resurrection fern

core samples: a gift from my son and a stone diary

The Canadian Shield covers half of Canada as well as the north USA and Greenland. It is mostly composed of granite and the worlds largest area of exposed precambrian rock. It is very rich in metallic minerals and thus has been a source of great interest to geologists and mining speculators. A few years ago I went on a canoe trip in Northern Ontario and on a few small stone islands noticed numerous holes in the stone made by speculators taking core samples. My son was recently canoeing in the exact same area so I asked him ( as I do all the children on their travels) to look out for some interesting stones and more specifically to bring me back a few core samples if he happened upon some.

There he is searching for some :)

He had a large pack and canoe to carry on his portages but he still managed to bring me home a heavy gift. 

I love there smooth cold greyness. Of course I had to set to work to crochet a partial cover for one of them. 

Thank you so much Benjamin. I love them and have some ideas I can't wait to play around with. I have been working on a few larger stones and have also managed to crochet another cover on a tea saucer. The future wall display is slowly increasing in size and for now has found a home on the mosaic porch table. The beautiful flowers were from my niece's wedding. 

That book is really wonderful and was a gift from my sister Ann.

If you haven't seen the opening night photographs from Elsita's show you really must. I am so sorry I could not attend but seeing these pictures, especially those of Elsita's hugs, brought me great joy. 

the Stone Diaries: Part XIII

The thirteenth installment on the 13th day of August seem so perfect. This treasure box was sent all the way from Nantes, France and collected from the beaches of  Bretagne ( Brittany) by Muriel. You can tell from her blog that she surrounds herself with great beauty and is a very accomplished maker of things. She loves fiber and textiles and has the most adorable marmalade cat.  You can see her preparing the parcel on her blog on July 15th. 

Here is what Muriel had to say about this parcel .

"Me 'zo ganet e.kreiz ar mor"

"I was born in the middle of the ocean"

That's the first verse of a very beautiful song written by a well known breton poet 

named Bleimor (Jean Pierre Calloc'h) and sung so sensitively by Yann-Fanch Kemener.

I have thought about this song when I prepared your packet and found this little painting my mother made. While I was crocheting around the stones, I remembered sweet and very old memories of my childhood too: the sensation and the sound of the water while my father's little ship was sailing on the sea... The long walks onthe beach , picking up stones, shells and little pieces of polished glass. So thank you, Margaret. Thank you for sharing with us your so essential and sensitive work... Magical too, as the things looked when we were as child.

I am in love with the way this was all put together with the linen hand embroidered galet bag, the sea stone quilt, the hand crocheted baskets and stone coverings in such beautiful natural fibers and the mother of pearl little fish and buttons on safety pins. I haven't even gotten to the fabulous sea stones yet. This packages evokes such a strong sense of the geology and culture of the area that it originated that it makes me want to hop on a plane and fly to Brittany for the weekend. I travelled to Mont St Michel through Normandy with my husband and  two young children but we never went further into the region of Brittany. I am adding that to my ever growing list of places I must visit. 

Thank you so much Muriel for your creativity and great generosity. These gifts will 

occupy a special place in my home and in my heart.

The Stone Diaries: Part XII

These stones, fossils, caribou antlers, bones and other gathered treasures have travelled from the shores of James Bay and Hudson's Bay (northern Ontario and Nunavut) in my daughter's duffel bag. They were gathered, flown in a helicopter, then a small plane, then a car, then a bus, another bus, a train and then lastly my car to arrive on my porch.  The starting point of their journey can be seen on this map and in these photographs taken by Rebekah.

Your will recognize that fossilized ammonite in one of the later photographs. While the gentlemen of the team fished my daughter explored and collected stones and other treasures.  She brought home some amazing natural gifts.

Here you see caribou vertebrae, caribou antler and the  scapulae of a small mammal perhaps an arctic fox.

a shelf like stone that looks like a fungi with beautiful burnt orange lichen on it and a caribou tooth.

stones and mussel shells with dulse attached. One of the other members of the team was instructed by his young daughter to bring this back for her aquarium.

I have added a few beautiful smooth stones, fossils, a goose bone and a feather.

Here you see a caribou antler and what Rebekah described as a polar bear's lunch ( goose bones). She did see polar bears from a distance. They didn't want to get too close because that would stress the bears too much and it was a mother with two cubs.

She did explore some summer dens dug out in the sandy bank where the bears sleep to stay cool. This is where she found the remains of lunch.

I was having fun photographing the tray of fossils and stones on different back grounds. This color of yellow is Rebekah's favorite and I found this old national geographic map of northern canada in our filing cabinet.

I have a few weeks to explore these treasures before my daughter comes back to claim them. Perhaps she will let me keep a fossil or two. She has a few more weeks of work and then she will be off to Nova Scotia for a well deserved holiday. Guess what I have already asked her to bring back for me and I am even loaning her my car so she can load it up. 

The Stone Diaries: Part XI

This wonderful parcel , the subject of the 11th stone diary installment came as a total surprise. The note inside read "Thank you so much for the gift of your beautiful website! I've included: holey rocks, finger rocks, coin rocks and a surprise or two..."

Well I can tell you I was so so surprised!! You definitely can 't judge a gift by its box. It was packaged in a box labeled "steaks" from Idaho I think. Inside was filled with little parcels wrapped in newspaper from the 1800's, ribbons, vintage trim and even some of the tiniest perfect little starfish I have ever seen.

You must read Jen's explanation for how this parcel was put together. I found it just a short while ago while trying to find her blog. I just love the name of it : Dances with Flowers. 

Inside the wrappings were more little exquisitely wrapped packages with beautiful hand stamped tags. It took me forever to unwrap each and every stone . They looked so much like salt water taffy that I have since had a huge craving for one of those summertime candies.

I am in love with each and every stone and treasure in this parcel. I wish you could all feel how smooth and silky those finger stones are. I am marveling over the "holey" stones, natural pendants. Barb ( green wellies) says ," I'm all jittery. These are such incredible holey stones. What an amazing addition to your stone diaries. We used to find holey rocks along the shore of Lake Ontario, only they were very small versions of Jen's treasures. I was told that the shamans used to look through them when on a vision quest. One day, as I was walking the beach, there was a very elderly lady looking out over the water through the tiniest hole. She said she was trying to improve her eyesight!" 

 
A funny thing is the title of the vintage newsprint page I used to line the display tray.  I went to see the very funny and charming movie " the proposal" with my daughter on friday and guess where the couple go to spend the weekend? Sitka, Alaska of course !!!

To continue the circle of thankfulness I made this little ephemeral art for Jen. You brought me such joy this weekend. 

The stones are dancing with the flowers :) and the snails of course ( wink )

The Stone Diaries: Part X and a very easy stone craft

This is the tenth installation. I would never have imagined this part of my blog and life would really almost be having a life of its own. Through these stones and the shared love of them and the parts of the world they have been carved from I have gotten to know some of the kindest, most generous and creative people on this planet. The sender of today's parcel is just such a person. It is Sonia whom many of you will know by the wonderful comments she leaves on flickr and her beautiful blog, cosy homemaking. She is the mother of two very talented dancers and she makes the most beautiful pincushions with her needle and thread and a little help from her sewing machine. Her work really captures the french handcrafted atmosphere.

Here she describes in her own words the stones and where they came from.

" I knew I wanted to send you some stones found in the south, my south, and that's the first thing I included in this parcel. As I was picking them, I thought I could take a little pic of the place (the ground only, I mean) where I found them. We were in Castries then, last April, and these stones were picked, very happily, around your birthday date ! (if not exactly the day, can't remember clearly) I knew you'd have a good use of them. So ... I picked them in a type of local wild area that we call the "garrigue" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrigue ) The funny thing is that there aren't lots of round shaped stones there, as there is hardly any water. Finding them was rather tricky indeed. The shells come from my collections, and were picked on the south beaches nearby Montpellier, so they come from the Mediterranean Sea."  Sonia will be moving back to Montpellier very soon and I am sure she will be spending many days exploring the beaches. These are a few little pictures she sent me of where the stones came from.

I made the little fellow with the linen sombrero to thank the customs officials for not searching this little package and allowing the nuts and seeds to arrive at my door.  I love each and every little attention to detail. My husband has already finished the delicious nougat and I shared the cookies with the family. The kittens were very interested in the way the shells smelled. I am in absolute love with the liberty fabric strawberry and the inclusion of a piece from her mother of pearl collection.

Thank you so much Sonia. I wish I could come and help you pack up those boxes. I can't believe you found the time to send this amazing parcel in the midst of a move.

Since I had only one parcel to share this installment I decided to include a very easy little craft I tried on the weekend. Last year I hammer printed plants and flowers onto fabric. Yesterday I tried it on some stones and I really love the result.

It works best with smooth light colored stones. I used a rubber mallet instead of a hammer. After I laid the plant material on the stone I covered it with cheesecloth before hammering it. This gave a woven texture to the image which made it even more special. 

In summary here is what you need: very smooth flat light colored stones, fresh leaves or flowers, cheesecloth, a hammer or rubber mallet. 

Here is what you can make.

Here is my favorite one in one of my new little framed moss gardens.

The Stone Diaries: Part IX

This is a really fabulous installment with stones, crochet covered art made by my dear friend from France and the even the art of her children. You have all met the incredible talented and creative Nanou before if you follow these diaries.  When she isn't traveling to Venice for a mini vacation she can be found gathering stones on the beach in Nice, France or taking her family on nature walk in the surrounding fragrant hills. This parcel was such a delight and fit so perfectly with the "let's make fish" theme.

Her children made those pictures to celebrate Fern the snail's release into the garden this month. Aren't they incredible? I am well on my way to having a wonderful collection of children's snail art. Nanou sent this parcel before she knew I would be doing fish tutorial's on the blog. Her crochet covered stones are so perfectly made.  Another interesting thing is that in my little journal book that I scribble ideas I have last winter I drew a "monogrammed" coved stone that would hang around your neck like a cameo. Like so many of the ideas in that book, I never got around to making it but now I am the proud owner of my very own "M" stone. My youngest daughter really loves the polka dot stone and the little "bug" with the "snap" eye.

Thank you so much Nanou for all your kindness. I am sure you will gain many more admirers of your talent today!!

the stone Diaries: Part VIII

Finally another installment of the stone diaries. This one includes two parcels from across the Atlantic Ocean ( England and Portugal) sent by two friends from the dawn of my flickr life.

The first one comes from Cathy of November Moon fame and includes some of her machine sewn words that I will be using soon in a collaboration we are doing that will involve some crochet covered stones. I bet you are all wondering just how that will turn out? She also included some hand dyed roving and a "pebble from a Sussex beach" that has a great deal of personality. 

The second parcel with a little pig on the package ( pre swine flu days) came from my dear friend Maria , otherwise known as kjoo.  She sent a exquisite piece of textile art in the form of a pin , a ring and some of her crocheted little "finds" that I an also planning on using on some crochet covered stones as a collaboration. Are you starting to see a trend here :)

To top it off she filled the box with sea stones and other beach treasures from her wanderings and vacations over the last year. I will show you my pictures and then a detailed explanation of the natural treasures that Maria emailed to me.

Here is Maria's description of the items:

2/5 --- from Reunion island- Piton de la Fournaise (active volcano)
6/7 --- from Reunion island
http://www.flickr.com/photos/p0250q/2412869077/in/set-72157606433008014/
9 --- Beau Vallon beach, Mahe --- Seychelles islands

8/3/4 --- Setúbal --- near city of Palmela (my home town)
1/10 natural park of  Serra da Estrela (portugal) 

They are so full of wonder.

Then just after my birthday I got the heaviest parcel delivered . I think it weighed over 40 pounds and I have no idea who sent it except that it had a business address of Montreal , Quebec on it.  The stone mystery plot thickens.....

Here they are arranged on the garden bench.  It is now officially Edgar's favorite outdoor place to stretch out.

I have already covered some of these for the shop update today. All the stones have sold but there are a few really wonderful necklaces left with covered stones and fossils left .

I know this isn't officially part of the stone diaries but these two darling little owlettes with liberty tana lawn patches on their bellies are definitely loving the stones on the porch. They are the work of the very sweet and talented Mathyld. Last time I checked there were still a few little darlings still in her etsy shop.

I almost forgot. Another stone mystery occured this past month. One morning I walked outside to call in the kitties and I found this on the weathered old garden bench.

Any one want to offer an explanation :)

The Stone Diaries: Part VII

I told you I had so much rock hard material that I had to split this weeks stone diaries in to two parts. The first portion comes from Tiel, all the way from Australia. I have been a huge fan of tsktsk artwork for longer than I can remember and it was a few months ago that we decided to do a little swap. I would crochet a stone for her and she was going to make a collage for me. Her parcel arrived just before my birthday and I was really blown away by the contents. It wasn't just a collage , it was a collage of "me" , the "lapidary girl" complete with braids, a crochet hook tucked in her lace belt, lace covered stones and the very essential thread. It really is unbelievable. As if that wasn't enough Tiel bestowed on me some fashionably dressed stones , cards and a hand sewn art card.  

The next part of this installment comes from my own backyard, figuratively speaking. I always think I will need to travel or find stones in other distant lands but on Easter weekend after brunch my daughters and I went for a walk along the shore of Lake Ontario in an area of Toronto known as "the beaches". It was quite cool and there were not very many people there. From these pictures you would never know that just to the north of this scene is a huge city with over a million people. 

I first saw one, and then another and another, a few small pieces of beach glass, a smooth brick pebble and in next to no time my pockets were full.

I added a little snail shell to give you an idea of the size of these stones.

“The pebble in the brook secretly thinks itself a precious stone”

Japanese Proverb

The Stone Diaries: Part VI

Wow part VI already and I already have part of the makings for a part VII. I had to divide things up so that the post wouldn't get too heavy, excuse the pun. In this installment I have another tale of two countries, Ireland and America.The Irish stones come from a newish friend of mine, full time yarn dyer ( her own words) , Beata. She lives in Cork which means " marshy place " and is a major seaport in Ireland. Where there is sea there is almost always some wonderful sea stones to be found. These stones are unlike any I have seen before. They actually really remind me of the other "cork" material in the color and delicate dotted appearance. I am particularly fond of one of these stones  and I keep rubbing it hoping some of that Irish luck might rub off on me. Beata was also very kind to include some natural fibers for me that I am sure will find themselves covering some stones or other objects in the future. Her gift came with some lyrics from the Celtic musicians Eden's Bridge.

In the beginning, I was counting the stones on the seashore, Looking for the precious ones.

 Among the stones, I found many pretty things While the sea rolled on beside me all the time. 

Time moved on.

 I had collected many stones 'til I tired of them, And I think they tired of me.

 Some were lovely, but I was never satisfied, And the sea rolled on beside me all the time.

 And the wind rose, east and cold.

 Whisp'ring sweetly to my soul.

 And it said "Look you fool, You are missing precious things: Raise your eyes and look towards the sea.

" So I looked: It was as if I saw the sea for the first time, And it's power captured me.

 All the time I had wasted seeking stones, I had missed the rolling glory of the sea.

 And the sea Devoured a mighty swathe of heart, overwhelmed me In a way I couldn't know, And the price for the love of greater things Was surrender to the great and cruel sea.

 And it stole me, and I feared the aching sea, It consumed me, drowned my mind.

 The wind said "Look, you fool, No matter what you do, You can't contain the ocean like a stone." 

The next package was one I actually brought home with me from Patricia. I saved it to open this Easter weekend . It contained some stones she had collected with her children for me and they were wonderful but the thing that really captured my eyes and heart was the hand felted stone made with her own two hands and embellished with embroidery, driftwood, a tiny little crocheted nest and a tiny detailed felt bird. The little bird used to be a treasure of her brothers. This parcel also contained a "patchwork" card with vintage lace and fabric, some exquisite old lace pieces, a book with a really delightful dutch boy on the cover and a victorian easter postcard with the cutest chicks ever.  This parcel is such a wonderful reminder to me of the time we spent together that weekend hiking, exploring, vintage shopping and really enjoying each other's company. 

Beata and Patricia , I can't thank you both enough for contributing to the stone covering cause. There is so very much inspiration in these two packages.

The Stone Diaries: Part V

Already a new installment you ask? Yes absolutely and this one is in three amazing parts. The first parcel came from Oregon and is from the very talented seamstress 

Abby and is the first time I have received stones from one person twice. I ordered a beautiful skirt/top from her wonderful etsy shop and she included two little gifts and an absolutely beautiful dark grey egg shaped stone. I think I will hold this one for a while before deciding how to cloak it. I had no idea why the kitties in the household were acting so strange with this parcel while it sat unopened on the dining room table until I unwrapped it and discovered three little gifts of handmade catnip toys for them. The wonderful herb filled fish is all mine :) Her wrapping was so beautiful I actually opened the packages at the bottom so as to not disturb the buttons.

The second parcel is from Denmark from Julie who celebrated her birthday yesterday. Happy birthday Julie.  Exciting news for her is that she just recently opened up an etsy shop with some marvelous items for sale. The stones she sent me are really unlike anything I have ever seen before. They come from an area in Denmark known as Mon's Klint with it's spectacular white chalk cliff and beach. Included in these stones are fossilized squid parts, a sea urchin and a wonderful almost heart shaped stone with a well in it. She also included a little bit of sweden in the package with the brick stone from an area that used to have a brick factory in days gone by.

I think these squid fossils are going to make amazing merfish and maybe a cuttle fish or two. 

Here we are at the last part of this installment. First I recommend you go grab a hankie before proceeding. This last parcel came from my very dear friend Rane and her darling family.  The children all helped sew , make and choose such wonderfu little gifts for me and my family. They even included special fabric for the merfish so they can pretend they are swimming. Leo handpicked some stones from his collection for me and I think he did a really amazing job. I love them all but most of all I love the amethyst crystal because that was my father's favorite stone and it was the first and only piece of jewelry he bought for me. 

I adore the mushrooms that Rane made and I really love the stickers she made of her little mushroom sketch. She is very talented in so many ways. She can juggle caring for 6 young children and still have time and energy to sew or draw. I saved the most special part for last.  

The little boy that became a tree felt so cosy, warm and so very loved under that magical little quilt. You can read about him here if you have stopped crying long enough to click with your mouse. Just writing this post has got me going again.

Off to find another hankie.

Thank you so much the Ueda family, Julie and Abby. As long as there are people like you in the world I know everything will be alright.