Creative Beginning

Polymer clay head by Bobbi Oliver

Happy New Year - cheery fellow isn't he? What a creative beginning to 2013 I 've had. A visit to my friend's studio always motivates me. This week, I was there for only a few hours and came home with new knowledge and ideas. Bobbi Oliver, from Lamboart is a talented figurative sculptor and art doll maker. Her partner, Jane Lambert ( hence the name, Lamboart) is also a talented paper artist. Their studio is alive with creativity, fun, laughter and joy.

Bobbi and some of her works in progress

Bobbi demonstrating clay techniques.

Bobbi has also helped me with the beginning of the "Spreading Wings" project for International Women's Day. Here is the link to the fantastic event, with a new sponsor - the City of Newcastle , Making your Place program. Read more about this by following the link ... in summary, "Spreading Wings " is a series of textile art skills workshops where small swatches of fibre art will be made to create a large bird sculpture. Here is what Bobbi has made as a beginning - the framework of the sculpture.

If all of this excitement wasn't enough, I curated a group exhibition - the textile art of 27 artists from Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists ( NCEATA). The exhibition entitled "Unique Stitches" is diverse, colourful, skilled and artistic. I am really proud to be a member of this very creative group - congratulations NCEATA on a stunning display of unique textile art and a dazzling opening night with a capacity crowd last Thursday.

"Unique Stitches" is open until 18 January at Timeless Textiles,

7 Beaumont Street, Islington (Newcastle) NSW.

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The Sea - for Tag Tuesday

For the current challenge "The Sea" at Tag Tuesday, I made a couple of painted/ hand drawn tags . These were created from a piece of watercolour paper which had been sprayed with acrylic paint - blue, yellow and quinacridone gold. I then sketched over the top , trying to follow some pattern created by the splatter and then add some felt tip pen lines watercolour pencil to highlight the shapes. The tags represent the fantasies of the hidden city of Atlantis and a mermaid. With this theme in mind, I also add a free motion stitched tag I made earlier this year for 29 Faces -

In the Pink

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Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

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Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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