resurrection fern

Continuing in the same vein

Sometimes when I get a whim to make something it seems very difficult to stop at just one. First there was the leaf and now I have added seed and bark to make a very natural trio. 

The forest light was very green this afternoon and it was freezing cold. Please tell me summer hasn't been cancelled. I could tell from my flickr contacts that it snowed last night just about 2 hours north of here. Tomorrow is the first of June isn't it?

I have an idea as to how to embroider a stone. If I am successful you will soon see the results. Hope you had a lovely weekend without snow:)

leaf

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. 
Henry David Thoreau 

This little saturday afternoon diversion was inspired by a leaf , some vintage silk embroidery thread and the work of Nanou.

After the Rain

"Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious.
Not necessary to life, but rather life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight 
of the senses." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, From Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939

Sometimes I can see the entire world in a drop of water. It is something so precious and as long as I live I will never take  clean , healthy water for granted.

I hope you all have a refreshing start to your weekends.

I just found out the long awaited documentary Waterlife is playing in Toronto starting on Friday . Music by some of my favorites including Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ross and Brian Eno. 

The Snails Prepare for the Dance

“The further off from England, the nearer is to France - / Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.”  Lewis Carroll

The garden snails have been really coming to life with the recent moist weather and they wanted to show their appreciation by dressing up and learning some new dances. The latest in snail fashion seems to be focusing on bold headdresses made with natural repurposed materials.  Here is what they have been really going wild about.

I think they are also hoping abby might be able to design some wonderful snail footware for them.  They are also taking a great deal of inspiration from Toronto jewelry designer Dandi Maestre.

They just haven't been able to find antlers small enough to be at all wearable yet.  Darn , we really need that shrinking potion again.

After the big fashion decisions have been finalized all that they need to do next is learn some new dance moves. Guess who is the new dance teacher?

So you think you can dance, bumblebee style was chosen over the break dancing beetle's moves.

Who knows maybe a music video will be next :)

Stones in the Forest

In the forests where I wander there are only a few naturally occuring stones. They are usually glacial remnants, evidence of a old farm, homestead or even a cleared field that has long been left to return to it's wild form. Sometimes I carry a few stones in my sac, not as part of the resistance training or cardio workout but because I want to see them in the forest light and if time or weather allows to even photograph them. I wanted to share a few of those recent pictures with you today.

One thing I have been doing is adding more embroidered motifs to some of the fabric stones. You might recognize many of these stones from the last etsy shop update as most of them have now been sent off and hopefully delivered to their new owners. I often have a hard time letting them go so I will usually take quite a few photographs to remember them. 

It's not as easy as it looks

What can one do with petals from a magnolia blossom, a tulip, a piece of dogwood, some thorns, a will and a great deal of frustration. One can attempt to make a little piece of ephemeral nature art. I have been absolutely in rapture over the recent "stained glass" leaf art of Richard Schilling. You might have seem his work when it was recently featured on the flickr blog. I love his art but what I love more than that is the way he describes the process with all the little or big wrinkles along the way.

It seems even an artist as amazing and prolific as he is has had a little "dry" spell as of late. You can read about it here.

When the magnolia was in bloom I gathered the necessary supplies to attempt my own little interpretation and after numerous torn or lost petals, thorns in my fingers and my unusual mutterings about the sudden breezes I realized it really isn't as easy as Richard makes it look. I must admit, I really didn't have much of a clue as to what I was doing. It was an experiment and not a very successful one at that.

I did learn a few things and I will definitely approach it a little differently next time hopefully on a calmer day.

So as you might have guessed the wind blew my lame attempt from the tree into our pond where it remains to this day. I will let you in on the results of my next lesson in ephemeral art when that day arrives. I also started another experiment today that needs time and moisture. I have absolutely no idea if it will work but if it does I will be sure to share it with you.

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!!

"Sparkle out among the fern"

I am reflecting on these few words of Tennyson this early Sunday morning.  Synonyms for sparkle here might be scintillate, coruscate, effervesce, fizz and I am imagining capturing this moment one day on film.  Here are some photographs taken on my strolls through ferns and so much more over the past week. I am hoping you might imagine along with me.

I think this next little dancing fern has the right attitude.

The last photograph was the closest thing I could find from my recent clicks that "sparkled".

Have a nature filled day and to all my American friends have a wonderful long weekend.

Elsita and Natalie's Gifts

I promised in the last post that I would share the contents of the parcel I received from Elsita. There are not words to describe how I felt opening each and every little portion of this parcel. The breadth and scope of what it contained was unbelievable: earings, brooches, dolls, notebooks, papercuts and then there was her cards, pictures that are taken from her recently published book. I especially love the econotes. I can't wait to imagine the smile on the face of anyone I will be sending these to.

The last post was a difficult one but I just wanted to let you all know I am happy now and it really was a complex mixture of things that contributed to my little low period. 

Infinite Hope

 "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."   Martin Luther King

This photograph of a quince blossom lying on a mountain of salt sums up how i felt just over a month ago when I found out my dear friend Elsita and her daughter had to cancel their trip to visit me this month for reasons beyond their control.  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.  I felt like the air with all its life sustaining ability had been suddenly squeezed from me. I felt tired, uncreative and more uncommunicative than usual. I felt if I stayed in this place for very long I would soon be become desiccated  just like this blossom if it stayed on the bed of salt.

Nature brought me back from this temporary void.  

Nature also inspired me to create a special stone, a gift to elsita, to show how we are joined in time and space even though we have never actually met.   I know that with the infinite hope spoken of at the beginning of this post , it will happen. 

Without Elsita , her encouragement,  endless talent and creativity, humour , humility and kindness resurrection fern and all that has unfurled from it would not exist.  And if none of this existed it would mean i would never have had the great pleasure of "meeting" so many of you amazing people.  Wouldn't it be wonderful for as many of us as possible to meet some day.   

I had been planning to write this post for a while now but was really prompted to complete it this evening after picking up a very special parcel from California at the post office today.  I will share the contents of that after i have come down from the clouds.  

Note to self: shouldn't you actually mail that special stone to your friend now :)