Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 8 March 2020 FEARLESS FLOWERS MARKET This International Women’s Day, the Wednesday Group will be co- hosting the 2020 Fearless Flower Market and auction. All proceeds from this market/auction will support the Pink Meets Teal initiative, raising money to support Ovarian Cancer research. Join us at Timeless Textiles Gallery (90 Hunter St Newcastle) for a free morning tea, live music, fun and, of course, fundraising! for the last 12 months, the Wednesday group at Timeless Textiles has been creating beautiful handmade flowers for the fundraising and we have been supported by many textile atists and groups all around the country and overseas. “Every cent from the market goes to a charity – this one is the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) for Nikola Bowden’s research, which is very cutting-edge about ovarian cancer treatment options.” “There will be music, food, and a celebration of being women; everyone is welcome!” – Anne Kem...

For International Women’s Day 2020, the Fearless Flowers Project is raising funds for research into Ovarian Cancer. Every year in Australia, 1600 women are diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and 1000 die. Hunter (NSW) researchers are involved in cutting edge work to improve this mortality rate but they need our financial support.  In Newcastle (NSW, Australia) an group of artists meets every Wednesday at the fibre art gallery, Timeless Textiles in Hunter Street, Newcastle East.  The Wednesday Group  will be making fibre/textile flowers and they will bloom and be sold amongst the Norfolk pines outside the gal lery on 8 March 2020 .   Timeless Textiles and the Wednesday group's previous International Women's Day Projects raising funds for various local  and overseas causes have been:  Spreading Wings  Prayer Flags for Peace  Stitch-a-thon for White Ribbon  Letting Go Flying Free  Out of the Wood  In t...

You're invited to: 'Flying Free' Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery will continue a five-year tradition of holding community-based art events to celebrate International Women’s Day, with the culmination of its Flying Free project featuring a huge flock of hand-made fabric birds that will ‘fly free’ outside the gallery in March this year. Timeless Textiles has collaborated with local artist, Wilma Simmons, to create the IWD art events, with local artists offering free community fibre art workshops, using techniques such as embellishing, screen printing, painting, stitching and dyeing. As well as the chance to learn new skills, the workshops allow people to brush up on their techniques and, of course, to enjoy themselves. The focus for IWD has varied each year including stitching 100 metres of white ribbon for 14 hours (2014) and creating hope flags. Seb, one of young creative bird makers with Wilma SImmons For IWD last year approximately 2,000 fabri...

What is 29 Faces?  29 faces was originally created in 2012 to celebrate the leap year with art, 29 faces in 29 days in February. It was so much fun, we had to do it 3 more times though the year!  We start the 1st of the month, and it's all about a   face . Any medium, surface, size and techniques are welcome. Canvas, paper, wood, digital, journals, mixed media, acrylics, oils, pastels, clay, rocks.... you name it! I have done the challenge before and always enjoyed this challenge and the discipline of completing some art each day.It took me a day or two to decide a direction for this month... Inspired by the amazing tea bag art of Ruby Silvious ( who created art on tea bag for 365 days!)   and with International Women's Day soon on 8 March, I decided to do a tea bag art series inspired by famous women "who have made a difference". I have called this series of sketches "Worldly Women" and each is a quick felt tip pen drawing, coloured with pencils a...

It is now a month since the Flying Free Project was launched. Four free workshops have been held, averaging twelve participants each week. This project has been developed to honour and remember the women who tragically have died as a result of domestic violence. All  the proceeds from the sale of bird kits and completed birds on International Women's Day 2016 will be donated to women's refuges in our local area.  Unfortunately in the month we have been making birds, two women have been added to the sad statistics of 43 female domestic violence deaths in Australia this year... However, we have sat peacefully each Wednesday at Timeless Textiles Gallery stitching birds and I would like to share with you some of the  wonderful  moments and creative achievements of "Flying Free" in the last four weeks. Thanks to UK artist, Abigail Brown who gifted Timeless Textiles a basic pattern for a bird. .  Another 15 + birds fle...

Free Wednesday workshops starting 20 May 2015  at  Timeless Textiles , 90 Hunter Street, Newcastle .  10.30am - 12.30pm.  Textile art birds - 2016 International Women's Day Project.  In March 2015, visiting British textile artist, Abigail Brown kindly designed this bird and gifted Timeless Textiles a bird pattern for International Women’s Day 2016. Every Wednesday in our free creative workshop program, we will be creating birds -using some of the 2000 fabric tiles (from the ‘Letting Go’ celebrations: 2015 International Women’s Day) The birds will fly free amongst the Norfolk pines outside the gallery, attached by white ribbon to celebrate next International Women’s Day (March 8 2016). All proceeds will be donated to women's and children's refuges in the local area.  The fabric and Abigail Brown’s template will be available for participants to use at each free workshop on Wednesdays. “Flying Free” kits may also be purchased for $20 if y...

I celebrated International Women's Day on Sunday, 8 March by  participating in a very happy and colourful textile art installation - a 72 square metre fabric tile mosaic  which was the culmination of many months of innovative  planning and creative workshops at Timeless Textiles Gallery , 90 Hunter Street, Newcastle East (NSW, Australia) ....  You can read more about the project in   my previous blog post . "Letting Go" was such fun with hundreds of women, led by community leaders, textile artist coordinators and  a well known Aboriginal artist and elder, scattering the fabric tiles to the wind. The mosaic followed Elsie Randall 's  Aboriginal design of four large butterflies, and while it took many hours to prepare on the footpath outside The Lock Up Cultural Centre , it was exhilarating to see the fabric tiles scattered with  happy abandon by one and all. People came from far and wide to participate, and i...