Skip to main content

Australia Day 2014

Photo - our neighbourhood 
 26  January  - the date of the official national day in Australia. This day marks the anniversary of the British  landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788. In contemporary Australia, its significance has become more inclusive, recognizing  and celebrating the diversity of our community. It is the day many become new citizens of Australia and we are all asked to reaffirm our citizenship.
 As an Australian citizen
I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people,
whose democratic beliefs I share,
whose rights and liberties I respect,
and whose laws I uphold and obey.

To mark this special day, here are some images of past favourite tags with an Australian flavour - flashback from my work in early 2013. 
Eucalypt leaves - sun sensitive paint on cotton fabric. 
Grevillea 'Robyn Gordon' :  flower  print on fabric, with additional  colour - felt tip pen & pencil 
Acacia (wattle) : applique 

Banksia : digital print on fabric with hand stitching  
Callistemon (bottlebrush) : hand embroidery on even weave linen
Dryandra : organza and felt , cut with soldering iron, machine embellished and stitched. 
Happy Australia Day! 
PS And Happy Birthday to our 10 year old grandson!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Too Precious to Waste

 Stitched tea bags/ old doily "tea lights" - Wilma Simmons  More than a year ago, a decision was made.  The annual exhibition of NCEATA ( Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists) 2015-2016 will have the theme "Mottainai". Mottainai in Japanese refers to more than just physical waste (resources). It is even used to refer to thought patterns that give rise to wasteful action. Grammatically, it can be used in Japanese as an exclamation ("mottainai!") or as an adjective phrase ("it feels mottainai"). There is no plural form. The collection of mottainai things could be called mottainai koto ( もったいない事 ? ). As an exclamation ("mottainai!") it means roughly "what a waste!" or "Don't waste." [2]  A simple English equivalent is the saying "waste not, want not." A more elaborate meaning conveys a sense of value and worthiness and may be translated as "do not destroy (or lay waste to) that

'Anything Goes" and It Does Matter.

 When 'anything goes", does it follow that "nothing matters" ? .... I think not.  When I interpret "anything goes", I think it means taking a few risks and experiment, but also care about what you are doing and finding a purpose in the process.  Currently, the Tag Tuesday theme is "Anything Goes" ... This describes my daily art practice at the moment. I am doing #the100dayproject and each day I am responding to weekly published colour prompts #coloricombo, curated by  artist, Este McLeod.  During the last week, the suggested colours were jade green, primrose, vermillion and  purple grey.  Each day, I've been trying to experiment with colour and technique with the goal of developing and learning.  Here are some of the tags I created using these colours, or at least as close as I could manage with stuff from my stash...  I have titled these "Fragments from Afar" as all of them feature an image or a postage stamp from somewhere far from

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as wrapping str