Postcard Portraits - "Travelled" Exhibition

Recently, I've created a few portraits and it is always interesting to try different techniques. For a "travelled" theme exhibition, the Wednesday Makers Group at Timeless Textiles was invited to create some postcard portraits. It was a great opportunity to use "random cross stitch" , a technique I learnt in the textileartist.org workshop by Sharon Peoples.

The cross stitch helps to create a textured skin with subtle changes in tone. My husband, Jim, is the subject - here depicted on a trip in Finland ( Finnish forest in the background) This postcard is all handstitched and as Jim always travels with a paper map , I added a much loved map in miniature.

The whole collection of postcards by the group captures travel memories of places visited and enjoyed - places like Hawaii, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Vietnam, Bali, India, Fiji , Latvia, Lord Howe Island, Disneyland, China , Germany, Finland, Ukraine, Bhutan, Italy, France, Japan, Egypt and various locations in Australia.

My second postcard portrait was of the Kumari, the child living goddess revered in Nepal, with a Buddhist stupa in the background. For this one, I used coloured pencils ( Inktense and Prismacolour) and hand and machine stitching, with some tassel making and wrapping for the headdress.

The third submission for this projects is called "Immigrating to Australia". Rather than recall a travel memory, this postcard portrait is a transferred photo of my great grandmother who travelled from China to Australia to settle in 1909. Here she is seen in full formal Chinese dress and her tiny bound feet can just be seen poking out from under her long robe. The background for this postcard is crazy patchwork in subdued colours, with handstitching.

The postcards are a small part of a much larger exhibition of textile art created by the renowned UK artist, Anne Kelly and all the artworks, including the postcards, can be viewed in the gallery until 7 August or online.

Comments

Christmas Countdown 15 : Christmas Tree #11 - Disposable

Plastic cups https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/christmas-stem-ideas-kids/ Advent Blog : Day 11 - Disposable We are all so much more conscious about ridding our landfills and oceans of plastic waste. For Christmas, here is a way to use up some of those disposable items which seem to multiply at holiday parties and celebrations, or perhaps you have just been saving them up for a creative use.... Who would have thought coffee pods would make such stylish Christmas trees ? ... Add caption If you don't have one of those machines, then perhaps you have coffee on the run - Starbucks or Nescafe ? from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/369858188126737920/ Nescafe cups https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/72761350208620530/ The disposable cups don' t have to be brand names to work well as materials for Christmas trees. Taking an engineering approach to plastic cup trees seems to be the answer for a more ornate result. from https:...

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 w...

Christmas Countdown 4: Turducken

I had always thought that 'turducken' was a very modern dish - a deboned chicken inside a deboned duck, inside a deboned turkey. The birds are stuffed inside the gastric cavities and spaces are filled with poultry stuffing. There appear to be a few different earlier versions of this dish . I n his 1807 Almanach des Gourmands, gastronomist Grimod de La Reynière presents his rôti sans pareil ("roast without equal")—a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan bunting and a garden warbler—although he states that, since similar roasts were produced by ancient Romans, the rôti sans pareil was not entirely novel. The final bird is very small but large enough to just hold an olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. Gooducken is a goose stuffe...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Search This Blog