Art Dolls Only "A Dark Christmas"

This weekend I participated in the inaugural Art Dolls Only online show and sale "A Dark Christmas".

The dolls I submitted show a diversity of doll making techniques.

Party Girl - Empress Wu Designs

Party Girl ... This is Lulu's story - she is in a dilemma . The office Christmas party this year has a theme " A Dark Christmas" - what should she wear? She loves pants suits to show off her long legs, but how can she make a pants suit more glamourous and fit the theme? Perhaps a version of the little black dress? Maybe a few sparkles? And with new hair dye - yes! She is happy with this - looking festive and sophisticated!

Party Girl

Party Girl is a cloth art doll , with jointed arms and legs and hand beaded accessories. Her face and hands are needle sculpted. and hand coloured with pen and pencil.
Size : length 51cm (20inches): width 12cm (5inches)

Party Girl

Quite a different approach was taken with Dark Angel ...

Dark Angel - Empress Wu Designs

Dark Angel is a creation inspired by statues I have seen in old churches in England and in Europe - many of these statues have either been damaged or show signs of their medieval beginnings. I also like the challenge of working with found objects, and letting the shape determine the outcome, so this dark angel just seemed to create itself from a piece of driftwood found on Stockton Beach, NSW, Australia. For the Art Dolls Only theme, "A Dark Christmas", this angel is a little melancholy but still serene with aged green-blue tones. This art doll is a hanging doll.

Dark Angel - Empress Wu Designs

From the past to the future.... Home for Christmas is an art doll with a definite futuristic look.

Home for Christmas - Empress Wu Designs

After many dark holiday seasons, searching for the home galaxy, the Intergalactic Traveller , now on the right course, looks forward to being home for Christmas.

Home for Christmas - Empress Wu Designs

Intergalactic Traveller is a sculpted art doll, with leather and felt clothing.Size , including stand: length 33cm ( 13 inches) , width 10cm ( 4 inches)

Confused fairy - Empress Wu Designs

The fourth doll in my section of the show as a bit of a mistake.... I started off with the wings, intending this doll to depict "A Dark Christmas" but somehow turned out pink, so here is her confused story.

Confused Fairy - Empress Wu Designs

She so wanted to be a a Christmas sugar plum fairy, but she was confused about this seasonal theme and became a sugar 'gum" fairy. Her holiday outfit features a eucalypt flower print bodice, but she was successful in keeping everything else 'pink". It might have been a dark Christmas except for this!

Confused fairy - Empress Wu Designs

Confused Fairy is a cloth doll with a simple 'pancake' face, hand coloured with pen and pencil. She has a dyed mohair hairstyle and a pair of digitally printed vilene wings with a touch of sparkle magic.

Size: length 34cm ( 13 inches) width - wingspan- 15cm ( 6 inches)

Please check out all the artists in this show ...

Art Dolls Only

Bilby Infatuation

Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016 Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations... With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly. There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds. Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food...

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

Background Information: Temari (literally translated “hand ball”) is a Japanese folk craft that is alleged to have originated in China and was introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. Traditionally, the balls were constructed from wrapped kimono fabric remnants and silk threads. They were made by mothers and grandmothers for children to play with. Nowadays, decorative embroidered temari represent a highly valued and cherished gift symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Recently I've wondered if your don't use traditional techniques whether you should call what you create "temari". That is an ongoing debate but today I share what I do to make a "non-traditional temari".... 1.I start with a polystrene ball ( traditionally the balls were wound silk scraps or other organic materials) and begin to wrap with approx 4 ply wool, turning the ball as I wrap. 2. I then wrap another layer of wool in a similar fashion , this time a 3 or 2 ...

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary. Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers). This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach. Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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