A spider sandwich for lunch?

Close -up of the base of "witch with sticks' art doll

Did you know that if you were a witch, eating a spider sandwich could give you special powers?
Rosemary Ellen Guiley says in her Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca that in some traditions of folk magic, a black spider “eaten between two slices of buttered bread” will imbue a witch with great power. If you’re not interested in eating spiders, some traditions say that catching a spider and carrying it in a silk pouch around your neck will help prevent illness... So, while creating my art doll witch, a spider was always there amongst the drawings and plans.

rough drawing of an idea for the base of the doll

I rarely take photos during the process of making a doll, only because I get so engaged in the making I forget to take a photo at each step of the way . I am not entirely comfortable creating witches, so I took a few photos of my process.... when I remembered....

sculpted head in progress

hand armatures - wire and tape

fired head and hands - some problems with the hands so they were redone

basic colouring of the face

stamping hand dyed cotton - it was later painted with acrylics

bunch of left over threads , perfect hair!

threads sewn roughly to a circle of stocking and glued to the head

trying on the body.

draping a bamboo fibre 'skirt' around a base of sticks

same bamboo fibre used as a cape, deepened face colour

attached arms and hands and placement of props ( sticks)

finishing the base - painted base to blend with sticks, and added the 'spider'/

"Spider sandwich, anyone?"

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 7

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day7 ‘Historical’ ... Family history is often a source of inspiration and information for my work. This stitched work featuring a photo of my great grandmother also acts as a commentary on the Chinese historical practice of foot binding, hence the inclusion of an x ray photograph of a female bound foot. It looks painful and undoubtedly was , but it was considered 'beautiful". What contemporary body shaping practices do we still engage in for the sake of ‘beauty’? Historical body shaping practices included tight-lacing corsets, foot binding, and neck elongation , all used to mould the human form into culturally defined ideals of beauty. (AI overview) Foot Binding in China Starting from Song elites and eventually popularized and ended in the Qing dynasty, foot binding was seen as an idolized representation of women's petite beauty, and the practice was referred to as "三寸金莲" , 'three-inch golden lotus' Wikipedia . This practice...

#SeptTextileLove26 Day8

SeptTextileLove #stl26day8 ‘Inspiring Exhibition’ … earlier this year , the Wednesday Makers Group at Timeless Textiles ( Newcastle, Australia) celebrated International Women’s Day with their exhibition, “Inspiring Women in Stitch’ - congratulations - inspiring women honouring inspiring women . link to video

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 4

#septtextilelove #stl26day4 … Story-telling … making ‘art dolls’ gives wonderful opportunities to tell stories … This matriarch’s story is intertwined with the cicadas which form part of the soft sculpture and emphasises what appears to be a contradiction about nurturing life and inevitable death... Cicadas spend years underground as nymphs feeding on root sap, emerging en masse as winged adults for a few days, perhaps a week, to mate and lay eggs in tree branches, then die, leaving the eggs to hatch into new nymphs that burrow underground to restart the cycle. The dormant underground phase of the cicada’s life can be from 2-17 years! In my interpretation, this forest matriarch offers a safe place for cicadas to lay eggs, only to cause their own demise … but the continuing life cycle is ensured.

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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