Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

For the current challenge "The Sea"  at Tag Tuesday, I made a couple of  painted/ hand drawn tags . These were created from a piece of watercolour paper which had been sprayed with acrylic paint - blue, yellow and quinacridone gold. I then sketched over the top  , trying to follow some pattern created by the splatter and then add some felt tip pen lines  watercolour pencil to highlight the shapes. The tags represent the fantasies of the hidden city of Atlantis and a mermaid.  With this theme in mind, I also add a free motion stitched  tag I made  earlier this year for 29 Faces - 

Have you ever thought how strange a creature the octopus is?  This week's fascination started when I asked the question, "What colour is an octopus when it's underwater?"  The answer is  "any colour it wants to be " -  An octopus' coloration depends upon its surroundings.  An octopus possesses the ability to alter its coloration depending on its immediate environment. This defensive technique protects the animal from predators and entices prey to come close to the animal . ((from  https://www.reference.com/pets-animals/color-octopus-be94f74fcdc74ebe)    . Why did I want to know the colour of an octopus? Because I wanted to draw octopus tentacles as mermaid hair for my art journal! Then, I began to think it might be considered a little too weird and even perverse to give a mermaid octopus hair.... Facebook friends assured me that this was not so, citing Medusa and her snake hair as a precedent, and even one friend said that she thought it was l...

Fish Brooches Fish, mermaids,  fishermen, water goddesses, ocean creatures and a couple of majestic frogs were all there. The doll making group I belong to, Hello Dollies, was a featured artist at the Dobell Art and Crafts festival  last weekend. The little colourful fish which were made at one Saturday meeting were the most popular amongst the crowd, with most of them  being sold  on the first day of the festival.  Here are a few images of the dolls on display... no wonder there were lots of oohs and aahs.... Fishermen and  Siren of the Sea   Water maiden, mermaid and frog prince  Chubby mermaids  Water doll, mermaid and sea urchin  Mermaid  Sea Goddess  Frog Prince  Water Maiden Mermaid, Venetian fisherman and "compass" doll  "Taking a friend for a walk " - hard to see but the friend is a fish!  Ocean maiden and beaded face mermaid  Part of the...

I recently taught a workshop at the Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists Creative Retreat. One of my very conscientious and creative students, Gay, sent me some photos of one of her completed works - a felted soft sculpture. The wet felt sculpture depicts a bottle, which has been lying on the ocean bed for sometime.... and has needle felted underwater plants  as well as polymer clay embellishments, giving the suggestion of schools of fish and even a mermaid. I love the way Gay has created movement with silk and the patterns created by the little polymer clay shapes/fish pieces. Well done, Gay. This will be a wonderful piece for the Outdoor Odyssey theme exhibition later in the year. I can hardly wait to see the other bottles Gay plans to create as representations of various environments.

What a great day! Today was the first of my 2009 workshops - the beaded mermaid bag or necklace. It was held at Judith Killen's Busy Hen Shed Studio in Dural with a delightful group of very skilled and creative women . They all achieved quite a lot in the day, and were well on the way to creating beautiful mermaids - the process includes stamping onto polymer clay, designing the mermaid and bead embroidering the figure. Here are some photos- all pictured being very conscientious and on task. Thanks and well done Judith, Megan, Johanna, Kellee, Janine, Carole and Toni. I was very lucky to celebrate International Women's Day with my sister in Townsville last week, with a group of Queensland women educators . The photo below shows us at the function where the special guest speaker was a student from our alma mater, St. Margaret Mary's College. While I was there, the Unifem function was being held here in Newcastle. My friend and fellow Rotarian, Lyn Thorpe was the guest spe...