Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  No new year’s resolutions , but I like the idea of words shaping a year …. I  did not choose JOY - I chose PLAY and CHALLENGE, which I think also fits the upcoming  Chinese Year of the  Horse…. “ The year 2026 signifies a fresh start, embodying the dynamic Year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese zodiac, representing energy, freedom, and innovation, coupled with a Universal Year 1 in numerology, signalling new beginnings and pioneering action “  How did JOY become the focus of this story?  Where better to start than with the weekly colour prompts  #coloricombo by EsteMacleod …these are published each Monday night ( Australian Eastern Summer Time) , so I’ve had  a week to work on these . Added to the colour prompts Este has also intensified the challenge by including a different shape or form each week.  This week, she chose the word/letters J O Y Between workshops, travelling and other projects, I spent a few hours cutting and   pa...

I t's that time of the year again when I participate in the global art challenge #the100dayproject .... I have done this for the last five years and I love doing it. Sometimes, the idea of creating something for 100 consecutive days just seems ridiculous, but I've learnt over the years not to do something too ambitious, and to have an idea or theme which is entirely achievable. Today it all seems easy - it is only Day 3.  This year, 2024, I have decided to follow colour prompts curated by artist, EsteMacLeod. - Este publishes these colour palettes each week, and I thought  using these means that half the work is already done. My 100 day project will be then to make responses to these prompts and work on each palette for a week for the duration.    1/ #100daysofcolourcombo - Bubblegum Cat  Day 1 Bubblegum Cat .... a Laurel Burch print , overstitched in bubblegum coloured thread. This particular technique follows these steps:  - stitch around the shape ( two ...

For most embroiderers, the idea of stitching  and relaxing under the warming winter sun in the historical courtyard of Timeless Textiles Gallery sounds very appealing. Then add the other elements of  enjoying the company of like minded people, a lovely morning tea, and a fun project, with materials supplied. That sounds heavenly... That's  exactly what  the series of short textile art workshops, "Courtyard Creatives" are!  I recently caught up with Cathy Jack Coupland , award winning textile artist at Timeless Textiles. She was preparing for her "Courtyard Creatives" workshop on 3 September.  In this workshop, 'Pumpkin Patch',  Cathy  evokes the vibrant colours of a pumpkin patch.  The warm colour palette Cathy has chosen for this project  (see the sample pictured above) is a perfect antithesis to  grey winter days. The oranges and yellows exude energy, optimism and joy.  What fun it will be to learn how to make suffolk puffs...

Often,  after I have repeatedly made artworks especially art dolls , I wonder why I have done them in a particular style, shape or colour.  Lately, I have been in a 'blue" mood....  This week I made a couple of dolls , These are stick dolls in the style I made quite a few years ago.   Why blue? Was I thinking of the sea and/or sky? This seems rather unlikely as I am not a lover of swimming or beaches and the sky has mostly been grey during the last month. Perhaps sapphires, blue topaz and aquamarine are in my subconscious . While we respond to colour differently, blue appears to be universally associated with calm, serenity, peace and stability.  Some further information is interesting as a cue to the answer to the question of why create in blue?  Blue is  often linked to creativity . A possible reason this takes place is due to the physiological responses evoked by the color. Blue lowers blood pressure and thus slows down heart rate. Under these ...

  Some of you may have heard about  #the100dayproject ... What is it?  Every year, thousands of people all around the world commit to 100 days of creating at the same time. Anyone can participate .  The idea is simple: choose a creative project, do it every single day for 100 days, and share your process on social  media using the hashtag #The100DayProject, connecting with other participants and followers of the project.  This year #the100dayproject started on 13 February and finishes on 24 May ,  if you count consecutive days. Some participants take up to 2 years to complete 100 days of creating!  The first step is usually to decide on a personal project ... this year, I decided to do something simple and late last year,  I purchased a box of 100 pantone colour postcards.  As I am also preparing a much bigger project, based on the "exuberance" of colour, I thought this would be a great way to move gently into the project and practise wo...

  It's been a long time since creating a tag for the Tag Tuesday  fortnightly challenge....  The current theme is 'orange and purple' .   I made this tag for the challenge as a collage constructed from magazine pages , with a photo transferred as another layer. The photo is one of a tree in my street  and from a laser print, I  transferred  part of it  to the collage background with acrylic medium. With such bold colours, the silhouette of the tree branches seems to enhance the vibrancy of these colours.  I am always interested in working out why colours seem to "go together" , so it's always good to go back to the colour wheel.  While not quite analogous, orange and purple are close  secondary colour neighbours  and they present as a brilliant pairing as they also come from the opposite hot/cool families of colour.  We only have to look at Nature to see how well orange and purple go together.    References...

  This year , I have spent a lot of time practising free motion stitching on my sewing machine, a Bernina 550.   Earlier in the year, I had one of my machine stitched artworks, "Take Time" chosen for the exhibition, "Stole the Show, curated by Rod Pattenden.  This was created using the machine's set stitch patterns on collaged fabric.  The  newer work, "Finding Gold"  doesn't use any set designs. It is free motion stitching, which is really like free hand drawing, with the needle in the sewing machine like a pencil. The only difference is that the fabric is moved rather than the needle - just like moving the paper rather than the pencil. Sometimes, I think free motion machine stitching  is like rubbing your tummy and patting your head simultaneously, but with practice, the action of moving the fabric under the needle and keeping the machine whirring in a rhythm becomes comfortable.   "Finding Gold"  started as one of my practic...

 Background: Seam  are a contemporary textile collective based in Bath, England. We are emerging and established embroiderers, printers, knitters, weavers, dyers, fashion designers, eco-designers, makers, artists… …who want to make textiles that are irresistible, and find their way onto your body, into your house and onto your walls. We share a commitment to pushing the boundaries of our craft and making high quality objects realised in the hands and thoughts of the maker. We hope to make a sustainable living from textiles, work locally and bring textiles into contemporary focus This month, all textile artists are enouraged to share their love of textiles and respond to  30 different textile prompts for on  Instagram  during September. You can respond to as many of the prompts as you wish, this could be only a few or it may be all of them - with the hashtag #SeptTextileLove   Here is my first week of #SeptTextileLove  Days 1 & 2 - Introd...