~ Making a Start ~ Blue Moon ~

I've 'invisible' basted the moons on to this velvet piece. They are coming 

out of an eclipse...hope I am too.

I've called it Blue Moon as stitching has been that rare recently.

The two scraps are pieces from the clothes I've been de-constructing.

I think of the darker one as a dark cloud with a silver lining.

I've pinned this onto the back...liking the idea of having a sun flare 

behind the moons. Not entirely sure about it yet though...need to live

with it for a few days.

Our Boy and Tilly joined me in my shed yesterday. Tilly was

sleeping!

a

n

d

sleeping!

She trusts completely :~)

A few loved pieces in a corner of the worktop.

~ Happy Beltane ~

A daisy ritual for the heart sampler on Beltane Eve.

The bottom left wanted to become a balloon ~

I'm still avoiding working the heart edges and am waiting

to understand why that is.

Preparing a 'playground'. The darker shade is linen from a pair

of thrifted trousers and the paler one is heavy, open weave cotton

from a thrifted shirt. They both feel so soft and good. The base

material is very lightweight cotton from curtain lining material

that I keep finding in bootsales, and enjoy working with.

It's going to be a cosy winter in my studio after all :~)

There was a lot of jumping up and down in the bootsale this morning when 

My Man spotted this little wood~stove made from a gas bottle.

We had one very similar in our camper van when we lived in her years ago.

We called that one Alice and I've decided to keep the same name for this one.

That hotplate is going to allow me to have tea or coffee right

there in my workplace....and that bain~marie will be keeping wax

 melted for all sorts of artwork....oh! and I might get to make creams again....

I'm thinking of painting her Jotul Green.

Later, I used Alice to honour Beltane Eve. I carried her out to the garden and lit a fire in her from a pile of prunings that have been drying out since the autumn. We had willow, rosemary, Elder, hibi, blackthorn, and bramble billowing their inimitable aromas over us and our garden  in a giant smudging ceremony.

We boiled water on the hotplate and had ginger and lemon tea...I had meant to get wine, but we drink so infrequently I forgot!

Throughout our little ceremony, until darkness fell, we had the company of one of our sweet friends
who live in our pond. Later we heard the 'plop' as he jumped back in :~)
It was rather apt that he be there  on this night due to frogs' association with fertility.
 Mr Blackbird also serenaded us until dark, then the stars and the bats
 (miniature dragons to the medieval people) came out to play.
My Man softly strummed his guitar and we said 'hello' to Taurus, Gemini, Leo,
The Plough, and Saturn...who looked magnificent through the telescope tonight.

 Earlier I had watched, enthralled, as Mr Frog had climbed out of the pond and sat under the sorrel and red campion leaves with such patience, and in complete stillness, until his dinner had flown or crawled  near him,
then moved his head and flicked out his tongue so quickly, it was almost too fast for my eyes to keep up.


We have had a lovely Beltane Eve with the four elements of earth, air, fire and water represented, and the powerful medicine of frog, blackbird and bat surrounding us.
  Have you done anything to celebrate Beltane Eve?

~ I HAVE A STUDIO ~

For the past two years I have created only three small art works. The one on the upper left is still a work in progress.

A small assemblage 8"x8" (my first) inspired by the work of Kurt Schwitters

All the 'stuff' I have collected over the years ~ so much of it! ~ was scattered here and there throughout the house. There was nowhere for me to keep it all in one place and so, whenever I had a spark of creativity, the time taken to search out the things I wanted, sometimes hours, would end with me feeling upset, frustrated and with spark gone completely.

I love working with fabrics, feathers, leather, leaves, buttons, shells, driftwood, stones, tags, findings of all kinds. I collect ticket stubs from bus and train journeys, cinema and theatre visits, old book pages, old envelopes, old letters. I get so excited when I see old, washed-out materials in cotton and linen. I pick up thrift clothes and cut them up to use in my pictures and fabric art.

My Man....that dear, darling husband of mine....

saw how down I was getting about this, so did something for me that I would never have done for myself....he bought me a wooden garden studio. Even writing those words brings a huge smile which starts in my heart and flows upwards and outwards until it lands, glowing, on my face :~)))

It took the two of us ten hours to put it up on Friday last week, but we had to wait for windows, so it wasn't fully completed until Tuesday - the last day of August. What an end~to~the~summer gift.

Buttons and feathers and findings galore

A lovely long desk to work at, with great natural light 

A crock~full of leather and a basket of wool fibres

I have created a piece in there already and it was bliss - bliss I tell you. Oh I am a happy puppy...tra~la~la~la~la.

Now I can go and play every day ~ happy ~ happy ~ joy ~ joy ~