stitching in my little bits of free time
work for the upcoming show
as time passes i don't even notice
how blue my fingers are:)
can't wait to get some better photographs
in daylight
on the
weekend
i have chosen the subject for my third stitched piece
it might surprise you
Geninne, Daniel and I had a beautiful time painting outdoors ( well daniel was drawing) working on pieces for the group show in July at bookhou in Toronto.
They were wondering why my suitcase was so heavy on the flight home:)
I have to work on the nests, weaving some natural dyed fabrics, string, twine and birch bark through the network but I already know they are going to be really amazing. I even got to paint a few of the eggs myself with one of the very best teachers in the world.
This post is really making me feel like spring is coming.
I was planning on waiting until Daniel ( geninne's youngest son) had his etsy shop up and running but I just couldn't wait any longer to post this. It is probably my favorite souvenir of my visit with geninne and her wonderful family. Daniel loves to draw and he is extremely gifted. He is particularly fond of drawing animals.
I am sure you can easily recognize these masterpieces as arwen , byron and edgar. Here was the kitties reaction at seeing their portraits.
When I told arwen , she was daniel's favorite , this was her reaction.
I know, not very ladycatlike.
Here is the artist himself. I can't believe he is only 13 years old.
Thank you so much Daniel for the beautiful portraits you made. Everyone loves them so much, including the three amigos.
xo
margie
I realized as of late I need to add a few new categories to my blog. I added natural dyeing a few weeks ago and macro photography after christmas. I now added paper art and craft with my little snips, pencil marks and dips into watercolor. It is really liberating to try new things. This little ( literally) endeavor was inspired by a gift in the mail from my oldest and dearest blog friend, elsita. I was only expecting a little something we talked about as part of a new collaboration (more on that at a later date) but I literally fell off my stool when I saw that she had included in the envelope an example of her fantastic artistic journey into the art and craft of miniature book making. She and I chatted long ago about her love of tiny books and I knew at some point she would be starting a blog about them but I had no idea she would be making them herself. Nor that they would be fantastic miniature works of art. The book she gifted to me is "the little red book of happy things". Elsa knows i love the color red. In fact I am wearing my winter signature piece, red corduroy pants today. And as the back of the book says, "red is good".
So i was inspired to try to make a miniature book of my own. I have since made three. The first one is a secret gift to a friend and is in the mail. The second one is being hand delivered tomorrow and is the one pictured below and the third one will be in the mail tomorrow, again a tiny token of friendship. I only used materials I had on hand so the paper might not be the best for this sort of thing. The title of this book is cute as a button and it was also inspired by this little treasure.
Oh and something else cute as a button in the next photograph.
i melt
xo
Hello to all Resurrection Fern readers, I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and they are filled with joyful and cheery blog posts. Some of you dedicated readers may know who I am, my name is Deborah and I am the youngest of Margie's four children. This year for christmas, my sister Rebekah and I wanted to stray from the usual scarf or gloves as gifts for our wonderful and caring mother. My sister stumbled across a vintage knitting guide on eBay, where the knitting company Rowan and our favourite Liberty had a collaboration. Various designers such as Kaffe Fassett designed chunky knit sweaters inspired by Liberty patterns. The book instantly sparked inspiration and Rebekah knew what she wanted to do for our mother's christmas present.
As I was visiting Halifax to check out universities, we took the opportunity to make this gift happen. She assembled looks using only vintage Liberty pieces she had collected through the years, and big chunky hand knit sweaters that were often found at thrift shops. Although it had been solid rain all week, the weekend I arrived Mother Nature seemed to know I had arrived with a purpose and the weather could not have been better on the day we ventured to Point Pleasant Park to do the photoshoot. The story is a young traveller, new to the East Coast and excited to explore with nothing but her Liberty, knits, and suitcase.
I hope you all have a very safe and happy New Year's Eve! With 11 being my lucky number I am eager to see what good things this year will bring. If you want to see more photographs from the shoot please feel free to check out my Flickr here :)
"What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with liberty."
- Edmund Spenser, 1591
Actually it would be yesterday i saw. I am taking part in the today i saw postcard exchange that jill organized as a way to celebrate the end of her really awesome project. Being one of the recipients of her postcards was a wonderful experience for me last year. Here is my postcard that will shortly be on its way to Denmark.
xo
m
"I cannot say what my sources were. I love nature in all her forms; I love her in the smallest blade of grass, the humble flower, tree, grounds and rocks, up to the majestic peaks of mountains. All things for their own character rather than a whole. I also shiver deeply at the mystery of solitude." Odilon Redon ( 1867-1915)
My recent fascination with the art of Redon and in particular his lithograph of a smiling spider inspired this mixed media piece entitled "festoon".
I am a little obsessed with webs and spiders since writing my mom's eulogy. In a good way of course.
That little love spider is has a needle felted and embroidered body and stiffened crocheted legs. It will be taking a trip soon to deliver my love to a wonderful friend of mine.
Here is a little question for the day. Redon's spider has ten legs and thus does my embroidered version. Why do you think he added an extra pair of legs? Is that why he is smiling? I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
What is a pajaki, you may ask. The literal translation is "spiders of straw" and they are a form of polish folk art made from paper, wool and yarn. They originate in the village of Lowicz very close to my father lived in Warsaw. It is almost a year ago when I first saw one on the beautiful and very talented Laura Normandin's blog and it was then I knew I had to make one. A year later it finally happened. Well you know the best intentions get buried and well, life happens. It also took me a very long time to find the package of straw tubes that I had stashed away many years ago after making some easter decorations. I like to use what I have and I knew it was somewhere in my home. I did finally find it and the other supplies were so much easier to locate : a wooden embroidery hoop, a vintage doily, cotton thread, a needle, colored paper, colored tissue paper and tiny circles of felt for the center of the flowers. I am not planning a tutorial but I might consider trying to write one later. Right now my head is blossoming with images, ideas, colors and concepts and I need to let some of these escape first.
I have wandered off on a little tangent but here I am back again. Why did I want to make a pajaki. I wanted to make one because they are so colorful and beautiful. They are polish like my father. In fact he loved straw ornaments and we always decorated our Christmas tree with them. If you read this blog you will know that spiders and webs are very important symbols in my family. I guess the last reason was simply because it didn't require me to buy anything. I had all the necessary materials within my reach.
I think I made this uniquely resurrectionfern style by the addition of the web like yellow vintage doily inside the embroidery hoop. I really wanted to pay tribute to the straw spider. I apologize for going a photography overload. I found it to be such an interesting subject and I also was experimenting with different color of painted walls. Which one do you like best?
It was not difficult to make but does take a number of hours and I was a little fearful of my curious kitties tearing it apart but thank goodness that didn't happen. I am already planning to make some more for a very special porch party in the spring. If you want to see a wonderful post that Holly of decor8 made about these "chandeliers" you should read here. I am not the only one smitten.
Deborah thinks it looks pretty fine in amongst her art collection and I think bear monster agrees.
The stones and tea saucers , all 13 kg of them, are now officially on the way to Craftland in Providence, Rhode Island for the show that opens January 7th, 2010. I miss them already. So much so that I just had to share one of the last photo sessions taken on the porch just before Christmas. This one is a great deal more colorful than the last one.
A colorful send off don't you think. Now they rest in a very sturdy cardboard box covered in warmth, love and a great deal of bubble wrap:)
Yep if you can believe your eyes you will see that this show is curated by none other than a goddess of things hand made, Faythe Levine. If you don't know of her you must have been sleeping under some very large stones this past year. She is the author of Handmade Nation and also the director of the newly released DVD of the same name. I purchased a few copies of the book last year to give as gifts and my sister Kathy have me one. This year I think the DVD will be on my personal christmas list. So now you know what a fan of Faythe's I am and just how I must have felt when exactly two months ago, on a friday evening when I was listening to music, cuddling with the kitties and received her first email. She did more than acknowledge my existence but asked me if I would be interested in taking part in a show she was curating in an awesome new gallery. I didn't even hesitate but emailed her back almost instantly with my positive response. I had no idea the show would only feature the work of two artists. How exciting is that!! Now you must check out Merilee Challiss's work. It is amazing and according to Faythe the pieces are quite large which makes them even more exciting to see in person in January.
So over the next month I will be busy preparing for this show, getting my home and porch ready for Christmas, making and sending gifts, baking, cooking, sharing meals with friends and families and loving every minute of it and of course sharing most of it with you.
thanks for listening:)