Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Rain forest babies - art dolls by Wilma Simmons 2017  " In the forest, the child. In the child, the forest. Dwelling well within themselves, children can right wrong turns, can find the clarity of a clearing in the woods. Breath deeply enough the scents of pine, mushroom, moss and beech mast and they will stay with you: listen to the forest attentively enough in childhood and the blackbird will still be singing seventy years on. (http://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2015/06/woods.html ) People often ask me what inspires you to make the things you do.... I draw my inspiration from many places. The little rainforest babies were made very late one night a couple of weeks ago. They are a response to a challenge 'inspired by May Gibbs" held by my doll making group, and while I wanted to pay tribute to May Gibbs' love of nature, I didn't merely want to copy her gumnut babies. However, I did want to capture her magical feel to her characters.... and I really loved the...

 I’m still catching up from the hectic but great time we enjoyed during my birthday “weeks” and family visits. Before my mother left, I finally finished the black bag I promised last Christmas.  I was finally happy with it, and I think it will be good for Mum when she goes out at night, as it is large enough to fit her folding walking stick. It is a “scrumbled” bag, and although I have now made quite a few, the last two – Ruth’s green bag and this one took ages. I started them both with great enthusiasm, and then came to a sudden standstill, just adding a tiny bit week by week without making any real progress, creative or otherwise!. Anyway both are now completed, and feature lots of bullion crochet, fluffy and sparkly yarns in various knitting and crochet stitches. I made this one on a base of tapestry mesh canvas, and I found it a better and firmer base for this kind of handbag than rug canvas. And a happy surprise - I accidentally found a fake suede “cord” which made perf...

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...