Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Continuing  the series of collages for my October challenge... Collage #65 was taken from a photo taken in Kritipur in Nepal at a temple. I was immediately attracted by the splash of orange-red colour of the tikka on the statue in the image. I cropped the photo  to make that the focal point  and intensified the colour to give me some more defined shapes to abstract. Here is the result with torn paper and small scraps of cotton fabric which happened to be similar to the colour.  This is a short  ( 4 minutes) video of an artist  creating an abstract design from realistic drawing . I think it shows a great way of creating lines in an abstract design. 

 August  Instagram Photo Challenge - a photo a day challenge as a daily reminder to be well in Winter  #bewellinwinter.  left to right, top row to bottom row.  1. Stockpile - my stockpile of used tea bags, ready for art  projects.  2. Blankets - tidied up the spare bedroom - don't the blankets look great so neatly folded?  3. Animal - there's a bear in there!  4. Soup - my favourite soup recipes are from a very old recipe booklet  5. Social -  the Flying Free project is as much a social activity as a creative one.  6. Strength - my tai chi teacher demonstrating that there is nothing stronger than gentleness.  7. Refresh - the instructions said 'refresh your browser' .... so I did.  8. Flowers - woolly flowers on my friend's hat 9. To do list - "put the suitcase in the boot of the car" - only one thing on my husband's to do  list today - yes, it was done!  10. Fire - smoke alarms are ma...

indigo dyed khadi paper 

Day 26 : Grounding - a beautiful sunrise , Dungog NSW End of July already and the last day  this month of the "Be Well in Winter"  Photo a Day Challenge - an exercise in staying focussed on wellness. I enjoyed this so much I will also be participating in the August "Be Well in Winter "photo challenge ....  Day 21 - Work ( Newspaper story about my workshop in Hervey Bay; Day 22 - Winter ( my winter woolies)  Day 23 - Essential Oil ( Camellia oil)  Day 24-  Gratitude ( beautiful thank you gifts from a friend)  Day 25 - My treat ( staying with a friend in her beautiful home)  Day 26 - Grounding ( large photo above )  Day 27 - Breath ( a breath to blow out a candle)  Day 28 - Pamper ( bath pamper essentials)  Day 29 - Role Model ( my mum)  Day 30 - Sun ( another sunrise -large photo below)  Day 31 - Lesson ( lesson notes for a Drama class I taught in 1988!)  Day 30 - Sun ( another sunr...

How does your garden grow with crayons? With a little bit of imagination and lots of stitches!  Why does your garden grow with crayons? Because that was the challenge of the monthly assignment of my creative embroidery course.  It was a surprise to open my package and discover a packet of twelve coloured crayons, some white cotton fabric and lots of coloured stranded embroidery cotton. The task was to create a stitched garden, after colouring the fabric with crayons. I have always loved the impressionist Monet gardens, so I approached this task happily.... until I realised how long it takes to fill a space with stitches! Crayon applied to cotton fabric with texture ( rubber stamp under the fabric) - Empress Wu Designs 2015  Stitching the "distant" spaces first - French knots, Lazy Daisy stitch, fly stitch, straight stitch. Empress Wu  Designs 2015  Detail  1 - Crayon Garden - Empress Wu Designs 2015 (French knots, fly stitch, straight ...

Close up of fabric owl - Wilma Simmons, Empress Wu Designs 2015. Abigail Brown   is described as a creature textile designer extraordinaire, and having met Abigaill recently, I would add a very talented, generous, spirited  and beautiful artist. Her vibrant work rejoices in the amazing beauty of nature ... here is what Abigail says about her stunning soft sculptures .... I am excited by the opportunity to create life from these flat pieces of cloth, working with their weave to mould shapes, fraying their edges to form feathered breasts, creating stiffened tail feathers from something that was limp. That final placing of the eye and a new life is born...The Animal Kingdom is the inspiration behind all my work. I am fascinated by its rituals and language, a world of mystery and secrets on which we can but speculate. My fabric bird sculptures are a celebration of textures, patterns, colours and forms that delight me in nature. Abigail Brown with work...

Border pattern   ( February 2015 - Wilma Simmons)  Was this on my bucket list ?  No,  not really, but after completing Stages 1 & 2 of the Creative Embroidery Correspondence Course with the Embroiderers' Guild about twenty+ years ago, this year I decided to enrol in Stage 3 - finally.  As I want to record what I do, I am sharing each month's exercises with you right here. If you are unfamiliar with these courses, what you get each month is an envelope with instructions, handwritten comments by your assessor and some threads and fabric and then the completed work is returned to the Guild each month for assessment. February's threads and fabric  For February's lesson, the theme was inspired by border patterns, emphasising the way stitches turn into patterns when used close together to fill shapes and spaces. Besides the embroidery, there were drawings to do - three border patterns and three square patterns like tiles. I love doing this part, bu...

As promised, to celebrate and thank you for over 500 likes on the Empress Wu Designs Facebook Page  , here is a giveaway of some of my art - three giveaways, in fact. I have chosen three sets of art gift tags as prizes because they are easily posted worldwide... These tags make great small gifts themselves or as an accompaniment to a gift, or you can even use them as bookmarks. All you need to do  to win a set is leave a comment here or on the Facebook page (or both) and next week on Monday, 6 October, 5pm Australian Eastern Summer Time, I will randomly choose three winners. The first person will have first choice (one of three sets of tags) ; the second person will have a choice of the remaining two sets, and I am afraid the third person will have whatever set has not been chosen before. Here they are:  Art Tags Set A - Marie Antoinette series  (mixed media tags) Marie Antoinette series - 1 Beehive tag( line drawing on tea bag paper, digital image wit...

It's THAT time of the year!  For most of  the year, my work can be purchased at  my Etsy shop and Timeless Textiles , a Gallery and Centre for Fibre Artists. But, at this time of the year, there are pop-up shops, markets and bazaars for local artists and artisans. Every year, I then frantically search for good ideas for small, inexpensive, quick and easy handmade gift ideas for markets. This year, I made quite a few fabric fridge magnets...  I will explain the basic steps and perhaps you might like to try some for yourself.  1. Choose a bright and simple print on heavy cotton or linen. For these magnets, I chose a mushroom silk screened fabric from Thea and Sami.  Thea and Sami printed fabric  2. Use a backing fabric like heavy calico, linen or ticking in a similar colour to the print fabric.  3. With both fabrics together sew around the print and then trim leaving a small edge.  4. Make a very small slit in the back, cut...