Fall-ing For Gold

Gold - that's the color most evocative of Fall, don't you think? 

Everything is turning amber, honey and caramel - delicious!

Long dangly earrings - all gold upon gold. 

Gold is timeless, but especially perfect for this season.

Hello, Fall!

Life and Learning

Idzie, who writes a thoughtful and illuminating blog about unschooling, was one of the speakers at the Toronto Unschooling Conference this past weekend.  For those who couldn't attend (like myself), she has broken down her speech and is posting it on her blog in installments. 

I just read the first part, and I really like these words of hers:

Unschooling, at its heart, is nothing more complicated or simple than

the realization that life and learning are not two separate things. 

And when you realize that living and learning are inseparable,

it all starts to truly make sense.

There are many reasons why some parents choose to not send their kids to school.  For me, it's less about the cons of institutionalized learning than it is about the pros of learning from real life, and most importantly, playing an active part in that learning - it's so much fun to discover the world along with my LittleOne, why would I not want to be part of this wonderful journey?

Do you homeschool, or unschool, and why? 

Be Jeweled!

UPCOMING SHOWS:
September 17: The Brocante Lux
September 18: The Glenridge Artisan Show
 
Reclaimed fabric scraps + beads + sequins = yummy loveliness...

Fully lined at the back, these earrings are finished on both sides.

Their organic shapes are completely hand-sewn and embellished.

They are ever so slightly different from their pair, and of course,

absolutely one-of-a-kind!

Funky fabric jewelry.

Eid!

I'm always sorry to see Ramadan go, but Eid is a wonderful way to say goodbye to this month of blessings.  It's great to make your own decorations and gifts - handmade rules! - and I wanted something that would do double duty, since I already have two shows in a few days that I need to prepare for as well...

If you remember, some of the beautiful rocks I collected last summer
I turned into this:

It took me a LOT of time!

I had more rocks left over that were so inspiring in their lovely, soft shapes, but I did not have the hours to cover them up in fabric. 
I still wanted to use them for an Eid decoration idea.

So I decoupaged them with used gift tissue (hey, I love the three R's!) and then remembered my white pens, with which I'd had a lot of fun
until I forgot about them.

Remember these?

So this is what I did:

The layers of tissue paper created a wonderful, subtle leathery texture, and the varnish gives them a very lacquered look, with their
deep, deep, shiny, shiny red. 

I'm also making some in my favorite, black and white!

They look great as Eid decorations,
but will also make wonderful gifts, InshaAllah.

If you are celebrating it, have a wonderful Eid!

Colors

Colors always excite me.  I think my favorite thing to say about anything is that it has a juicy color!  The sky, water, a lovely fruit, a piece of silk,

color is an incredible thing to behold. 

I recently got some beautiful Fair Trade felt bags from Nepal that I am working on.  These bags were hand felted and hand dyed by women, and I feel good about supporting them in their livelihood.  They usually sell them with felt embellishments attached to them, but I ordered them plain so that I could finish them up with my own personal touches. 

Here's one.  I stitched up an assymetrical strip of a whole bunch of layered fabrics, and then sewed on trim, beads, sequins, leaves and the rose.  The back is studded with more beads.  A nice little purse for day and night!

The colors in this one are blues and greens with metallics thrown in.  Blue with green is my all-time favorite color combo, and it really tones down the indigo of the felt.

The other bags are in other shades, and I'm working on similarly exciting color layerings on them too!  More pics soon!

Sorry, this one is in yellow light!

Strawberry Dreams

Hand-felted, hand-dyed bag

embellished with a crochet flower

and yummy pink buttons.

Coming with me to
BrocanteLux 
and
The Glenridge Artisan Show

Flying to the Moon

Pencil colors on note-paper, outlined with ballpen.

The Best Month of the Year

Ramadan starts today!

We are sort of settled into the apartment we are renting, but there's a lot of stuff that needs to be put away.  I'm tripping over things all the time!

So the NanoBot and I did a very simple activity to welcome our favorite time of year.  I quickly drew some letters on construction paper (completely freehand and therefore quite uneven) and she colored them in, then I cut them out.  A little BlueTac later, voila!  A simple little reminder for the three-year old to look at all the time, since she's learning the names of the months of the Arabic calendar. 

 

I have something very simple in mind for Eid too, which I will share when we do it, InshaAllah!

The Sum Of all Days...

Art Is A Refuge...

The sordid mess of the oil spill, the G20 fiasco, the senseless brutality at a local animal park - enough!  As if it's not hard enough trying to just live a simple, clean life.  Try avoiding plasitc, or eliminating foods containing soy, for instance.  Each of these is a post in itself, but they are not what this post is about.  This post is about the hope that keeps us going, and allows us to do things that redeem us again and again. 

Random acts of kindness, a new baby, a smile from a stranger

- thank God for these things.

And art.

Art is the result of creativity, and creativity is a connection with the universe and it's Creator.  No matter how small or sporadic, it is still a vital connection.  I know everytime I make something I am recharged and refreshed, even if I have dry spells when nothing materializes.

We are in between homes - our cute little condo now belongs to someone else, and we have not yet found our next dwelling - so most of my time is being spent house-hunting!  Meanwhile I still have two books to illustrate.  Which means I haven't painted, and haven't made any fabric art, or jewelry.  But about a month ago I made these (and more stuff that I've yet to take pictures of), and yesterday I took some quick (and not so good) pics.  Ah - just looking at them charged me up again!  Yay for handmade!

These are all defintely Nature-inspired!

Pink and orange and green - tropical yumminess for a forest princess.

A fuzzy moss-inspired cuff in woodsy colors...

  This one has it all - fabric, fused, recycled plastic, metal, ribbon, sequins, 

and lots and lots of beads...

Fusing the colored part of the scrap plastic was an experiment, but it was worth the idea

- I got a swirly, textured look I could not have contrived!

I fused some red plastic (from a clothing store bag) and hand-shaped it

to make this huge flower ring. 

It has a weathered, leathery look that came out great.

Layers of fused plastic, beads and a shred of gold melted in for shabby/industrial chic.

So there you are - makes you forget about horrible things, doesn't it?

Until next time, Peace!

Urban Decay

I've recently taken some pics here and there of buildings and structures which I've yet to share (my next post, perhaps? And in this same decade, I hope!).

Anyway, I was reminded of some amazing photography I'd come across a while ago of beautiful, ethereal urban decay.  These images are infused with a tragic beauty, and I'm glad a quick Google search yielded them again....

All these rooms were obviously filled with character to begin with, but in the throes of death they have become sublime.

Sven Fennema

Sven Fennema

 

ScallopHolden.com

unkreatives.deviantart.com

A bunch of different photographers, 

more here.

Bye, Bye Old House!

Only a couple of days left for us to move out of our little condo.

We blew bubbles in the patio for the last time...

Bye, bye little patio!

Mmmm....Roses!

I don't know what color roses I like better than white ones.  Actually I love all flowers in white.  DaddyBoy surprised me with six lovely white stems yesterday!  I guess better than white roses is getting white roses for no reason at all! 

YUM!

So I took a bunch of pics, and then I had to do something with them,

of course.

Here's one:

And another:

Wonder if I should list all the 'play' pics in my shop at all...

In any case, what a sweet way to take a break!