Arty Places #16 :Renegade Handmade

On a recent visit to my home town, Townsville in North Queensland, I was really happy and super impressed to discover an arty place I hadn't heard of before...Renegade Handmade. I visited this delightful "handmade" gift shop on a Saturday morning. It was 23 July 2016 - a warm day for Winter. The arcade was abuzz with people indulging in coffee and snacks, shopping at the fresh food market and browsing and enjoying the various trendy and bespoke shops in the arcade.

This scene was hardly the Townsville of my childhood and I am embarrassed to admit that it surprised me that the atmosphere was so cosmopolitan , contemporary and "with-it".

I applaud Renegade Handmade for its vision for both the shop and the markets - to offer "opportunities for makers to mix with shoppers in an environment that is supportive and nurturing of handmade." That nurturing support was obvious - the art was well displayed, presented with style and respect.

I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to browse leisurely amongst the varied work of many artists and artisans and listening to the murmurs of delight and discovery by others doing the same as they happened upon a special treasure which appealed. The work was of a high standard and quite a few items were exceptional because of an unusual or unexpected design. Assistance was always nearby and readily attentive when asked for, when a collector like my sister sought specific items.

Of course, both my sister and I made purchases. Neither of us has ever needed an excuse to "buy" something we don't really need, and who can resist the temptation here to buy and support local "handmade" and know that whatever you buy is unique! We were both so impressed with the packaging, too!

I really recommend a visit the Renegade Handmade Gift Shop if you visit or reside in Townsville or check out their Facebook page. Make sure you have a few hours to spare because you will also want to look around The Katz Alley ( vintage and rockabilly) and Otto's Food Market( fresh produce, handmade bread and pies and brewed coffee) all in the same shopping arcade - Warrina Shopping Centre, Illuka Street, Currajong . If you are feeling even more energetic, try ice skating in the tropics, in the same complex or if you just want to chill out, take in a movie in the nearby cinema.

The last words about Renegade Handmade belong to the creative founder in this short video following.

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...

29 Faces

"29 Faces " is an online art challenge - blog and Facebook . The challenge is to create a face each day of September ( with one day for catch up) .... I decided to take up the challenge to practise drawing faces for my dolls and to practise techniques with coloured pencils. I received a set of 60 pencils from my daughter last Christmas so I wanted to be sure I used them before next Christmas! I love making tags so I combined tag making with "29 Faces", so I will also have some unique Christmas gift tags for gift giving this year. Here are the first 9 faces for the first 9 days of September

Covid Man and Book Print

This is my tag for the current theme at Tag Tuesday - Book Print. I like using text as a background for tags and today, I reduced one of my recent line drawings and printed it on a small book page .... as you can see, the book's chapter is entitled "Of Holy Living and Dying ( from The Book of Books) . I thought this was appropriate as this 'Covid man' drawing depicts Nature happily thriving while man appears to be "unravelling " at the edges of body and mind... Original drawing - Wilma Simmons Silk screen print on fabric : Wilma Simmons Silk screen print on paper : Wilma Simmons And here are some other tags on book print backgrounds - these are free motion stitched "Nature" portraits done earlier in the year.

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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