resurrection fern

Opening Night Plush You 2009

I can't believe it is already October 9th and opening of one of the best shows of soft and plush art in the world tonight in Seattle, Washington. I really wish I was there to hug Kristen and thank her in person for all her encouragement and hard work. I also wish I could meet the other artists and see all of the amazing creations in person.

My work will be at Schmancy and you can purchase it online or via a phone call to the shop. Proceeds from the sale ( my portion) will go to greenpeace for their work on saving the oceans and all the living creatures that reside within them.

My plush are halvard, guardian of the sea stones and merfish, luna the great pink sea snail and the matyrushka turtles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to know where the wild things are this weekend it is in Seattle of course!! If you live in the area please stop by to say hello to my little sea friends.

PlushYou Interview

I am so excited to be taking part in the amazing international show for plush known as PlushYou 2009 taking place in Seattle, Washington in October. You can read a little interview with me over at the 

PlushYou blog. Kristen if you ever plan such a camping trip, please count me in. This gives me the perfect excuse to show some more pictures of my little friends that are already on there way to Schmancy or perhaps they have arrived. In some of these photographs you will see an old friend Mungo, the amazon river dolphin. He is one of those things mentioned in the interview that I am unable to part with. At least not yet. It almost happened with the giant pink snail as well but I decided I would just make myself another one. These plush will be available to purchase from Schmancy in October if any one is interested. I will be donating my portion of the sale to Greenpeace.

If yeast cells can sing then why not mushrooms

I was playing around photographing the mushrooms and making spore prints last weekend when I made this picture.

I used some vintage sheet music I had found at a rummage sale last spring.  I thought it especially funny how it said animato and at least one of the mushrooms above that bar is an amanita. Okay, maybe only I see the humour in that. 

What this photograph reminded me of was an article I had read about how yeast cells sing. The cell walls (plants, fungi and yeast cells have those) vibrate at a frequency of about 1000 times per second and that equates to a sound about two octaves above middle C. It is not audible to the human ear (thank goodness) unless amplified greatly. What did you think of that little audio clip of the singing yeast cell? It reminds me of outer space or the deep ocean.

So do you think different mushroom cells vibrate at different frequencies and those sing in harmony? I will let you ponder that question as I show you some more members of the forest symphonic choir.

That was the barbershop quartet.

The Von Mushroomtrappe family singers.

This post isn't finished until the big coral fungi sings and announces the winner of the "too cute" post giveaway of a crochet covered stone. 

The winner is Maiz . I want to thank each and everyone of you who took the time to leave a comment. They have recharged me in so many ways. When ever I have any self doubt about what I am trying to do here and I am sure there will be days I will I can always come here. I wish I could send stones to you all.  I can give you this, a most amazing stone I found on the weekend on a trail I don't often walk. I took a picture of it and then left just where it was. 

Plush You 2009 : Halvard

I saved the first plush I made for this year's Plush You event this October in Seattle for last. He is different from the others, not as cute and perhaps even a little odd but he was my source of inspiration for the rest. I wanted to make a simple small toy that would incorporate my silk screened image of a covered stone. I wanted him to look modern and ancient, soft and strong, having a ethereal almost ghost or spirit like feel.

So with that introduction I want to introduce Halvard the guardian of the the sea stones and merfish. I have to thank lisa for naming him for me. According to lisa it means rock defender or guardian of the stones. Perfect !!!

I hope you enjoy your weekend. I am awaiting the arrival of my daughter Rebekah with tales of her far north adventure and I heard rumors of stones :) and also of my niece, Hannah from Winnipeg.  

Plush You 2009 : the matryoshka turtles

I am so happy to introduce to you this morning from the shores of the Baltic Sea, Anna and her two little friends Ekaterina and Varenka. They are very pleased to meet you and very excited about travelling to Plush You 2009 in Seattle this October. In the mean time they will be studying English and hanging out in the garden with the giant pink sea snail. 

It started off with just Anna and Ekaterina and then they found a little orphan stone turtle in a tea dish on the porch and well the rest is history in the making.

Anna is made with hand silkscreened fabric and wool felt. Her kerchief is a small remnant of a vintage linen and is removable , as is her belt or tiny turtle fastener.

Ekaterina has hand embroidered details on the silk screen and the littlest turtle Varenka is actually a tiny crocheted sea stone made with vintage crochet cotton and a very tiny hook. 

the giant pink sea snail

I have been very busy behind the scenes working on my PLUSH YOU 2009 contributions. I was really happy to hear that Kristen didn't really want to receive them too early. These soft art toys began with an idea, as most things do. I really wanted to design them around the silkscreened image of a crochet covered stone. You might remember it from my workshop with arounna at bookhou. I wanted them to look fresh, modern and yet incorporate some old world crafting with embroidery and as you will see later with the other ones a little bit of crochet.

I wanted them to be water inspired.

One of my favorite films as a child was the original Doctor Dolittle movie with Rex Harrison and my favorite character was the great pink sea snail of course. Strange that the only image I could find on the internet of it was this little one.

I read someone describe it as a throw back to the psychedelic 60's. 

Here is what I came up with.

I have decided to name her luna after luna lovegood my favorite character in the Harry Potter books.  

Similar to last year I will be donating my portion of the sale of my plush to a charity. This year it will be the the Greenpeace defending our oceans campaign.

Tomorrow a stone and sea inspired little trio with Russian ancestry :)