Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

For International Women’s Day 2020, the Fearless Flowers Project is raising funds for research into Ovarian Cancer. Every year in Australia, 1600 women are diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and 1000 die. Hunter (NSW) researchers are involved in cutting edge work to improve this mortality rate but they need our financial support.  In Newcastle (NSW, Australia) an group of artists meets every Wednesday at the fibre art gallery, Timeless Textiles in Hunter Street, Newcastle East.  The Wednesday Group  will be making fibre/textile flowers and they will bloom and be sold amongst the Norfolk pines outside the gal lery on 8 March 2020 .   Timeless Textiles and the Wednesday group's previous International Women's Day Projects raising funds for various local  and overseas causes have been:  Spreading Wings  Prayer Flags for Peace  Stitch-a-thon for White Ribbon  Letting Go Flying Free  Out of the Wood  In t...

As it is March, I've been thinking of the saying "Mad as a March hare", so I decided on the " Hares and Rabbits" theme for my turn to design for Tag Tuesday this fortnight. Ever wondered how the saying came about?   Hares have long been thought to behave excitedly in March, which is their mating season. Lewis Carroll is among many who have used this idea in stories - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "The March Hare ... as this is May, it won't be raving mad - at least not so mad as it was in March." More recently this behaviour has been questioned and it is now thought that hares behave oddly - boxing, jumping etc. - throughout their breeding season, which extends over several months. Be that as it may, hares, especially March hares, have that reputation, which will surely stay with them. from https://www.phrases.org.uk   I  prepared three tags and  had lots of fun making these tags. The first (photograph above)  is a fabric collag...

The Apron Project 2019 - The theme is "Her Strength is Her Superpower"   I created a "Strong" apron for the project. It features a photo transfer from one of my original life drawings with free form machine stitching.   All the artists' aprons are donated to raise funds for the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Women's Shelter  - crisis accommodation for women suffering the effects of domestic violence.  Please check out the auction website - there are truly amazing aprons created by some amazing artists. 

Art Tags "Invisble Crown " #4-#6 : Wilma Simmons  Here's my other "favourite" stamp for the Tag Tuesday challenge - "always wear your invisible crown" ... I have used it before, and loved the result of small tags created with the stamp and a  British postage stamp depicting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in a stylised format.  The challenge this time around was to create  with 'brown".  Previously I used the stamp to create a set of "pink" tags. Art Tags "Invisible Crown " #1-#3 : Wilma Simmons   

Art tags - "Caged" series : Wilma Simmons  For Tag Tuesday this fortnight, the challenge is to use a favourite stamp. I don't own a lot of stamps, but I think this open bird cage is one of my favourites which I had not used very much. So here was a good opportunity.... I used a magazine page to stamp on . It already had the blocks of blue and leaves printed on it. I also collaged a few extra leaves, and stamped the cage. I then collaged over the top pictures of birds from the magazine - really very simple!  Pop over to TAG TUESDAY   to see the fantastic tags designed by Tag Tuesday team member, Joan  and all the other art tag contributions to this challenge.  Caged #1  Caged #2  Caged #3

Out of the Wood Auction Out of the Wood is the focus for 2019 yearly fundraiser that The Wednesday Group at Timeless Textiles has been working on for the last year. This group meets each Wednesday between 10.30 am -12.20pm and each year work's on a project for International Women's Day. Out of the Wood is raising funds to support women, especially older women, who are homeless and living in their cars. The Wednesday Group and contributing artists from around the world have been creating mixed media artworks using recycled timber and fibres, using textile art techniques. The timber is recycled hardwood from Newcastle homes and donated by Round2timbers. Bid to fundraise here Here are just a few of the 118 art works for sale....  Assemblage - Margaret Adams  Weaving - Trudi Nisbet  Her House 2 - Linda Swinfield Russian Caravan - Wilma Simmons  Woodland Character - Bobbi Oliver  Leaves - Suzie Parkes...