Miss Wu Is Ready For The Christmas Ball

Last month, I signed up to the Holiday Doll Ball Swap hosted by Zan Asha of Vagabond Creations. http://vagabondcreations.blogspot.com/

What a wonderful surprise this week, well before the deadline, I received the wonderful Miss Wu, created by a well known artist and art doll maker, Deirdra Doan. Many doll makers worldwide will already be familiar with Deirdra’s work which has been featured often in Art Doll Quarterly, and you can see more of her amazing art on her blog http://deirdradoan.blogspot.com/and in her Etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/deirdradoan

Here is Deridra’s description of this beautiful doll:
Miss Wu.(I tried to make her look like Wilma...)is all excited and patiently waiting for the "Christmas Ball/ Sock Hop" to begin. She thought her berry crown, candy cane, and snowman necklace would look so to chic and bring lots of beaux to fill her dance card. She also wore her icicle leggings.to finish off her ball attire. Since it is very hot on Christmas in Aussie land her arms are bare of course...
PS...She has ivy on her belt..as "The Holly and the Ivy" is one of her favorite songs for Christmas. She first heard it as a little girl in England so she was sure that they sang it in Australia as it was a English Colony.
And here is Miss Wu patiently waiting in our garden for the Christmas Ball…

Thank you Deirdra. Unfortunately, I can’t show you what I am creating for Deridra as 1) it’s not yet finished and 2) I want Deridra to be the first to see it ... another week or so....

It’s been a lovely quiet and creative week – I had my second last life drawing class in this series of lessons. I also spent a couple of days (nights) doing some beading and some sculpting. Last night, we went to see the preview performance of Henri Szep’s one man show “Wish I’d Said That”. I really enjoyed his performance based on speeches of leading characters in various plays. I loved the “Marlon Brando” excerpts from “Tea House of the August Moon”. ( That play was the first theatrical performance I had ever been in – my sister was about 5 years old and I was 10 – we had very small "walk on" parts. Actually we didn’t "walk on" much – we had to climb on the bonnet of a vehicle and it was driven off the stage.) However, last night, my favourite speech in Henri Szep’s show was the one from the musical, “South Pacific” … - a great reminder that people are not born prejudiced.

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear
You’ve got to be taught from year to year
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade
You’ve got to be carefully taught. by Oscar Hammerstein

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...

Fragments

Some days are just your lucky days - today I was very fortunate and privileged to open the first ever Australian exhibition "Fragments" by UK Fibre Artist Sue Hotchkis . Here is a little about the techniques of this amazing textile artist from her own website ... Working intuitively with print and stitch, marks, textures and colours are exaggerated, intensified to reveal the detail and complexity within the images. Materials are deconstructed using modern methods, ripped, burnt and dyed. Time is invested in their reconstruction; pieces can take from a week to several months to create. Whilst being aesthetically pleasing the work can also act as a metaphor for deterioration and ruin, associated with urban decay and ultimately death and loss. They evolve organically, built up with layers of print, cloth, paper, and stitch into three-dimensional abstract forms that hover between object and image; to create a unique, visual and tactile lan...

Christmas Countdown 25... Christmas Tree #1

Background : It has become a bit of a Christmas tradition for me to write an Advent blog - a series of posts leading into Christmas from 1 December . In the past, I have featured Christmas characters by the alphabet, all you ever needed to know about Christmas cakes, Christmas Firsts and Christmas traditions. I usually find myself on 30 November, thinking what to do this year? However, I've had the idea of "crazy " Christmas trees in the back of my mind since last year. So this year, it's about non- traditional, unusual, crazy, weird Christmas trees. There will also be a "handmade" element to my posts, so there may even be some links to tutorials or other ideas.... So here we go. Christmas Countdown 25 - 1 December. Source : https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/455285843573622091 This is the image which started this line of thought.... a yarn bombed, crochet granny square Christmas tree. I though...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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