Arty Alphabet Days 1-5

My cousin alerted me to this Instagram challenge called #everydaycreativeatoz hosted by artist, Jennifer Cockcroft . Here is a summary of what Jennifer says about this challenge in her blog

"Everyday Creative A to Z challenge!

This really is as simple as it sounds - every day the prompt will be a letter of the alphabet (we'll work through them in order so nobody gets confused!), and all you have to do is post something related to that letter.

I want you to really let your imagination run free with this and post whatever you like!

I know we're in the lead up to Christmas, but there's absolutely no requirement for you to post festive images if that's not your thing - or if you're a total Christmas freak then please go right ahead!

You could stick to a theme in your posts, or mix and match each day depending on your inspiration.....

You get the idea - there really are no rules with this, and if you like you can switch and change and post something different every day, or skip some days and just pick your favourite letters."

Here are my first five days ...
A&B : Because I didn't actually start until 28 November, I used one photo for both letters. ART and BALDNESS . This is a photo of me, soon after I shaved my head for a charity fundraising supporting the Zero Children's Cancer Campaign. The art is by Brisbane based artist, Sylvia Watt whose portraits here are obviously of bald women. This photo set a theme for me for the rest of the challenge to post an "arty" alphabet...
C: COW COLLAGE Followers of this blog know that I tear up bits of paper and use them in an attempt to create artistic collages. I sometimes include postage stamps in those collages after being inspired by the work of Jette Clover earlier in the year. Jette encouraged us all to try to practise art each day with a simple exercise of making a small collage for a card - here's one of them!
D: DAY of the DEAD DOLL I created this doll after winning a set of fabric markers in a raffle. It started with a piece of white cotton and I drew on it , sewed it up, filled it with fibre fill and then painted over the edges of the raw fabric.
E: EMBROIDERED EGG and EGG CUPS I have been collecting egg cups for over 40 years, so I have a large collection.... I like to stitch temari too. So here is an embroidered egg sitting in one of my eggcups with part of my egg cup collection in the background. Just for the record, we love boiled eggs!
Watch this space for other posts about my arty alphabet .... and soon a Christmas Countdown for Advent!

12 Days .... festive or not?

Days 5 & 7 - the Gold Rush Era Stamp Series It seems so long ago now since we were celebrating Christmas and New Year.... hope you enjoyed a great festive season. I took some time out, not doing much at all but I did set myself a little challenge of doing some tidying up which meant spending a little time each day using scraps of fabric and paper to create something a little playful or as the mood took, useful! Unlike the long projects I usually undertake, this was a 12 day project ( 12 days of Christmas ) - completely random, but finishing half done projects or recycling. For example the first photo shows some collages I did on days 5 and 7 to use a postage stamp release, the Gold Rush Era series, first issued in Australia 1981 ... yes I probably have had it in my stash since then! Completing some other little projects was very satisfying .... On Day 1, I assembled a folded paper folk cube from a kit my daughter gifted to me las...

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...

Too Precious to Waste

Stitched tea bags/ old doily "tea lights" - Wilma Simmons More than a year ago, a decision was made. The annual exhibition of NCEATA ( Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists) 2015-2016 will have the theme "Mottainai". Mottainai in Japanese refers to more than just physical waste (resources). It is even used to refer to thought patterns that give rise to wasteful action. Grammatically, it can be used in Japanese as an exclamation ("mottainai!") or as an adjective phrase ("it feels mottainai"). There is no plural form. The collection of mottainai things could be called mottainai koto ( もったいない事 ? ). As an exclamation ("mottainai!") it means roughly "what a waste!" or "Don't waste." [2] A simple English equivalent is the saying "waste not, want not." A more elaborate meaning conveys a sense of value and worthiness and may be translated as "do not destroy (or lay waste to) that ...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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