September Textiles Love

September Textiles Love - Week 1

Background: Seam are a contemporary textile collective based in Bath, England. We are emerging and established embroiderers, printers, knitters, weavers, dyers, fashion designers, eco-designers, makers, artists…

…who want to make textiles that are irresistible, and find their way onto your body, into your house and onto your walls. We share a commitment to pushing the boundaries of our craft and making high quality objects realised in the hands and thoughts of the maker. We hope to make a sustainable living from textiles, work locally and bring textiles into contemporary focus This month, all textile artists are enouraged to share their love of textiles and respond to 30 different textile prompts for on Instagram during September. You can respond to as many of the prompts as you wish, this could be only a few or it may be all of them - with the hashtag #SeptTextileLove

Here is my first week of #SeptTextileLove

Days 1 & 2 - Introduction

Current Project -stitched collages , especially portraits.

Day 3: Tools -

Bernina sewing machine and hand stitching needles , pins and scissors.- I often wonder what I would do without these, then remember that when we were in Papua New Guinea, women showed me how to make a needle and a cutter from found metal waste

Day 4 Inspiration -

I am inspired to create with simple materials by my interest in social justice, women’s issues and personal family and local history and places . My most memorable work is an installation of 193 ‘dolls’ made from sticks, giving voice to the girls of the Newcastle Industrial School (1867-1871) - the first government ‘welfare’ institution in NSW

Day 5 - Stash

There is far too much of everything in my stash but can I do without my abundance of used tea bags and sticks ?

Day 6 - Colour

In one of my recent works , a stole for ‘an upcoming exhibition ,’ Stole the Show’ - I hope these colours help to tell the story of regrowth and regeneration

Day 7 : Inside/Outside

Most of my work starts outside, but inside , the next part of the process happens - the editing of photos and the thinking , writing and the stitching ‘Red Grevillea’ is an example

Day 8 : Pattern

The traditional art of temari (stitched thread wrapped balls) is an engaging journey of discovery and experimentation involving embroidering the endless pattern variations with attention to design , colour and symbolism

Please contact me if you have any questions or add comments below.

For my #SeptTextile Love posts, follow https://www.instagram.com/empress.wu.designs/ and to look at others also posting about textile art this month, follow the hastag.

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

'Anything Goes" and It Does Matter.

When 'anything goes", does it follow that "nothing matters" ? .... I think not. When I interpret "anything goes", I think it means taking a few risks and experiment, but also care about what you are doing and finding a purpose in the process. Currently, the Tag Tuesday theme is "Anything Goes" ... This describes my daily art practice at the moment. I am doing #the100dayproject and each day I am responding to weekly published colour prompts #coloricombo, curated by artist, Este McLeod. During the last week, the suggested colours were jade green, primrose, vermillion and purple grey. Each day, I've been trying to experiment with colour and technique with the goal of developing and learning. Here are some of the tags I created using these colours, or at least as close as I could manage with stuff from my stash... I have titled these "Fragments from Afar" as all of them feature an image or a postage stamp from somewhere far from

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 wrapping str

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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