Recalling the 1920's

In my doll makers group , Gumnut Dollies Newcastle, this year our theme is "The Twenties".  So, on the weekend, I consciously had images of the 1920's firmly in my mind when I did a sculpting class with West Australian artist, Linda Misa. 

Not really looking like anything 1920's until the paint goes on.... the next day. 

And below are a few of our tutor's beautiful sculptures .... so much personality. 

Playing with Photos

One of the things I like to do when I have a bit of spare time is play with photos I've taken ... today, when I didn't have spare time, I played nevertheless . 

Having printed out black and white copies, I very quickly and roughly applied watercolours to the prints, and further cropped to make some interesting Facebook cover images. 

Nest & Wings for a "Spring" Tag Tuesday - 29 Faces continued.

I am really hoping that a bird in a nest and a set of wings with a butterfly might be considered signs of "spring". At Tag Tuesday, the theme is "Spring is in the Air" so I am hoping that these two free motion stitched tags might be acceptable.  The stitching is done on my Bernina 550 machine - straight stitching, free motion - with the feed dogs lowered and a "darning" foot. I usually don't  draw first, but with both of these I did make pencil marks to delineate the positions of the person and the bird in the nest and the placement of the wings( below) 

These two are also in the series of 29 for #29 Faces online challenge to create a face every day in the month of February. 

Does Mood Affect Speed ? 29 Faces continued

As most of my blog readers know, I am completing the #29 Faces Challenge - this challenge is to create a face a day for the month of February - any art medium. 

I chose to stitch faces, using free motion machine stitching - basically it means sketching with a sewing machine by moving the material around while the machine stitches. ( different from the computerised machine embroidery where a design is pre-determined and completed automatically) 

This week I have been monitoring the speed  I use my sewing machine as my sketching tool  during the creation of the stitched faces, experimenting and using different ratios of speed - hand:foot - some of the results have been good and others not so fantastic.... my aim is to get better control, so it seems to be a matter of coordination,  too - a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. 

I referred to another stitching blog ... 

Expert advice from Tigley Textiles, UK : 

 You may well be an experienced stitcher, in which case your brain is used to seeing the fabric move quickly the harder you press the foot pedal. With free motion machine embroidery, you have to forget that relationship. My motto is – Fast foot, Slow hands. It seems so strange at first, but after a while you’ll see that you don’t have to move the fabric quickly- but it helps if you keep the revs up. You are aiming for a smooth drawn line of stitching. If you move the fabric too quickly, the stitches  will be too long, equally if you leave your fabric in the same place and continue to stitch, the stitches will build up to create a raised blob of stitches. The success of your stitching totally depends on the synchronisation of the speed at which you move the fabric, with the speed at which you press your foot down. This does take practise, but do persevere. Don’t feel like it’s running away with you, you are in control. Once you have “clicked”, you will always pick up that speed next time you set up the machine, it is just like riding a bike.

Remember that free machine embroidery is supposed to be quirky and whimsical and free looking. If it’s a bit wobbly and jagged, just go over the shape a second time,  make it look like it was meant to be.  Quirky is good and gives your work character. The main thing is that you need to play! Just go for it and see what happens- yes you will make mistakes but that’s the only way to learn isn’t it?

 The comparison of machine speed to the speed and fluidity of the manual handling of the fabric obviously affects the stitching,  but I suspect there may be another factor... mood. I have also  been registering my mood as I work the machine faster or slower and the way I move the fabric around.... One of the days this week  I felt very stressed and I seemed to work a lot faster and ironically, the sewn "sketch" was in fact a lot better, I thought - as per the advice above , " Fast foot, slow hands"!  While the speed ratio is important, I am beginning to think coordination and being in  the right mood or frame of mind seems to be pre-requisites for free motion machine embroidery.  

I wonder if you can tell from the different faces which might have been stitched when I was sad, mad, happy or relaxed?

Dotee Divertissement

Dotee by Wendy Anderson 

What is a "dotee' doll? ...  A dotee is a mini art doll, meant to be traded or swapped. The dolls 6 inches /15 cm tall or smaller, but the hanger or tail can exceed that measurement. They have a face, but do not require arms or legs. Dotees have a loop for hanging, and come with tails (tails are fibres, ribbon, charms or other string-y things that add to the theme of the doll). Dotees can be made from a variety of materials - fabric, felt, paperclay, yarn, beads, gourds or any other material/media that you can make a doll from. Most dotee makers add buttons, beads, sequins, embroidery, or charms to embellish the doll.

Dotee dolls by Wilma Simmons

At the February meeting of Gumnut Dollies Newcastle, the group activity was to revisit these little dolls, which were very popular for doll swaps around the world about 10 years ago. As our theme for 2020 is The Twenties, the little flapper girl face buttons were a good start.... 

Dotee dolls by Connie Allen

Dotee dolls more than often have hand drawn faces, so the beautifully painted face by Wendy Scott was perfect for a dotee . Wendy also got creative with the shape of the doll. 

Dotee Dolls by Wendy Scott 

The other idea was to cover a button with printed faces .

Dotty dotees by Wilma Simmons 

Christmas dotee by Wilma Simmons 

I am going to make more of these and will most likely revisit my own tutorial . All that will be needed to turn these beaded goddesses into dotee is to add a fanciful tail ( as pictured in the pattern image) .

Tutorial : Beaded Goddesses

As you can see these dotee are very simple to make but a warning ... making dotees can be mildly addictive! ... And "divertissement" - a minor entertainment or diversion - seems exactly the right word to describe "dotee"

29 Faces - Days 3-6 - which machine?

Continuing with my #29 faces series of stitched faces. Day 5 "owl"  was stitched using my Bernina B550  and the others  were stitched with my really old Bernina Nova ( probably manufactured in 1980s or earlier) I am still not sure which I prefer using.... the old machine works really well for free motion stitching because I can change the settings so much more easily as there are no electronics involved. During this month, I will use both - can you tell the difference from looking at the results? 

Black, White and Red - 29 Faces

Black , White and Red - a favourite colour combination! Tag Tuesday has this as its current theme. 

Here is my tag .... a stitched face. I use my sewing machine as my drawing implement.... a technique called free motion stitching or free hand machine embroidery. Of course, nothing is symmetrical or perfect but this is quite easy to do. Just lower or cover the feed dogs on your sewing machine, and move the fabric around manually while stitching and so the sewing machine "draws" a line, free hand.  In the photo, the black line is the stitched line - what I try to do is an unbroken line, so often I go over and over the same line to get to the next  section of stitching.

When I have finished stitching, I cut around the stitching and attach the face to a prepared painted tag with heat applique. Then, I use Inktense pencils to colour  features and/or shade the face.  In "Spots" I have also appliqued the clothing and the head wear.  'Spots" is the first in my current series #29 Faces. The faces are on larger #8 manilla  shipping tags and  are a development from a previous series of art tags , called 'Red Cheeks' 

'Red Cheeks' 1-9 - stitched faces  

The  "Red Cheeks" portraits  are much smaller but were created in exactly the same way. I thought it would be easier to do larger portraits but the first two have proven that this so far isn't the case.   I much prefer working smaller! 

'Red Cheeks" 10-18 - stitched faces

I am currently participating in the February 2020 Art Challenge - 29 Faces , so I created for myself a month of prompts just to keep myself on track each day.... " Spots " is the first of my 29 faces . 

" Fruit" below is the second.... not only black, white and red, but a few other hints of colour, again applied with pencil. 

My goal for #29 Faces is the daily practice of stitching a face each day for February  and improved fluidity of motion and control of my sewing machine during free motion stitching. I am also looking forward  to exploring the potential of using Inktense pencils on cloth.  Hope you will see improvement as you follow posts of my work during the month - please watch this space for more.... 

Winter and Celebrations - Tags

While it seems rather strange to be creating "winter "themed tags in scorching summer weather, this was the theme for Tag Tuesday.... I created two tags, with similar backgrounds and added a stamped figure which I coloured a little to give it a bit more life, and to the other, a die cut bird. The backgrounds are collaged and then partially covered with digitally printed organza. 

I have not been participating in Tag Tuesday for some time and have missed the regular tag making, so this year, I will try much harder. I had good intentions and started the previous theme "celebrations'. I didn't quite get around to finishing on time, but here they are now.... featuring postage stamps on a collaged background. 

Pop over to Tag Tuesday to see other artists' tags and take the opportunity to join in for the next theme. 

Travel Chronicles : Charting the Unexplored.

A Chronicle is a record of things that happened — told in chronological order...  The word is  related to and  comes from the Greek ta khronika, which means “annals of time.” 

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While we today blog or instagram photos of our travels,  I imagine travellers of the past might have recorded, on rolled scrolls, their journeys and their discoveries each night after a full day of adventures. This was the inspirations for my table top installation, called "Travel Chronicles : Charting the Unexplored". 

The work comprises three mixed media scrolls of varying size and length, created from mark making with ink on papers and fabric,  collage and stitching. 

The addition of a flat art doll, in the style of a traveller of a previous era gives a context to these scrolls. 

While I have not included text in these scrolls, the mark making suggests that the language is universal.... I have even imagined that these chronicles may be a record of intergalactic travels. 

Now featured in my Etsy shop 

Bush Lily : Felt Art Doll

I often use interesting plants as my inspiration and Bush Lily is no exception. This is a wet felted art doll with a polymer clay face. The face has been moulded from one of my own original sculptures and yes, it does have a  rather sad  and glum look.  No wonder, Nature currently has been taking a battering from  extreme climate events. 

It is no secret that one of my favourite plants is the Gymea Lily . Botanically known as Doryanthes excelsa, the gymea lily  is a flowering plant  found in the  coastal areas of New South Wales . They grow very well around Sydney and surrounding areas like the Newcastle region where I live.  It has sword-like leaves more than 1 metre long and it grows a flower spike up to 6 metres high. 

The body of the doll was wet felted first as a hollow tube, with a plastic resist so there are no seams in the shape. Different coloured slivers of wool were introduced into the last layer of wool to blend colours for the doll body. 

A separate "flower" was felted , also using a small wax resist to create multiple layers of petals . The flower was then needle felted to the fibre filled body shape. 

The body was then stitched - the base stitched together and decorative hand embroidery with a wooden leaf charm.  After the  polymer face was cured and coloured with a basic wash, it was  attached /stitched to the body .... Bush Lily! 

Bush Lily is available now in my Etsy shop