Skip to main content

Marigolds and Magpies


 Quite surprisingly, I rate marigolds as one of my favourite flowers. Although the marigold has some rather negative connotations, developed in Victorian England, I like to concentrate on the happier, more positive meanings it has... 

What do marigolds symbolize?
Commonly referred to as the 'herb of the sun', we associate the flowers' fiery yellow, orange, and red hues with the warmth, happiness, joy, optimism, and good luck. Yet, marigolds also symbolizes darker emotions such as jealousy, grief, despair, and mourning 
(https://www.petalrepublic.com/marigold-flower-meaning/ 


In my recent exhibition "Enveloping ,   marigolds were featured a lot in my textile artworks, including a few of the "garden Threads" art dolls. I drew my inspiration from my own garden where marigolds have even found their way into my vegetable garden. The marigolds in the  textile artworks above are appliqued and stitched. 

I coupled these bright orange flowers with the highly contrasting magpies, created with fabric collage. 
 I have to admit that the magpies really became the star of the exhibition, and the marigolds did fade into the background. 




One of the cheeky magpies even made celebrity status by being featured  on  the advertising material ( with the marigolds) ... 





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

#SeptTextileLove26 Day8

    SeptTextileLove #stl26day8 ‘Inspiring Exhibition’ … earlier this year , the Wednesday Makers Group at Timeless Textiles ( Newcastle, Australia) celebrated International Women’s Day with their exhibition, “Inspiring Women in Stitch’ - congratulations - inspiring women honouring inspiring women .   link to video   

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 9

  ‘ Craft or Art?’ … a continuing complex question, with, I guess, has no definitive answer. I’ve often wondered about traditional practices especially … as an example , temari ( Japanese stitched thread balls ). Even authorities on temari have called it ‘an ancient folk craft ’ as well as a traditional, highly artistic culture and skill in that each design shows the unique characteristics of the maker’s free ideas and creativity. ‘ (Japan Temari Association)… My mother taught me to make temari and she would always consider her own creations ‘craft’ and to me they are ‘art’!  Craft or art? Does it really matter what we call the techniques or the outcome of what we create ? 

Giveaway - Gifts for You on My Birthday

Giveaway Gifts T his week is blog giveaway time! Last week I celebrated my birthday.  I’ve had far too many to count the candles, but I had a wonderful party on the weekend with my family - with an indulgent birthday cake, favourite foods cooked by my husband and great company. ( In case you were wondering about the writing on the cake , Por Por = Chinese grandmother)     I also got great gifts from  my family and friends. There seemed to be a bit of a theme this year – with many of my gifts and cards depicting matryshoka ( babushka) dolls and tea drinking.   As it is also winter here in Australia ,   it was easy for me to  decide what I could offer as gifts  in this birthday giveaway. All the gifts are handmade by me. Gift 1 - two little fabric matryshoka dolls  Gift 2- a little bag made from colourful teapot and teacup fabric . The design is called a jester bag, but it is suitable for carrying s...