Bilby Infatuation

Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016

Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations...

With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly.
There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds.
Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food supply.

from https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/bilby

Bilby Girl Travelling Art Doll ; finished by Wilma Simmons 2013

In 2013, I made Bilby Girl - a "travelling" art doll and this doll made its last stop at my place in Australia. Bilby Girl returned to her owner , the original doll maker in USA. These "travelling dolls " would start off as a body, then travel somewhere else and get a head, and then onto another country to get arms and legs, and at its last stop the doll would be clothed and accessorised.

Australian Bush fabric

Fast forward to this year, and in the textile.artist.org Stitch Club, Christi Johnson's workshop was about sculpting personal mythology inspired by an animal. Reflecting on personal interest in Australian fauna and the recent climate concerns, I chose the bilby - it was close to Easter too!

Bilby collage : Wilma Simmons 2025

I made a toile from some abandoned eco dyed cotton and I really liked it, so did a bit of stitching on the front, and closed its opening on the back with a fabric circle, fussy cut from an Aboriginal print. For the other, I chose a really bright pink cotton, referencing the chocolate bilby Easter treats which were sold at easter to raise funds for the "Save the Bilby" campaign. On the front of the pink bilby, I embroidered a plant which I hope resembles Acacia gordonii (a wattle) which is also an endangered species The back features another motif from an Aboriginal print.

Bilby and Gordon's Wattle Embroidery : Wilma Simmons 2025

I had so much fun making this little soft sculpture, which I why I went searching for my 2016 version, tucked away at the back of a shelf in my workroom. This wrapped sculptured bilby is made with all reclaimed materials - wire, scraps of fabric, with plastic bags as stuffing,.. It's great to reminisce about why you return to favourite subjects and while these might be fun projects, the reality is far more serious....

Currently, there are more than 169,000 species on The IUCN Red List, with more than 47,000 species threatened with extinction, including 44% of reef building corals, 41% of amphibians, 38% of trees, 37% of sharks and rays, 34% of conifers, 26% of mammals, 26% of freshwater fishes and 12% of birds .https://www.iucnredlist.org/

Save the bilby and other endangered species ...

Bilby work in progress/reclaimed materials : Wilma Simmons 2016

#the100dayproject : Inspiring Women Days 1 - 4

#The100DayProject is a *free* global art project that takes place online 🎨 E very year, thousands of people all around the world commit to 100 days of creating. Anyone can participate . The idea is simple: choose a creative project, do it every single day for 100 days, and document and share the process online. 2026 is my 8th year of participating. I have stitched daily observations, painted my egg cup collection, collaged postcards and envelopes, written poems, explored colour palettes .... this year I am researching, sketching and stitching 100 inspiring women. Fortunately I purchased a piece of beautiful linen, with preprinted outlines of 100 women ... just one issue - the figures are tiny (height 6cm /2.5 ins) My first week started tentatively ... I thought I would start with Empress Wu, after whom I named my creative activity. This is when I discovered how difficult it is to applique and stitch on these very small figures - I used tweezers to put pieces of fabric down, tried t...

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...

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

Background Information: Temari (literally translated “hand ball”) is a Japanese folk craft that is alleged to have originated in China and was introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. Traditionally, the balls were constructed from wrapped kimono fabric remnants and silk threads. They were made by mothers and grandmothers for children to play with. Nowadays, decorative embroidered temari represent a highly valued and cherished gift symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Recently I've wondered if your don't use traditional techniques whether you should call what you create "temari". That is an ongoing debate but today I share what I do to make a "non-traditional temari".... 1.I start with a polystrene ball ( traditionally the balls were wound silk scraps or other organic materials) and begin to wrap with approx 4 ply wool, turning the ball as I wrap. 2. I then wrap another layer of wool in a similar fashion , this time a 3 or 2 ...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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