Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

The team at Tag Tuesday choose the most interesting themes for our fortnightly tag challenge- Landmarks was chosen by Wendy from the design team, and when you see her two fantastic tags, you will see how I was inspired by them.  My tag is made using a technique I  learnt just last weekend, so I wanted to practise. The background is created by dry brushing three colours of acrylic paint on art paper, in this case, I used watercolour paper. Then, when the background is dry, with a fine rigger brush and white pigmented ink, I painted the outline of what I hope are recognisable representations of  landmarks - the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I added an Australian postage stamp, just in case there was any doubt. Although I don't live in Sydney, Newcastle is the nearest biggest regional city in NSW and only 168 km away, so these landmarks are almost local!  Please pop over to Tag Tuesday to see the other  tags submitted for this challenge - t...

This is the Willow Pattern we are most familiar with - a traditional  chinaware design  by Thomas Minton in 1790, popularised for at least the next 200 years. Thinking back to the old poem about the Willow Pattern,  Two birds flying high, A Chinese vessel, sailing by. A bridge with three men, sometimes four, A willow tree, hanging o'er. A Chinese temple, there it stands, Built upon the river sands. An apple tree, with apples on, A crooked fence to end my song I discovered that some of my photos taken recently in China reminded me of  a contemporary Willow Pattern scene. As I am not a skilled photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I have tried to turn two very rather ordinary photos into modern versions of the Willow Pattern - well at least, elements of the Willow Pattern.  1. Original Image - Wild Goose Pagoda , Xian , China   2. Sepia tint   3. Blue tint   4. Blue tint  w...