Bridal Mushrooms

Is there anything more rich looking than white and cream when shape and texture tell the story? As much as I love color, every so often I need to go with this color way. I really recommend it to refresh the eye. It can be so satisfying to play the variations in color and surface, one of the few times I can wholeheartedly agree that less is more.
This rainy thundery Monday has started out well for me. I finished these two pieces and opened my mail to find I'd sold a hat on Etsy. On Saturday Dan and I went to the Westport Library Book Sale and I think I got the bargain of the day. Folk Arts of the Soviet Union, a beautiful Abrams book loaded with inspirational pictures was only $5. I'm in design heaven!

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

We've all seen the jokes about modern witches who ride electric vacuum cleaners instead of the traditional broomstick. I wonder if a crock pot would be the modern version of a cauldron? I decided that my old crock pot would be great for simmering dye baths, just set it and forget it. I don't use it enough to miss having it for cooking and they show up in thrift stores all the time if I want another. These yarn samples are dyed with shelf mushrooms and hickory hulls, no mordant. It's a nice brown but I'm really hoping to find the mushrooms that will give exciting colors, blue, purple, red and orange. Unfortunately, it's too early for them.
My latest mushroom garden is in a thrifted sugar bowl that I found years ago. It's making me think of St. Patrick's Day. The ivy design reminds me of shamrocks and the color is so spring/March looking. I'm painting today. Kathryn sold my 8x10" "Blue Star" this weekend. I need to finish the one I've been working on and then I'll start a bigger painting of another close up on the mason jar embossing.

My Fairy Ring Crown Completed

Finished my fairy ring crown this morning and I am so happy with it! Somewhere along the line I'll do a bridal version all in shades of white.

Fairy Ring Mushroom Crown

When I do craft shows I like to wear one of my hats but if it's a warm day or indoors, I get too hot. So I came up with the idea of a fairy ring crown. There's a lot of work going into this project but I get to keep it so that's OK. Most of the dark green base will be covered with felt moss and I'll have green vine-like dreads looping down from the sides. This isn't something I'd have for sale in the booth but I would take custom orders. It would be so much fun to make one for a wedding! Now I'm taking a break from sewing to work on painting. I also have a call for submissions from a greeting card company to work on. But what I'd really love is a nap. Stupid time change!

Finding My Balance

I used to beat myself up over having so many interests. It was the old why can't you concentrate on one thing and really get somewhere with it argument. And I had picked up the idea that if I wanted to have success with my painting (serious Art), I should keep my other projects (*gasp* crafts) out of sight. I just don't believe that anymore. The internet has opened so many new opportunities for us creative types. More to the point, I need to work on all my different projects to find the right happy balance for myself. It seems to be my nature that when I'm painting I start pining for my wool projects and when I'm constructing hats I start to wish I was painting. The key here is having enough self discipline to keep all the work moving forward. As long as I do that I can bounce back and forth between mediums, keeping my level of interest up in all of them. I've learned that if I go too long between paintings I end up having to warm up those skills again and the work drags. It's a bit like when I learned to drive standard after years of an automatic. I made sure to drive everyday because I needed the practice. I didn't do gallery painting for years when I got into sculpture, so it's a similar situation. So today's picture is a batch of new mushrooms to be made into tabletop gardens. I've also been working on another mason jar painting which is coming along nicely. At the moment, I have achieved balance.

Mushrooms for Morticia

It was so much fun making this piece! I've been working on a collection of these tabletop mushroom gardens and this story suddenly popped into my head. Cousin Ophelia has opened a floral shop - kept in business mainly by Gomez's frequent stops to purchase presents for his Cara Mia. These are Amanita amourica, poison love mushrooms. Eat them and experience ecstasy and possibly die. As Gomez would say,"Either way, what bliss!" I found the footed porcelain cup in a thrift shop years ago and it was just perfect for this project. The mushrooms are sewn from felted sweater wool and even the stuffing is from a bag of thrifted fiberfill. The only parts I bought new are the ribbon and the pipe cleaners in the stems. The mushrooms can be gently bent and arranged to suit one's fancy. I find it far more interesting to design with thrifted art and craft supplies rather than running out to Michael's to get new stuff. They'd never have a cup like that!