Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

It was my birthday last week, so join in the celebrations, leave a comment  and  be automatically included in the draw to win this giveaway. The gift is a plaited wool scarf  and a pair of earrings. The scarf is handmade.  I bought the earrings to support a charity, so am very happy to include them in the gift  as a charity has also enjoyed some benefit.  ,   I will randomly choose a winner on Wednesday 7 August,  5pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. This is not a condition of entering this giveaway ,  but I would really appreciate it if you visited and  liked my Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/Empress.Wu.Designs  ; or followed me on Pinterest   http://pinterest.com/empresswu/ or  occasionally visited my photostream on  Flickr    http://www.flickr.com/photos/empresswu/ Good luck!

  “Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.”  ―  Markus Zusak ,  I am the Messenger Image : Collage Tag for Tag Tuesday, Theme - Italy. 

This last week, I have been seeing red ...  No, I am not angry at all , quite the opposite. I am happy with my work but it  is  all red! Little red felted projects like the red character brooch above - a red jester? a  red king? and the red doll, I've called  Red Poppies. These were amongst the samples I made for a workshop last weekend at ATASDA Australian Textile Art and Surface Decoration Association. I have also been very lucky to have been given an embroidery sewing machine which is amazing - it requires no creative input from me. All I do is thread the machine up and press a button. I have always loved red work and decided this was a good place to start using this machine. Here are the beginnings of some little gift bags - am I really thinking of Christmas ?  Hope your week brings you a special "red letter' day. ( Red letter day: a memorable, joyful day) 

"Wise Words Wednesday" is a new idea for my blog... I will still be posting my regular updates about my art work, but this will be a little extra post now and then.  I have been collecting wise sayings for a few years and wondered why I haven't shared them. Many of them have been included on wooden tags on my message stick dolls, but most of them are just written in a notebook. Here are today's wise words featured on this message stick doll, designed for Christmas. ' “Peace is always beautiful.”  ―  Walt Whitman ,  Leaves of Grass      tags:  peace ,  poetry Read more quotes from  Walt Whitman   (from www.goodreads.com) 

red felt carnelian wrap - close up   I n May I had a wonderful opportunity to do a workshop with Sachiko Kotaka, renowned felt maker, origami and performance artist.   www.sachkokotaka.com Sachiko Kotaka workshop    I learnt a lot from Sachiko – her unique origami/kirigami and   weaving felting techniques    as well as the virtue of patience in creating art and   repeatedly practising techniques to develop competence.  This last week I think the winter blues got the better of me, so I practised some of Sachiko’s techniques and “felt” a lot better. I was really happy with the wrap I made during the week – so happy,  I wore it to a function on Saturday night. red felt carnelian wrap  It is a nuno felted wrap, using beautiful merino wool, a scrap of sheer fabric ( I cannot remember    what it is or where it came from)  and some disks of carnelian from my bead stash. I really like carnelian, not only for its colour but also for its properties which some sources claim are