Skip to main content

Pink Candy and Mocha - #the100dayproject 25-31

 


These were days of scarlet cheeks, candy pink and blush grey hair and mocha mushrooms! 


This combination really stretched the imagination, and the first day I resorted to a pre-stamped embroidery which I think summed up the week - wandering from colour to colour, subject to subject .... 


First came a couple of mushrooms - the background of these are machine stitched. Scraps of fabric are laid down on a base fabric and , using the decorative stitches on a sewing machine, rows and rows of stitching create the effect of a new background fabric. I often use this technique to create unique backgrounds for applique and feature stitching.  The mushrooms are raw edged appliqued onto these essentially pinky red backgrounds. Do these colours  make them fairytale like or just a bit sinister? 



You might have noticed a theme of red polka dots in these little works .... that just reminded me of red cheeks, and so a series of quirky characters was born .... a party girl, a pair of nerdy teenagers and a rather sophisticated mature woman. These are all free machine stitched and then coloured with Prisma pencil. I enjoyed this technique - it's like drawing with the sewing machine and colouring in later.  The "drawing " isn't perfect and that's what I like about it - the stitching lines are free and seem to add 'life" to this little  odd portraits.  The backgrounds are made from old  whitewashed book pages. I guess you;ve worked out I like drawing people with glasses and rosy cheeks! 





Hope you will also check other posts in this series ... 

Sunshine and black and white 

Pistachio and dark chocolate 

Greens with mustard 

Ready, Steady,  Go 


To follow my daily posts about #the100dayprojects2024 please see my Instagram page

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

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...

Giveaway x 3

As promised, to celebrate and thank you for over 500 likes on the Empress Wu Designs Facebook Page  , here is a giveaway of some of my art - three giveaways, in fact. I have chosen three sets of art gift tags as prizes because they are easily posted worldwide... These tags make great small gifts themselves or as an accompaniment to a gift, or you can even use them as bookmarks. All you need to do  to win a set is leave a comment here or on the Facebook page (or both) and next week on Monday, 6 October, 5pm Australian Eastern Summer Time, I will randomly choose three winners. The first person will have first choice (one of three sets of tags) ; the second person will have a choice of the remaining two sets, and I am afraid the third person will have whatever set has not been chosen before. Here they are:  Art Tags Set A - Marie Antoinette series  (mixed media tags) Marie Antoinette series - 1 Beehive tag( line drawing on tea bag paper, digital image wit...