Christmas Countdown Local 2022 #4/25 - Trees & Art for Charity

It looks magical - the Hamilton Wesley Uniting Church ( Beaumont Street, Hamilton - an inner city suburb of Newcastle, NSW) is home to 14 Christmas Trees decorated by local community organisations. It is an opportunity for these charities to bring joy to the community as well as promote the good work these organisations do. As the church is open to the public every day, it is also an opportunity for visitors to enjoy the trees, vote for their favourite and donate to the charity nominated.

Last week I dropped by to have a look at the tree which my doll makers group decorated ( I'll show that one in another post). However, I was happy to see a beautiful tree resplendent in gold and white, decorated in the style of a century ago celebrating the centenary of the Rotary Club of Newcastle. It is the oldest Rotary club and service club in this city and continues to do good work as do the other many other Rotary clubs in the area. Congratulations to the Rotarians not only on this stunning tree, but also on achieving 100 years of service to the community!

Rotary Club of Newcastle Charity Tree

As a contrast, there was a very contemporary tree nearby decorated with colourful paper planes. It represents an organisation called 'Little Wings" which I confess I didn't know about, so I did some research . Much needed support here in regional Australia where distance ca use such additional stress and unnecessary expense to a family already in distress.

Little Wings: For any parent or guardian, discovering that your precious child has a life-threatening illness can be truly heartbreaking. It’s even harder when the waves of pain come with the emotional and financial strain of being away from your family and home, while your child braves treatment..

Litttle Wings is a non for profit organization providing sick children and their families, throughout regional NSW, with free ongoing flight and ground transport during the treatment process. At Little Wings, ‘Your Journey is Our Mission’ and Little Wings are here to help you through the toughest situations, thanks to the hard work and generous support of our community of partners, volunteers and supporters . From Little Wings website

Little Wings Charity Tree

I will write more about some of the other trees in future posts, but in the meantime, if you are in the area, pay a visit - you are sure to catch the true spirit of Christmas here.

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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