Bilby Girl : Traveling Art Doll

Fabric_-Animotion 1994

Further adventures in Australia of the Traveling Art Doll.( please see the previous posts for more information -Australian Inspired Traveling Art Doll and Art Dolls Only Traveling Art Doll)

Today is Anzac Day, so it was a quiet afternoon and I set to completing Lulu's doll. Here is what she looked like early this morning. As Lulu lives in USA, I wanted to give this doll an Australian touch ,too.

Lulu's doll as she arrived.

I had intended to use the"Yalke" design fabric which I used on Martha's doll but once I held it against her body, with the fringed yarn already in place, it just didn't seem to work. This doll has a "spirit" look and I first thought of the Australian classic children's novel, "Playing Beatie Bow" about the ghost girl who couldn't find her way back to 1873.... No....calico pinafore - a bit boring! Then I remembered a vintage looking piece of Australiana fabric with a bright pink gum blossom. I have had this for a very long time. In theory this shouldn't work - the pattern was far too large for this little delicate body, but I just had to use the piece with the gum blossom, so like the fringed yarn.

Machine stitching, Gum blossom fringe from sewing thread.

Frayed fringe and organza underlay.

With a little more of the fringed yarn I had in my own stash and the stitched piece of Animotion, I think she looks like a "bush spirit" ,but why is she so sad?

Australian Bush spirit girl

Then I had a thought - "Animotion "= animal + emotion. She is Binda, the bush spirit girl saddened by the loss of many native animals. . So, I made her a bilby companion from the same fabric. A bilby is a desert dwelling Australian marsupial. One of the species became extinct in the 1950s and the other Macrotis lagotis remains endangered. The term bilby is a word from the Yuwaalaraay Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales, meaning long-nosed rat. In Australia, at Easter, many people replace the Easter Bunny with the Easter Bilby, raising awareness of the campaign to " Save the Bilby" . Binda is also a name of Aboriginal origin meaning " green place".

Binda, the Bilby Girl

Binda will be posted to return home to USA tomorrow, and as there are only three of us in this Art Dolls Only team, I will now wait for my doll to come home. You can see her now at Ayala Art and before at Lulus Apples. Thanks to other members of my team - Ayala Art and Lulus Apple for participating and letting me work on their dolls.

"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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