Skip to main content

Great Start to a Bright New Year

No, I wasn't here either - this photo is courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald,  but I was at the "Not the New Year's Eve Concert - Live the Music" at the Sydney Opera House  to celebrate the end of 2010.
It was a really fantastic concert with bright talented stars - soloist and orchestral musicians and opera singers. The venue was also magical . It doesn't matter how many times you visit the Opera House, each time is special . The architecture is amazing, the harbour sparkles and the concert hall is wondrous.



 What else have I done to herald the New Year?  I finally gave in and went to a SALE. I don't usually bother with the post-Christmas sales, but I just couldn't resist this skirt. It was still expensive even at half price, but it reminded me of a  wonderful boat ride down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo and it fitted me!
With the deadlines for the Art Dolls Only Challenges on New Year's Day, I have also been spending a lot of hours finishing off the two dolls for the Monthly and Quarterly Challenges. The December challenge was Jack Frost. It seemed a bit strange to be working on an icy themed doll when the temperature the other day was 39 degrees. I made "snowflakey" fabric with free form machine embroidery on water soluble fabric.


The doll I made for the other challenge "Copy the Masters" was inspired by the figure, Flora in  the masterpiece "Primavera" (Trumph of Spring) by Botticelli. She is a "stump" doll, with a cloth covered polymer clay head. I was rather fortunate finding a remnant voile, which was quite like the gown in the painting.

Hope you have enjoyed a great start to a bright new year, too.
PS Here is a link to a great youtube video of art dolls - mine is there too at the party. Just click....
Fair, Candy Floss and Pommes d'Amour
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 Anonymous comments will not be published.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

Non-Committal Collage Anything Goes

Have you heard of non-committal collage?   I hadn't until one of the other participants of the 100 Day Project started doing this each day and showing the results....  Here are  Peggy's  rules :  1. S elect 9 scraps of paper from  collage  box/stash  2. Make three  different compositions using each scrap at least once.  (some pieces can be used more than once)  3. Do not alter the scraps of paper in any way.  4.Do not use glue.  5.Take photo, disassemble and return scraps to box.   I thought this would be a fun and quick exercise to do for Tag Tuesday's theme , Anything Goes... so here are my "non-committal collage" tags....  Did you spot the nine pieces? Would  you like to suggest some titles?   And I repeated the exercise before putting back the 9 scraps of paper, so these are different items.  Hope you will try this exercise -  it is lots of...
1 comment
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

Giveaway - Gifts for You on My Birthday

Giveaway Gifts T his week is blog giveaway time! Last week I celebrated my birthday.  I’ve had far too many to count the candles, but I had a wonderful party on the weekend with my family - with an indulgent birthday cake, favourite foods cooked by my husband and great company. ( In case you were wondering about the writing on the cake , Por Por = Chinese grandmother)     I also got great gifts from  my family and friends. There seemed to be a bit of a theme this year – with many of my gifts and cards depicting matryshoka ( babushka) dolls and tea drinking.   As it is also winter here in Australia ,   it was easy for me to  decide what I could offer as gifts  in this birthday giveaway. All the gifts are handmade by me. Gift 1 - two little fabric matryshoka dolls  Gift 2- a little bag made from colourful teapot and teacup fabric . The design is called a jester bag, but it is suitable for carrying s...
24 comments
Read more