h a p p y h o l i d a y s

Well, howdy do- it's Thursday already! The wind up to Christmas is upon us, and how apt that it should fall on a Sunday this year- and that...

Santa should be riding in on a Saturday night!

We've had a pleasant time during the prelude

decorating the tree and listening to holiday music

I take so much pleasure in the magical aspects

stories and memories shared with friends

and the love

the love

the wisdom of joy

the synchronicity of like minds

and the mischief maker who likes to knock ornaments off the tree

(What's that I see behind the chair's back leg?)

H A P P Y  H O L I D A Y S

and whatever you do

find peace in your heart

Whisper...a handmade book

Here are some pages from my handmade book as promised:

 Here is the brown paper bag wrapped front cover, brushed with random strokes of gesso and acrylic paint and adorned with a torn strip of poetry

"Whisper"

pencil drawings of owls adorn most pages, a few bits of evocative text left from the book page used to make this one signature (folded papers) book composed of three folios (a folded piece of paper)

"graceful and... splendid old garden"

pages 2 and 3

"Before the evening...every scrap which could be found"

 pages 4 and 5

here I added some torn bits of text on each side of  the preserved one

"so delightfully small...more curious than beautiful...caused you to smile"

pages 6 and 7

"cottage upon the island"

 pages 8 and 9

"you did come from home...the vacant spaces left...so the story runs"

pages 10 and 11

"and the gathering together...they began to be"

page 12

"I have never seen"

As you can see the book is, as yet, unfinished. There's more I'd like to add.

You can also see that 3 folded pages (folios) that make up this one signature book

amount to 12 pages on which to work, not including the inside covers (which add 2 more)

This was a fun little project, something I've been wanting to do longer than I care to mention.

When one thinks of the little things one could do in a lifetime to create an expression of the self, without measuring these efforts against anyone else's, it boggles the imagination. We are a sentient people who learn, both about ourselves and the world at large, through our feelings though we may cloud this direct avenue with the intellect through beliefs and adherence to form.  Creativity in its many forms is an avenue to the feelings through thoughtful expression that can be more transcendent for the maker than the viewer.

 I once saw a shelf of pipecleaner and found bits of paper and tissue figures made by a concentration camp survivor who invited me to see, or perhaps witness this fragile expression of her experience. I was profoundly moved by this personal expression of the self. I have since forgotten her name or how I came to meet her, but I will never forget the feeling it stamped on my sense of what is true in the realm of creative expression.

I encourage you to look with renewed eyes at the bits of detritus one finds around the home. Artists are notorious for stuffing pockets with "treasures" found along the way, filling boxes and windowsills with this raw material. What could you do with a bit of string and paper, some glue and a threaded needle, colourful plastic bottlecaps or some discarded cardboard? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Enchanted Blue Planet on Etsy reopens

Well here we are on a Sunday night in November.  The 6 inches of snow from 2 days ago has melted and the sun even came out, but I was determined to meet my magical date commitment to myself to get my online etsy shop up and running again as I stitched the day away making little lavender stuffed pillow brooches.



Here is a detail of the 1.5  x  2 .25  inch Saw Whet Owl brooch I finished today.

It is irregular with its combination stuffing of lavender and polyfil, but I like it that way. 

It has been a great joy of mine investing so much time in drawing again in this medium of black crochet cotton freehand embroidery.  I love the rich black against the buff, richly textured natural linen.  It makes such a strong graphic statement and yet the "strokes" of thread are oddly out of my control as each stitch slips into the weave of the linen with an idiosyncracy that I can barely control, making me more of a participant and less of a leader.    I do get a kick out of this lack of control though I spent almost as much time today removing stitches as often as making them. 

More tomorrow...I hope.