little Venus

For the Stitch Club workshop by
Christi Johnson
(making a soft sculpture talisman)
I re-made the Venus of Willendorf.

The little statuette of this a woman was excavated in Austria in 1908.
Between 25.000 and 30.00 years old, with her lovely hairdo, big boobs and belly

we can only guess and speculate what purpose she had,
but many think she might have been a symbol of fertility.

With her size of a good 11 cm,
my Venus is almost the same size as the original one.
That one was made of oolitic limestone,
a kind of rock that was traced back to northern Italy.
In the rock are many tiny particles even of shells,
so I thought my little seed stitches were perfect for that !
Similar looking figurines are mostly made of ivory (mammoth tusk)

Making the first stitches

After making the front and back I could sew them together
leaving a small opening for stuffing.

The original Venus was coloured with the sacred red ochre
but mine is much more colourful
just like the "look-a-like" Nana's
Niki de Saint Phalle made so many years ago !