Soul Humming

Seed Pod Pendants

"If you're still hanging onto
a dead dream of yesterday,
laying flowers on its grave by the hour,
you cannot be planting the seeds
for a new dream to grow today."
- Joyce Chapman
 

When we moved to this house almost ten years ago, the back yard was dirt. So we bought trees, roses, and bulbs and planted them. The trees are quite tall now. In the last year or so one of them began to drop these gorgeous, woody pods filled with furry yellow seeds. At first, there was only one, and I saved it and cherished it. But now there are many more in a slew of sizes.

Today I collected two of the smallest ones and cleaned, varnished, drilled and wired them so they could become Pod Pendants.

 

 

Annabel Lee

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
    In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
    By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
    Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
    In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
    I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
    Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
    In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
    My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
    And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
    In this kingdom by the sea.



The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
    Went envying her and me —
Yes! — that was the reason (as all men know,
    In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
    Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
    Of those who were older than we —
    Of many far wiser than we —
And neither the angels in heaven above,
    Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride,
    In her sepulchre there by the sea,
    In her tomb by the sounding sea.

- Edgar Allan Poe

Altered Book Page

Fever Dream
lyrics by Iron and Wine

Some days her shape in the doorway
Will speak to me
A bird's wing on the window
Sometimes I'll hear her when she's sleeping
Her fever dream
A language on her face

I want your flowers like babies want God's love
Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come

Some days, like rain on the doorstep
She'll cover me
With grace in all she offers
Sometimes I'd like just to ask her
What honest words
She can't afford to say, like

I want your flowers like babies want God's love
Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come

they already know

 

hammered hoops with cherry quartz

 

long, thin, golden stick pearls

You Have to Be Careful
By Naomi Shihab Nye

You have to be careful telling things.
Some ears are tunnels.
Your words will go in and get lost in the dark.
Some ears are flat pans like the miners used
looking for gold.
What you say will be washed out with the stones.

You look for a long time till you find the right ears.
Till then, there are birds and lamps to be spoken to,
a patient cloth rubbing shine in circles,
and the slow, gradually growing possibility
that when you find such ears
they already know.

 

Big hammered hoops with lapis

hammered brass hoops

Through the Invisible

Seek

Lately, I have been a bit absent. I haven't been reading blogs or writing blogs or thinking about blogging whatsoever. My mind has been kidnapped with baseball and homework and volunteering and my old dog. I've been too busy to feel creative let alone be creative.

I've only had time to do a couple small paintings. So I'm going to share those with you. I have so much in my mind that wants to leap out but no time today to make it all happen. Hopefully, I can get a bit organized and find time to make something. And, I hope that on this day you are finding time to follow your own passions. I hope you are closing all the books, turning off the computer, and talking to your muse. She will lead you places no one has been before. Run and play!

My Craftivity

My publisher, F&W, has a great website called mycraftivity.com  Mycraftivity is like Facebook for the arts and crafts set. You can have your own blog, start your own group, chat with artists, view online photo and video galleries, read inspiring articles, shop, and even download projects...all for free!

As a matter of fact, one of our projects from A Charming Exchange is available as a free download of the week. Isn't that so cool?!

It is for a wonderful, simple bracelet project using vintage buttons. So if you have a big jar of your grandmom's buttons and you always wanted to do something with them, but you just didn't know what to do, here's your project. There are also instructions for making the tasseled timble charm.

This gorgeous project from our book...

 

was previously featured as a free project of the week. There are many more from other fabulous F&W authors so visit Mycraftivity for all the fun.

And once you get your appetite whetted, you may decide you need more. So hop on over to Mycraftivity or Amazon or Barnes and Noble or even my Etsy store to get your own copy of A Charming Exchange.

Altered Guild Challenge

My friend, Mija Marie, recently threw down the altered art gauntlet. She came up with an inspiring art challenge for members of the Altered Artists' Guild. She would send each of us two similar mystery items which we would then alter to our choosing and post to the group. We didn't have to mail it to anyone or pay for postage or follow any particular rules. We just had to take the items and alter them in some way. So of course I wanted to play along.

Mija sent me two paper company brochures. Way back when I worked in publishing I would hoard these paper sample booklets. They are always filled with not only excellent bits of unique papers but usually cool artwork/photos, too. And the ones that Mija gave me are no exception.

For my first piece I decided to use this page...

The circles are actually different papers that have been punched and glued onto the page. I decided to peel them off and glue them to a 5" x 5" canvas with tar gel. Why tar gel you ask? Because it was what my hand grabbed when I opened up my drawer of acrylic mediums.

and the bit of poetry was already on my very messy desk so it was also added to the canvas.

once it was dry i began to paint in the background and add my figure's beginnings.

and then i just painted and played until i was happy that the piece was finished.

and she is now available in my etsy store if you would like to take her home with you!

thanks for the inspirational and fun challenge, mija!

Jewelry - the zine

have you ordered your copy yet? if not, click on the photo above or the prior link to get a copy of this gorgeous zine! it is really a wonderful magazine put together by these fabulous friends of mine. you will not be disappointed. it is 128 pages filled with so much information, inspiration, and beautiful jewelry.

here's a peek at the table of contents to whet your appetite:




my desert necklace for the zine

each artist designed their own pages so you truly get a lively brainstorm of creativity on each and every page. but, it is a limited edition so when the copies are gone, that's it. hurry over to happy day art and order yourself a copy!

Art Therapy

what is inside you? how does your history become part of your present self? how would you illustrate your inner terrain?

how will the world perceive you when you are on display? how do you choose to present yourself? how much and what are you willing to divulge?

and when you bring it all together, will anyone understand? what will they make of you? can anyone See You?

 

" You don't have to like me for who I am/ but we'll see what you're made of by what you make of me." -- Ani Difranco