the diary and the "to do" list must be consulted to make sure we don't miss a Christmas party, a Rotary event, a grandchild's school presentation or concert,  a family gathering and all the "jobs" which  need to be done before Christmas.
However, this last week, I have been making dolls. I would love to show you the photo of the art doll I finished during the week  for the Doll Holiday Ball Swap, but I would like my swap partner, Deirdra  to see it before I post it here.  I have also made dolls to be donated to a local charity, Centacare. Each Year, Hello Dollies members make and donate dolls to Centacare to be given as gifts at Christmas. I made a few sock dolls, and little hand stitched felt dolls tucked into a sock ( photo above). The other sock is inside the toe, so the gift is a little doll and a pair of new socks! The original pattern for the felt dolls, Pocket Petunias  by Simone Gooding, had these dolls in a knitted pocket, but I thought this sock idea was a neat little arrangement?

This Christmas ornament (above) is inspired by a Sherry Goshon internet pattern Lil Christmas Ornament . I made quite a few modifications. I used larger polystyrene eggs rather than papier mache, and made polymer clay heads, and instead of  fabric wrapped around the shape, I used one layer of a paper serviette and gel medium to apply it. I have many polystrene shapes prepared, just waiting for heads ... I'll make those tomorrow  from polymer clay as it will be the second in the Crafternoon Tea Series - Clay Play.  We'll play with PMC (Precious Metal Clay -  Silver) and polymer clay .
Next Saturday is my annual Handmade Treasures Christmas Sale. This year, profits will be donated to Jenny's Place , Children's and Women's Refuge and Domesitc Violence Resource Centre. Already, some wonderful handmade treasures are materialising ready for the sale. Hope you wil come along and not only enjoy stress free Christmas shopping and support local "hand made" artists, but also help alleviate the dreadful impact of domestic violence in our community.

Comments

  1. love your version of Sherry Goshan's Christmas Ornament. Good on you raising money for such a worthy Charity. Love those sock babies!!

    ReplyDelete

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

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...

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...

Ethereal Threads : Textile Art

Meredith Woolnough is a beautiful talented young artist. Her current work is exquisite, stunning, engaging and awe inspiring. As you can see from the images, Meredith reproduces the beauty of nature in stitch – literally thousands of metres of embroidery thread stitched onto a background which is later dissolved. What remains is like a delicate “skeleton", but somehow with depth of colour, movement and strength. I think what is conveyed in Meredith’s work is overwhelmingly the love and reverence for her natural subject matter and her intimate knowledge of its structure.      Meredith’s latest exhibition is called “Ethereal Threads”, superbly presented at Timeless Textiles.  It is a collection of framed fine art which demonstrates Meredith’s attention to the details of presentation – each of the large pieces is pinned to archer paper and the play of shadow on the paper enhances the beauty of each.  There are  finely detailed delic...