Skip to main content

Bush Folk Drawings

... On all the big Gum trees there are Gumnut Babies. Some people see them and some don't, but they see everybody and everything.... They love to sit in the sunshine ,warming various parts of themselves while they think. They think of everything and wonder why.... ( from May Gibbs: Gumnut Babies)
I have just completed a commissioned series of small watercolour paint, pencil and pen drawings  based on the stories of May Gibbs, Australian folklore author. She did not have a Hakea, Geraldton Wax nor a Grevillea character in her stories, but these are beautiful plants flowering at the moment in my garden, so they were included.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

May I Present Mrs Chalumeau...

Finally Mrs Chalumeau takes a bow …She is a Pearly Queen … 695 buttons on the doll and 10 on the journal.(I think – could be more). I would like to thank Paula from Antiques and Collectables here in Hamilton, Newcastle and Raku Buttons ETSY seller for supplying me with about 500 of the vintage mother of pearl buttons, and the rest I had in my stash. I think they look great on my pearly queen, but I am truly tired of sewing on buttons. It made me think however, how many buttons must be on the elaborate clothes of the real pearly Kings and Queens! I drew my inspiration from the lovely lady pictured here, and the following description from Wikipedia. ... A Pearly King ( feminine form Pearly Queen) is a person dressed in a traditional Cockney costume covered in mother-of-pearl buttons. These costumes were treasured heirlooms, hand made and sometimes representing much of a family's wealth. .... This doll is all cloth – a little different from most of my other dolls which generally h

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes  - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary.   Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's  Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers).  This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach.    Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that work up

Divas? Goddesses? Sages?

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