Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Windswept Pines on the Pacific Coast

...windswept pines on the Pacific coast...

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Grains of Sand

...beach at Seaside,Oregon...

In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand

there is the story of the earth. 

~Rachel Carson

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Sunset on the Pacific Coast

...sunset at the Oregon coast...

The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,

Writ in remembrance more than things long past.

~William Shakespeare

Personal Symbols. Mixed Media Monday. Nature Inspired Art

This is my entry for this week's challenge, Personal Symbols, at Mixed Media Monday.  This is a 6x6 inch art quilt. The base is an image of some of my handmade paper, scanned and manipulated in the computer then transferred to fabric.  I've added scraps of the original handmade paper, mica, net ribbon, a transparency with a poem, all stitched, and finally some local shells added as an embellishment. 

We were asked to reflect on the images, colors and/or themes that recur in our art.  For me it is nature, hands down.  When I look at my art, I see lots of flowers, trees, forest themes and of course the sea.  I often bring home bits and pieces of the place I have walked, be it beach or forest, to use in my art, or just to keep close (see this studio snapshot).  I feel at my best when outdoors and close to the elements, and I often use the ocean as a theme in my work.  There is a timelessness to the ocean, a sense of eternity and peace that I derive from being near it.  It helps me see myself, like ee cummings eludes to in the poem I use in this piece (see below).

In addition to images, words are also really important to me, words are powerful and evocative.  I often use them in my art, whether they can be seen by the viewer or not.

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

~ee cummings

Fish. Think Monday Think ATC

This is my entry for "fish", this week's challenge at Think Monday Think ATC. This ATC, called Piscean Dreams, has an image of a fish overlaid with a transparency covered with words created by me via computer, embellished with gold metal tape (same iridescent shade as the fish's eyes) and a bubble-like cabochon disc (find these in the vintage glass cabochons section of Bumbershoot Supplies).

I got thinking about fish and what they might dream or think about, and then I remembered Dory in Finding Nemo - "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, that's what we do, we swim, swim, swim".  What a great thing to remember during the continuing difficult economic times, just keep swimming, what else is there to do...  I added in "clean water" and "food" since I thought fish might think about those things too.

 

Fish are pretty big in the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle, great places to see fish are the Seattle Aquarium, and the Ballard Locks, where there is a fish ladder for salmon to migrate from the salt water of Puget Sound to the fresh water of Lake Washington and beyond.

Sudio Snapshot. Natural Inspiration

Some of the many inspirational bits and pieces I collect to bring nature into my studio...

New at Bumbershoot Designs. Designs Featuring Vintage Freshwater Pearl Flowers

I recently discovered some vintage freshwater pearls that have been woven by hand into tiny flowers. I had to have them! I absolutely adore vintage glass pearls, and I work with them a lot. This was a wonderful opportunity to work with genuine vintage pearls. Today I share two new designs, just listed at Bumbershoot Designs featuring these lovely pearls.

This necklace features a brass clam shell pendant dating to the 1940's. It is rich and aged in appearance due to the gorgeous natural patina that has occurred on the brass over the last 60+ years. The chain on this necklace is long, 36 inches, so you can wrap it around your neck twice, for a layered look.

These pearl flowers also lend themselves to beautiful stud earrings, and I was excited to to find vintage posts to pair with the pearls.

The Pearl Shell Vintage Charm Necklace and the Pearl Flower Stud Earrings are available at Bumbershoot Designs, or just contact me.

Wishing you a great weekend!

Look What I Found. Mixed Media Monday

Oh my. All you have to do is go to Bumbershoot Supplies to see "what I found" :)

But for this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge, I focused on one of the most special places in the world to me, the ocean. We are blessed  in Seattle to be very close to water everywhere, including salt water in the form of Puget Sound. And the Pacific Ocean is not too far away.

This is a 6x6 inch art quilt using my hand dyed cloth as a base and featuring some of the treasures I have collected in my trips to the beach.

One of my favorite poets, ee cummings, captures my feelings about the sea so well:

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

Party Animals. Mixed Media Monday

This 6x6 inch quilt square is for the Mixed Media Monday theme "party animals".  I live in Seattle, on the Puget Sound and quite near the San Juan Islands, around which reside well studied pods of orcas. They migrate every year, returning to the Puget Sound and it is a cause for celebrating this life rhythm. I took a holiday with my daughter to try to see them return.  We did not see them, I guess they were on holiday for the day too.  We did, however, see otters and porpoises within a dozen feet of us at our whale watching spot.  And at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, we saw video of the orcas playing and splashing, surely looking like they were having a party, celebrating their return home.

This quilt square is made of silk, embellished with silk ribbon, vintage sequins and vintage seed beads.  It is stamped with letter stamps and stamped orcas were fused to the surface. The  beautiful orca stamp is a design by the Haida artist Paul White.