Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

'Imitation is the highest form of flattery" - or is it? In art, there is always speculation about how much you are influenced by another artist's work .... can we measure  the amount of inspiration,  interpretation , collaboration or outright copying in an art work? What makes an art work truly original?   Let's not get into the discussion of copyright and the grey areas of   appropriation, imitation, and plagiarising.   Perhaps there are not so many questions when the medium used  is different from the original or when you are in the business of making reproductions.  (like my Van Gogh socks pictured above) ?  Why has this topic been on my mind ?  In a recent textile art challenge, set by ATASDA ( Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association), current members were asked to respond to artworks created by members from past  years , to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the group in 2024. Each of the small artwork...

As most of my blog readers know, I am completing the #29 Faces Challenge - this challenge is to create a face a day for the month of February - any art medium.  I chose to stitch faces, using free motion machine stitching - basically it means sketching with a sewing machine by moving the material around while the machine stitches. ( different from the computerised machine embroidery where a design is pre-determined and completed automatically)  This week I have been monitoring the speed  I use my sewing machine as my sketching tool  during the creation of the stitched faces, experimenting and using different ratios of speed - hand:foot - some of the results have been good and others not so fantastic.... my aim is to get better control, so it seems to be a matter of coordination,  too - a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time.  I referred to another stitching blog ...  Expert advice from Tigle...

Each month, the younger women in the Simmons family enjoy a Sunday afternoon get-together, usually without children, husbands and partners. My daughter-in-law Kellie, my daughter Naomi and her cousins Lisa, Melanie and Natalie share their creative skills, produce beauitful handmade things and generally chat, advise and support one another. Last Sunday, they all came to my place and asked me to to get them started on " something different", a creative challenge. Occasionally, the "mothers" are invited to share in the group, but generally, we do not interfere! This time, while Kellie did some scrapbooking, some made beaded art dolls with forms I prepared, and the others went through my button stash and made funky bracelets and necklaces. Naomi also finished another baby blanket, after learning to crochet late last year. It is so wonderfully comforting and reassuring to see such talented strong young women in our family enjoying each other's company. They all le...

Today was Hello Dollies in Newcastle - a great group which meets at Anne's Glory Box once a month. Here is my doll ( right) for the Hello Dollies Challenge 2008 - we were all given a "saying" to interpret. Mine was "Love is Blind" and my intention was to finish making this Patti Culea doll I started in a workshop last year ( yes, another unfinished project!) and to add a very ugly boy friend. I had already made his head ( photo left below) - really ugly but lovable! Unfortunately that was as far as I got, so she wears his photo in a heart shaped locket. Love may be blind, but absence makes the heart grow fonder . I made a journal of the process and it looks great. perhaps if I hadn't spent so much time with the journal I may have had time to finish the ugly boyfriend. Anyway, I did think in the end, having a photo in a locket was less cliched. All the other creations were just so imaginative and everyone had researched so much and as Vicki said " this w...