Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Eggs and hares were symbols of fertility and a new beginning in spring. Since time immemorial, eggs have been associated with world or universe by many cultures. So, it is not surprising that eggs for hundreds of years have been used for rituals, decorated and were hung in temples in Babylonian time. They dyed, painted, decorated, and then used egg as a symbol for spring festival since eggs represent new life and a new dawn. When Christianity spread out across the world, egg becomes a symbol of man’s rebirth rather than nature or spring. Christians symbolize the egg to Jesus Christ tomb from which he broke forth and rose again. Likewise, they painted the egg with red to symbolize the blood of Christ, and every year the decoration becomes elaborate and colourful. Today, Easter eggs decorated with myriad of colours to make it more fun to look at, and children  can better understand their importance to the celebration of Easter.  From Ten Easter symbols and Their Meaning  ...

As it is March, I've been thinking of the saying "Mad as a March hare", so I decided on the " Hares and Rabbits" theme for my turn to design for Tag Tuesday this fortnight. Ever wondered how the saying came about?   Hares have long been thought to behave excitedly in March, which is their mating season. Lewis Carroll is among many who have used this idea in stories - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "The March Hare ... as this is May, it won't be raving mad - at least not so mad as it was in March." More recently this behaviour has been questioned and it is now thought that hares behave oddly - boxing, jumping etc. - throughout their breeding season, which extends over several months. Be that as it may, hares, especially March hares, have that reputation, which will surely stay with them. from https://www.phrases.org.uk   I  prepared three tags and  had lots of fun making these tags. The first (photograph above)  is a fabric collag...

Fussy cut  pattern on a text background, with hand stitching-  WS  The current theme at Tag Tuesday   is TIME/CLOCKS, nominated by design team member, Joan who prepared some great tags as inspiration. Sometime ago, I cut very carefully these white rabbits  out of a piece of paper... I loved the  pattern design of the shared ears being part of the central chessboard. This seemed a good time to find it in my stash and create a round tag for this challenge. I continued with the Wonderland theme, and remembered the Mad Hatter announcing "It's always tea time!" so here is another tag inspired by that saying... watercolour and ink drawing with photo transfers and text an fabric. Watercolour pencil and ink drawing ( Alice) , photo transfer ( trees and quote)  onto text background paper, with fabric. WS  Please visit Tag Tuesday for  contributions from other tag artists who have interpreted this theme.

Tag Theme : Birds ( nests, eggs)  Although  very busy, I have been determined to create a tag each week for the Tag Tuesday Blog Challenge    All the tags  on the blog are very artistic, with so many different techniques used to interpret the theme . The tag I made for the "Birds" theme last week  is a silk screen print,  sewn onto the cardboard tag template, with satin and gingham ribbons. I bought the print from a stall at the Hunter Art Bazaar last weekend.   The tag below for "Mad March" was created from painted handmade paper, and a moon from a  paper circle coloured with texta markers and dabbed with rubbing alcohol. Then I stamped a pattern and the words, and added a silhouette cur from black cardboard, with some sari silk ribbon.  Tag theme: Mad March ( hares, rabbits)