Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

This week, I finally put the finishing stitches to these little dolls which have been on my work table for some time. You will see that for most of them I used fabric with a horse motif. These were all meant to be ready  for the beginning of the Chinese New Year  "Year of the Horse"  ... Here is the basic process I've used for making these  .... 1. Draw a basic shape,  2. Use it as a template   3. Sew around the outside of the template with the right sides of fabric together  4. Cut from the doubled fabric, leaving a small seam.  5. Turn right side out ( turning tubes are useful)  6. Cut a small slit where the polymer clay face mask will cover. 7. Stuff polyfill through the opening to fill the shape firmly. 8. Stitch up the opening  9. Embroider a  free form design and add beads.  10. Make a small face mask from polymer clay. ( You can use a commercial mould as I did or sculpt your own.)  11. Stitch and/or glue the polymer clay face mask

digital print on tea bag paper, Eucalypt leaf, stitching.  The term "billy tea"refers to tea brewed in a billy can, that is a small can, tin or pot used on a camp fire for boiling water/tea.  So the term "billy up to the fire" basically means, "put the kettle on". And for real billy tea, the addition of a few eucalypt leaves is  the ingredient which makes a difference.  The billy tea  from "Waltzing Matilda" seems a long way away from the story of the origin of the tea, but the scene of a man alone with his thoughts under a tree seems familiar.  The  tea legend goes something like this....   Around 2700 BC, the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, a renowned herbalist, was meditating under a tree while he was waiting for "his billy to boil". . A couple of leaves from a nearby shrub blew into the water without him noticing. When he tasted the resulting brew, he was really amazed by the delightful new taste, and the beverage of tea was bor

                                                                                           Come and celebrate International Women's Day, 8th March 2014 Come and be part of a 14 hour stitch - a - thon to celebrate International Women's Day you're invited to: White Ribbon Stitch - a - thon 2014 Come and stitch with your friends and family - young and old. Drop in anytime between 6 am and 8 pm We are having a 14 hour stitch-a -thon on Saturday March 8th 2014 at Timeless Textiles Gallery. Drop in anytime between 6 am and 8 pm have a chat, a stitch and a drink- and add a stitch or two, an old button or any scrap of fabric to our ever increasing white ribbon. This day will not only recognize the achievements of women in our community but also contribute to the campaign to end violence against women. Stay and celebrate what has been been achieved in 14 hours with drinks and nibbles between 7pm - 8pm on Saturday 8th, launched by Nicola Henley, visiting

Tea on Thursday is becoming Tea on Friday ... but here is number 4 in my preparation for my exhibition later in the year. These are just  small experimental works. Plop your used tea bags , still wet, onto a canvas either stretched or a canvas sheet, Let the tea bags do their work, and remove them  in a few hours - 24 hours is even better. Work with the pattern. You could enhance the pattern with paint, pencils, felt tip pens . In this one, I did some simple embroidery stitches to create "Wistful". 

In our family, children love red envelopes. They signify special occasions, usually a party, and gifts of money. We have just celebrated the beginning of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Horse, with the consumption of amazing amounts of delicious food, mah jong challenges for all ages, and with the giving of red envelopes - lai see ( in Cantonese) and hong bao ( in Mandarin) which contained "lucky" money. Tradition suggests that on auspicious occasions like the lunar new year  and weddings, money in the red envelopes  means blessings and  good luck bestowed on the young by the older generation (the unmarried by the married)  and on the bride and groom by the guests. Some employees are also lucky enough to receive red envelopes from their bosses. It is also a happy custom to give red envelopes of money for special services given like Chinese lion dancers in a new year's performance. Always red, the colour of good luck, the lai see (hong bao) are often gaudi