Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Have you heard of non-committal collage?   I hadn't until one of the other participants of the 100 Day Project started doing this each day and showing the results....  Here are  Peggy's  rules :  1. S elect 9 scraps of paper from  collage  box/stash  2. Make three  different compositions using each scrap at least once.  (some pieces can be used more than once)  3. Do not alter the scraps of paper in any way.  4.Do not use glue.  5.Take photo, disassemble and return scraps to box.   I thought this would be a fun and quick exercise to do for Tag Tuesday's theme , Anything Goes... so here are my "non-committal collage" tags....  Did you spot the nine pieces? Would  you like to suggest some titles?   And I repeated the exercise before putting back the 9 scraps of paper, so these are different items.  Hope you will try this exercise -  it is lots of...

" Do you draw first?" - I am often asked this question about my works which are collaged and machine stitched, like these from #The100DayProject.  In the last post, I shared a drawing  and the resulting stitched work. (left below) The simple answer to the question is 'yes' ....but ... I can't claim that  these are drawings - they are more like 30 second sketches.  In the top photo, you can see that I have photographed  a scene from my front verandah and I also sketched it very quickly and not accurately , blocking in shapes with multi directional lines. Then the drawing has been scaled to fit my preferred size for a wearable art pin - I also took some artistic licence and omitted the house. Sometimes I work directly from the photo doing a similar thing - adding and subtracting elements for the sake of the design.  \   And here is the stitched interpretation of the sketch....  Day 21 #100pinpoems  "Morning mist softens...

Details of 17 &18 #100pinpoems Days 17 and 18 of #The100DayProject , I decided to stitch the wearable  pins rather than collage them with paper and/or fabric.  I diverted a little from my original plan for the 100 days.... I free machine embroidered them on my sewing machine - a very simple, quick and easy technique of drawing with thread. The technique involves moving the fabric from side to side or up and down,  while the machine is stitching ( with the feed dogs lowered). While the needle and thread are making the marks on the cloth, it is the control of the movement which ensures the marks go where you want them to. You don't need a fancy machine - just straight stitch and a bit of practice.     Sometimes, I work from a photo I've taken but I have also been making very quick sketches and working from them.  They are only a guide to follow, so are not meant to be accurate or artistic.  Sketch for 18 #100pinpoems  ...

As #The100Day project enters its third week, it's time to do a little re-assessing.... the coordinators of the project keep in touch throughout and we are given prompts along the way to encourage us all to keep going. Today's newsletter asked us to ask ourselves these questions ... and my answers are in red. What’s getting you energized lately?  Finishing & posting by 6pm every day,  What are you learning?  To let go and not overthink the process.  What do you do when you don’t feel like doing your project? Just do it.  How are you measuring progress? Blogging  What’s working, and what’s not? Setting a time limit- and keep to it!  And here are my latest two #100pinpoems  15/#100pinpoems   Day 15 was easy . When I woke up, there was a discussion on ABC radio about tea on British National Tea Day....   and the usual questions...  "Debating again Pot or bag, milk first or last?...

Cool colours  As I proceed with #The100DayProject, I often notice that I have a preference for certain colours in a sequence of a few days.   The last three days have certainly been cool colour days.  Cool colours include green, blue, and purple, are often more subdued than warm colours ( the red/organge/yellow palette). Cool colours are reminiscent of night, of water, of nature, and are usually calming, relaxing, and somewhat reserv ed. I am not sure if there is any hidden meaning here - perhaps I am now relaxing into the COVID social isolation restrictions and the slower pace of life?  14/#100pinpoems  Day 14:  Stepping quietly, Too loud an interruption  Startled magpies fly.  Materials: paper, fabric, thread, paint, safety pin  Techniques: painting, stitching, collage.  Day13:  Shy flower faces Spreading soft gentle colour Native violets  Materials: cloth, upcycled doily fragment, t...

Signing in late for the fortnightly challenge "Gold and Silver" for Tag Tuesday.....  This tag is created from a cyanotype* print of a photograph I took a couple of years ago of winter trees in our neighbourhood, with a circular mask. The stitching - couching- is done in gold and silver threads. *Note:  Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. T

Today , Day 11 of #The100Day Project is International Haiku Poetry Day... What is haiku?  Haiku is a type of short poetry that is usually three sentences long. First popularized in Japan in the 17th century, Haiku as a poetry genre has been adopted by many languages around the world. In English, the genre first became mainstream in the early 20th century. In its Japanese avatar, haikus traditionally have three lines with 17 syllables. The first and last sentences have 5 syllables and the second line has 7 syllables. Haiku tend to give an interesting insight about something trivial, usually some aspect of nature or the seasons. from  https://www.timeanddate.com/ 11/#100pinpoems Materials : paper, fabric, thread, safety pin  Techniques: Collage, stitching, painting   Having decided to complete my 100 day Project by each day writing a haiku (or at least a pseudo haiku) and create an accompanying wearable pin , today  should be  a...

Over the last two days, inspiration for #The100DayProject has come from my garden.... Today, 9/#100pinpoems celebrates the weeds!  "In April sunshine,  Dandelions multiply-  Yellow extroverts "  Materials : cotton fabrics, thread and safety pin.  Techniques: Fabric collage and  machine stitching.  The leaves of our grevillea , Robyn Gordon, have a beautiful deep colour in the afternoon and although not really blue, I really love the colour combinations of this piece of disperse dyeing.  8/#100pin poems  The colours are replicated in 8/#100pinpoems  "In the fading light,  Grevillea leaves darken  Like evening shadows. "  Materials: polyester and cotton fabrics, thread, disperse dyes, and safety pin  Techniques: Dyeing and stitching.  I really did like the colours in this dyed piece of fabric, so I couldn't help myself- I played around with them in a photo editing program and enj...

Enjoy these two minutes of amazing art dolls created  by artists world wide in response to the theme LOST ...  (Tip: This looks much better on a full screen if you able to view in this mode .)  

7/ #100pinpoems  Today was Day 7 #The100DayProject ....  You may remember that I have undertaken to make 100 wearable pins with coloured safety pins and an accompanying haiku or at least a pseudo haiku with three lines and a 5-6-5 syllable structure.  No. 7 was "in the pink" . This one came about  because my granddaughter and I are having a daily challenge from afar... the challenge today was to wear something pink and do something with our hands or feet. We then swap photos of each other  ( see left) - a diversion from social isolation and school holidays.  No 7 : Materials : paper, fabric, buttons, threads,  safety pin.  Techniques: collage, stitching.   No. 6 was in response to the beautiful day we experienced on Sunday, yesterday - clear blue skies and warm sunshine. I took a photo in the morning as I was drinking tea on the verandah and the clear rays of the sun in the photo became stitch lines on the little wearab...

Eggs and hares were symbols of fertility and a new beginning in spring. Since time immemorial, eggs have been associated with world or universe by many cultures. So, it is not surprising that eggs for hundreds of years have been used for rituals, decorated and were hung in temples in Babylonian time. They dyed, painted, decorated, and then used egg as a symbol for spring festival since eggs represent new life and a new dawn. When Christianity spread out across the world, egg becomes a symbol of man’s rebirth rather than nature or spring. Christians symbolize the egg to Jesus Christ tomb from which he broke forth and rose again. Likewise, they painted the egg with red to symbolize the blood of Christ, and every year the decoration becomes elaborate and colourful. Today, Easter eggs decorated with myriad of colours to make it more fun to look at, and children  can better understand their importance to the celebration of Easter.  From Ten Easter symbols and Their Meaning  ...

Days 3 and 4 #The100DayProject #100pinpoems My pin poem for day 2 was rather dark and I heard that my granddaughter was finding self isolation and schooling from home was a bit difficult last week. #3 then became an affirmation, far from a traditional haiku but still with the  3 line formation with 5-7-5 syllables.  Be like a princess Wear your invisible crown  Love the self you are.  The pin is a machine embroidered one - free form. This is done fairly quickly, directly onto the fabric. As you can see from the photo above, I use a "darning"  or "embroidery" foot , with straight stitch, and the sewing machine feed dogs lowered. For this kind of small exercise, I put the fabric into a hoop and I usually do a warm up before tackling the "real" work. I think the main tip with this sort of machine stitch 'drawing' is to always remember to keep the fabric moving and foot on the pedal.  For Day 4, I made a small collage depicting the...