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?"

#SeptTextileLove Day 12

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day12 ‘Friendship’ … This is a story of friendship based on the love of textiles and fibre art . Gallerist and artist, Anne Kempton and I have been friends for 15 years , meeting when we had both retired from ‘ top’ jobs in a government department and a high school respectively. Neither of us were the retiring types - Anne was establishing the first commercial textile art gallery in Australia and I was looking for a creative direction. We discovered we were both driven by a sense of social justice and community and shared similar artistic aspirations . Since then, we have co- curated exhibitions, collaborated on many projects. supported community art and women’s causes, and grown in our individual artistic expression - Anne includes more stitching in her work and she has had a more painterly influence on mine . Moreover, this friendship is multifaceted, deep and personal and one I value and treasure . Thank you, Anne.

#SeptTextileLove26 Day11

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day11 ‘Language’ …when symbols in stitch say more than words … my wonderful Wednesday Makers group has undertaken a community peace project ‘Petals for Peace’ - stitched prayer flags depicting flowers , symbolic of peace. . We have stitched many ourselves and other stitchers from all over Australia have also been contributing as an impactful counter to the hate speech which seems to have pervaded our world currently - the powerful language of stitch.

#SeptTextileLove Day 13

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day13 ‘Rethink ’ … Rethinking a work is not unusual for me …sometimes because things just don’t work, but in one recent example , it was because I miscalculated‘ time and the deadline loomed . These small stitched pieces in my head were going to be an archipelago but time beat me before I could stitch the ocean to allow these islands to float.. They ended up in an exhibitions as ‘Meditations on Mercator’ depicting the size distortion of the Mercator cylindrical map projection ! What do you think of the ‘rethink’ ?

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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