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.

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...

#SeptTextileLove Day 12

#SeptTextileLove #STL26Day12 ‘Friendship’ … This is a story of friendship based on the love of textiles and fibre art . Gallerist and artist, Anne Kempton and I have been friends for 15 years , meeting when we had both retired from ‘ top’ jobs in a government department and a high school respectively. Neither of us were the retiring types - Anne was establishing the first commercial textile art gallery in Australia and I was looking for a creative direction. We discovered we were both driven by a sense of social justice and community and shared similar artistic aspirations . Since then, we have co- curated exhibitions, collaborated on many projects. supported community art and women’s causes, and grown in our individual artistic expression - Anne includes more stitching in her work and she has had a more painterly influence on mine . Moreover, this friendship is multifaceted, deep and personal and one I value and treasure . Thank you, Anne.

#SeptTextileLove26- Day 2

#STL26Day2 ‘Hand or Machine’ … Why not both? Two small stitched works in my stitched garden series, (left - free motion machine stitch ; right- hand stitch). Which do you prefer ? #SeptTextileLove

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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