Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

During the Easter weekend, I have been doing some" catch up" work, completing some orders and finishing a little art doll I started a week ago as well as eating a chocolate Easter egg or two and going out to dinner  and movies with friends  - perfect weekend!  Here is my little Forest Friend, rescuing a nest of eggs at Easter... and here are the basic steps: 1. Have a good friend to inspire, motivate and help... Bobbi (Lambo Art) explaining anatomy and armature 2. Make an armature from wire and check the proportions against an anatomy chart. Wire armature, secured with insulation tape.   3. Flesh out the armature by covering with lots of  aluminium foil. Armature covered with foil   4. Make foil bases/ armatures for head, hands and feet Foil armatures  5. Cover and sculpt with polymer clay. I used Sculpey" Living Doll" and I made two pairs of hands because the first lot looked like lobster claws!   Cure in an oven at 130 ...

2010 crept up on me, but I did make some New Year's resolutions. I am going to try to make less waste, especially with creative resources and to clean up my workroom after each project. I've done well so far, but 361 more days yet...  Ruth's bag (pictured) finished just before Christmas is a good example of using up bits and pieces of yarn and wool and recycling a handbag to create an altered, unique, scrumbled creation.  The wooden button is also made by my husband from offcuts of timber. By the way, my friend, Ruth was happy with her bag, too.   Between Christmas and New Year, I attempt to rid our house of unwanted clutter, so when I was going through old cards, I thought they were all so beautiful I should do something with them. Easy - I used the cuttlebug and cut the fronts of  greeting cards from years past to make hundreds of colourful and useful gift tags. I now have a supply of gift cards for all occasions. Perhaps you recognise a card you...

This week I finished knitting a shawl from recycled silk. I just had to have this yarn and the circular pattern which were at the Craft and Quilt Fair in Newcastle last February in Prudence Mapstone's stall http://www.knotjustknitting.com . The pattern is called Tapestry Shawl by Jill Vosburg , Just One More Row. http://www.justonemorerow.com . It is a very easy pattern, knitted in short rows with very large gauge needles. As I seem to wear mostly black especially in winter, I thought I needed a bit of colour in my life this year. Jim made me a beautiful Huon Pine button and I sewed it on as a clasp with a piece of carnelian. Carnelian is said to promote peace and harmony, dispel depression, strengthen self confidence, and confer eloquence to a speaker. With this mind, I wore the new shawl with the wood and carnelian button to the Model United Nations Assembly this weekend. I needed all the colour of the recycled silk and the powers of the carnelian as I was the Secretary Ge...