Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

It's Autumn/Halloween at Tag Tuesday , the theme chosen by the talented leader of our group, Valerie. Yes it's very late in the fortnight to be posting, but here it is.  This is a stitched cloth tag. The background is batik cotton, with a photo transferred by blender marker. The leaves are appliqued to this background and then free stitched by machine in various shades of red, yellow and brown. Happy Autumn to all in the northern hemisphere!

Day 8 of the 28 Faces Art Challenge. Here is another Autumn tag - the usual ink, oencil and watercolour sketch and with a skeleton leaf. Already the first week of the month has passed.... 

Day 7 of the 29 Faces Challenge . It is Number 3 in the Autumn Series - an ink, pencil and watercolour sketch.

Day 6,  29 Faces Art Challenge - #2 in Autumn series 

#29 Faces /5  Autumn : Wilma Simmons  Day 5 of the 29 Faces Art Challenge . I have started on some "Autumn" tags using the same technique as before, old scrap painted paper, with ink and watercolour and pencil sketch.

Art Dolls /Stick Dolls : copyright Wilma Simmons  I confess to being a fan of Angry Birds and challenging myself to a game of Angry Birds Ham'O'Ween will be about as far as I will go to celebrating Halloween here in Australia. However it did start me thinking about how birds became associated with this celebration with its Celtic origins. I can understand spiders, bats and even black cats  and wolves associated with spookiness, but birds? Halloween Art Tag :  copyright Wilma Simmons  It appears that the black raven has long been considered rather ominous, in spite of  a harmonious history of sharing the environment with human beings. Associated with wizards and witches,  the raven supposedly inherited some secret powers " to carry magic across long distances  and collect secrets to bring back .. . " (from natureworldnews.com)   Add this information to its throaty  territorial "kraa" call and scavenger habits, it is no wonder that th...

Eco Print art tags # Wilma Simmons  “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”  ―  Rachel Carson ,  Silent Spring Can you hear the songs of spring ?   ( Click here to see more eco prints) Eco Prints  stitched -#Wilma Simmons  Eco print tag -#Wilma Simmons

eco print - marigold, grevillea leaf on khadi paper  Today is the first day of Autumn in the southern hemisphere  Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness  Close bosom friend of the maturing sun....   And still more, Later flowers for the bees,  Until they think the warm days will never cease...  Where are the songs of Spring ? Yellow in all the earth and in the skies  The world would seem  Faint as a widow mourning with soft eyes  And falling into dream . ...  The woods are lovely, dark and deep  But I have  promises to keep And miles to go   Before I sleep .....   Words by John Keats, John Shaw Neilson, Robert Frost Images by me -  (Wilma Simmons, Empress Wu Designs) from my handmade book, Where are the songs of Spring? gum leaf captured between tea bag paper , dipped in beeswax  eco dyed wool with handstitching  tea bag and hand stitching  eco dyed wool, f...

Finally on Friday, my project "Seasons" for the Hello Dollies challenge was ready for presentation on Saturday... as usual, last minute touches were needed. I decided on a "flat doll" project, for this challenge which was to "create your own fabric" to make a doll from a basic pattern provided. I thought the stump doll pattern lent itself easily to the flat doll idea. I had been working on the idea for a long time, making all sorts of different fabric, most of which was rejected and has since found other uses. I finally settled on four bits of  machine embellished  and embroidered fabric to complement a piece of space dyed commercial fabric on which I had stamped face images.  Trying not to use anything other than what was in my stash, I chose a neutral coloured fabric for the background and gave it a bit of depth by going over the surface with a black fabric pastel with a textured mat  underneath. My original idea was to have these dolls appearing to ...