The Book and the Mug

Read any good books lately? or possibly written... made... or altered any good books lately?

.....Such a tantalizing object... a Book...... so many emotions can be coaxed out of us ... from a book... and so many emotions can be placed into a book... by us...




John and I have wanted to make a little book for a while now...  especially after chatting with faithful customers and receiving requests at Craft Fairs for a pair of earrings with a Book and a Mug combination......






... well, finally after much thought... Sterling wire twisted and looped... textured copper... drawing many tiny pictures... cutting metal... shaping ... hammering... applying heat... then doing this from scratch, time and time again ... it took some figuring to simplify the design and finally get to the finish line... but at long last, we have a pair we really like...






The "Book and Mug" is now one of the new designs in our Whimsical Collection......





Lately we have been working in the studio many long hours... so I'm going to sit here a bit with a steaming mug of hot coffee and a good book... oh, make that a few good books...




... more of our whimsical DESIDERATUM Art Jewelry is pictured here...


.

Spring

Dawn broke...

Rose and blue...

We awoke...

They did too...

The Ravens....
they waited... as did we...

They called....

and cried... with outright glee....

The air was peach... They knew the day.......

"A Celebration's called for"... I heard them say...

"We'll dance with the starfish...  A song we'll Sing ....

We've waited all winter.... for the first day of SPRING !!!!!!!! "




photos taken by Gwen Buchanan, from the top of the bluff at our home in St. Martins, New Brunswick, looking to the east and out over the Bay of Fundy.

Aristotle once said...

"There is nothing in the Intellect...
that was not first...
in the Senses"

It Felt Wonderful

In my other life I kept a few sheep and goats and with them came an abundance of fleece...Oh I loved that fleece... I use to spin All the time... or at least I tried to... I dyed the fleece too, using all manner of things natural... sumac, onions skins, tree bark, golden rod, tea.... whatever I could find enough of...
but I must admit I wasn't always a purest ... I had been known to use a lovely prepared dye that came from Australia, I can't think of the name of it right now but the colors were very subtle and muted....... I even used Kool-Aid a few times..... smelled good...

Sometimes I would spin the fleece into skeins first before dying... and then sometimes I would just dye the fleece first and blend the colors when I carded the wool to get a particular shade...





On this occasion, as I had quite a lot of fleece, dyed in various colors, on hand, it was a perfect time to use some of it to make a felted vest...

front lapel

....I thought a mohair fringed collar might be kind of fun... I felted only an inch or two of the long angora goat hair into the entire neck-edge of the vest so the locks hung freely... I liked that the locks kept their form... and moved when you walked and when the wind blew.... and that it was so soft... I wanted to bury my face in it...

back of neck

The strange thing was........ that whenever I wore it.... I felt like King Henry the Eighth... Don't know why.....

I never feasted on giant drumsticks and I never had 6 wives.......


...although when I looked around the house at the chores that needed done.... an extra wife/husband or two wouldn't have hurt!

When Is A Rose Not Beautiful?