Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

My niece has written about my recent exhibition and has included her opening speech.... Here is the   link to the blog post.

Taste of Textiles opening Taste of Textiles exhibition What's New Food meets fibre in Taste of Textiles exhibition Calling all lovers of food and fibre art! A new exhibition and book, being launched at Newcastle's Timeless Textiles Gallery in December, celebrates a passion for exotic, seasonal food with the rich textures of fibre arts. The  Taste of Textiles  exhibition brings together work from 20 fibre artists from around the world to display their passion for textile art, cooking and growing food. It will appeal to everyone with a love of food and a flair for the creative. The contributing artists have represented a variety of vivid produce in their works, including the humble potato, mushy mulberries, beetroot, saffron and rose petals. Each has created a visual narrative based on, and inspired by, their love for that particular produce. Inspired by the artists' passion, much-loved local cook Bev Whitehead has created and t

Last week, I rediscovered a few gourds "drying" in our garage... In fact, I was searching for them after doing a doll making workshop where we transformed gourds into doll bodies, with the addition of polymer clay and apoxie sculpt.  I have researched a little to identify the gourds I have - they seem closest to the water jug shape gourds. The gourds we used in the workshop were Chinese bottle gourds.  my gourd doll - a flower child /hippy fiddler?  Workshop dolls - Christmas sprite by Jane Lambert , and my doll  Flower doll also completed in the workshop by Lee Hennequin  Balloon seller - gourd art doll by tutor, Janice Laurent  Working with gourds made me very curious about the history and cultivation of gourds. A  gourd   is a plant of the family  Cucurbitaceae  or the fruit of the two genera of "calabash tree" .  The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Likely one of the earliest dom