Skip to main content

The Tea Party or It's OK to be Different

Once upon a time, a group of friends planned a tea party at Miss Camellia’s new home.  What fun… Let’s dress up in our Tilda* finest and we will have lovely treats - cup cakes, finger sandwiches and scones with cream and jam. Everyone can bring a plate. Of course, we will also drink the best tea - French Earl Grey and English Breakfast.
The ladies spent hours poring over their CWA  (County Women’s Association) cook books for the traditional recipes and washed the beautiful bone china cups and saucers in preparation, so that on the day, there was plenty of time  to press neatly their pastel coloured party frocks and for a quick visit to the hairdressers. They all applied their make up with the utmost care and added pretty floral accessories to their outfits in fitting with this special occasion. Looking as perfectly beautiful as “The Stepford Wives”, the ladies all gathered at Miss Camellia’s at precisely 3pm. Oh dear, but don’t look now - Miss Wu is coming up the garden path - and look what she is wearing. Is that really a tea party frock, and anyway who invited her?  She is just not like the rest of us
 Miss Camellia tut tutted, admonishing her friends for their bad manners admitting that she herself had issued the invitation as a welcome to the neighbourhood, and  as they had all declared their  rejection of prejudice and injustice, she knew they would all be overwhelmingly happy to include Miss Wu in their party. It was also evident that Miss Camellia had advised Miss Wu to wear that spectacular pendant.
 Suitably chastened, the tea party ladies thought about their  hasty judgemental comments, smiled, relaxed and genuinely attempted to know more about Miss Wu herself and her exotic dress. What a surprise - she spoke a number of languages, had attended and graduated cum laude from several universities and was a thoroughly nice person - and even loved her scones lavishly spread with homemade strawberry jam and piled high with dollops of cream!  Miss Wu was different, but she was also just like them! 

Photos of Tilda tea cup dolls created by members of Gumnut Dollies Newcastle - http://gumnutdolliesnewcastle.blogspot.com.au/
* Tilda is a craft brand founded by Norwegian designer Tone Finnanger in 1999, best known for its whimsical and naive characters in the form of animals and dolls and cottage chic fabrics.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

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 w...
3 comments
Read more

Giveaway - Gifts for You on My Birthday

Giveaway Gifts T his week is blog giveaway time! Last week I celebrated my birthday.  I’ve had far too many to count the candles, but I had a wonderful party on the weekend with my family - with an indulgent birthday cake, favourite foods cooked by my husband and great company. ( In case you were wondering about the writing on the cake , Por Por = Chinese grandmother)     I also got great gifts from  my family and friends. There seemed to be a bit of a theme this year – with many of my gifts and cards depicting matryshoka ( babushka) dolls and tea drinking.   As it is also winter here in Australia ,   it was easy for me to  decide what I could offer as gifts  in this birthday giveaway. All the gifts are handmade by me. Gift 1 - two little fabric matryshoka dolls  Gift 2- a little bag made from colourful teapot and teacup fabric . The design is called a jester bag, but it is suitable for carrying s...
24 comments
Read more

From my workshop page....

  Current Workshops  Offerings  Thinking of a workshop for your group in  2022?    Art Doll Workshops : -  Garden Thread Dolls  (one day workshop   -  WoW -(Woman of Wisdom)    - embellished stump doll with either cloth head or clay head.  This is an a rt doll workshop .... either offered as a series of workshops or  2 full days  days!   -  Message/Story  Stick doll  - doll made with found objects and upcycled cloth.  ( one day)    -  Elemental totems  - stick doll variation , with sculpture  ( one or two days, depending on surface decoration of fabric)  TEXTILE AND MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOPS    Temari - embroidered wrapped balls in traditional style.    - Dipping Into Tea  - tea and embroidery on canvas with photo transfer on fabric.  ( two days)  work by Judith Bee, workshop participant.  - Tea Bag sculpture : ...
Post a Comment
Read more