Friday, 31 August 2012

Things of a birdy nature



Birds have predominated my latest creations....you've seen my "subirdia" books before, but I've turned these ones into notebook covers and saved on the time consuming task of hand binding the pages.It struck me that people may want to reuse what they've paid substantially for!  And I found some cracking little hard covered A6 sketchbooks to nestle in the covers..perfect for the doodling on whilst out and about!

I've been making more little birdies too for a new kit I'm working on....promise to show you when finished !

My fave latest birdy creations, however, are these little "hangy thingies"...(yes that is the technical term!)


I hacked into a vintage linen table cloth with its lovely scalloped edges and embroidered "holey bits" (yes..another technical term) and stitched up these birdies using freehand machine stitching as well as hand embroidery.



A band of barn owls is what I call them.

 I take great pleasure in imagining my Nana, who has just recently left us,  flying with these beauties to meet the love of her life on the other side. Sending all my love with you Nana xx

Friday, 24 August 2012

Swooning over Elsa Mora


I love it how a click on a link followed by another one, then another few after that, can  lead you to a beautiful world where you're positively drooling in awe over someone's creative expression.
That's how I stumbled upon Elsa Mora, and ever since the clickety linky forage I've paid countless trips back to her website to soak up the beautiful intricate creations in their many forms.

                                                            Elsa paints....








Just incredible.... 
Consider my mind well and truly boggled! 
And the most wonderful part of it all is the beautifully humble,transparent and true lady that reveals herself to you as you read her words. 
Swoonaroo  :)





Wednesday, 15 August 2012

Jenny Bear....

I've been hopping on the bear band wagon, but really its because I do love these beautiful beings.

 The bond was well and truly sealed when I read a book over a decade ago , where astronomy was morphed with Native American Wisdom...instead of being an uptight control freak, perfectionista Virgo I was a nurturing, loving brown bear. Hear me roar.

This piece went through a few lives before it got here. I've been experimenting with hand painting/stamping my own fabric and incorporating it into my stitched pieces. However the colour choices didn't work,so the whole bear fabric got painted over! (and a few triangles added...it felt rude not to join the triangle bandwagon too) I prefer minus the blue..but it needed enlarged to fit a 5" x 5" block. 

So there you have it...
Jenny Blair  Bear xx



Wednesday, 8 August 2012

Magic messengers - Treasuring you

Remember I said I would do a post at the beginning of each month treasuring  and sharing a little of my story and hopefully you will join in and share a bit of yours...well here's this months! It was was triggered by the beautiful artwork of Marisa Redondo, (which you have to go and see!) and it reminded me of the magic messengers I've had throughout my life....
Here's what I jotted down the other day..

inspired by Marisa Redondo's feathers

Birds, they've always been there....feathers too.. symbolic message bringers...changing as I grow and move through life, but always there and always magical none the less.

As far back as I can remember it began with blue tits dancing in the garden, signalling warmer weather and the approaching freedom to play outside, followed by Robins flashing their red breasts to declare winter was on its way. 
Getting older it was the cooing evening call of the wood pigeons in the nearby trees, that would bring a sense of calm and "home", as I sneaky read my book under the covers, with the smell of summer in the air. 
 Then would come the overhead V-shape of long necked geese honking as they took off on their winter pilgrimage while I would do my early morning paper round..smiling in the knowledge hibernation time was just around the corner = family togetherness, trashy tv and school christmas discos! :)


recent feathery finds :)

Then there was a gap for a few years...off to Uni, socialising, having fun getting lost, not listening or paying attention....until I began to travel and the listening and seeing began again...with even keener eyes!

It was eagles this time...I would find their feathers and these majestic birds would find me..always there to let me know I was in the right place and being "watched over", always on the horizon beckoning me when I got lost. The biggest eagle I have ever seen (so big ,atleast 1.5 metres tall..I still think I must have been imagining it!) sat like a wise old man hunched on the only branch in the middle of the Nulabor desert and watched me with sagely eyes...as I drove past into one of the biggest adventures of my life (which I will have to save for another time!) 
Returning from my travels and becoming a mum, it became less about seeing birds, there was little time being a new mum...but feathers would keep making their way to me...white ones this time! Gifts from the "angels" I  would say with a smile :). A little white fluffy one would appear just when I needed reminding that everything was ok and exactly as it should be. I'd find them in the most unusual of places..lying on a doorstep, in my pocket, even in the "dungeon" changing rooms at the hospital where I was miserable at work!

A move back to the countryside, with my family in tow ,brought back the reconnection with birds and now it seems to be the heron that's my new friend and messenger. Apparently he signifies "new beginnings", as a friend tells me. I'm happy to take that as the message, though what my heart tells me is this large and cumbersome but rather beautiful bird is telling me to "stay the course" as he bobs in and out of my life, always flying over my head and off in front into the distance.

The white fluffy feathers still make an occasional appearance but less frequent now...  my youngest and I found one on the path of our forest walk the other day. I told her "its a feather from the angels"...she picked it up in her 4 year old fingers and gave it a sniff...."doesn't smell like an angel's feather" she said...
I left it at that, thinking she'll find her own magic and message-givers in life.

*
Do you have something in your life which symbolises or sends a particular message to you? Do you look out side of yourself for messages or do you find them all within?
I'd love to hear :) x