Pastoral Bottles A Lovely Plume A TinFlower and An Old Forgotten Relic

Well I have been quite busy in the last few weeks. I intend on accomplishing much more as long as my health allows me. After a lengthy downward spiral from last Fall I have every intention to keep positive and create....makes me sane and happy.Too much Melodrama in ones life isn't good for one's health , there must be some balance and that entails having positive energy surround us in whatever form it takes.

Art in all it's forms is my energy.

So whatever makes one happy I say go for it! 

A Little Teddy Bear Love; he is my keeper of sorts. If you look closely he is wearing a crystal fossil pendent I discovered last summer. It will eventually adorn a bottle or possibly something else, I never know until the time comes. Here are the latest pieces I have completed. The Vintage TinFlower Pastoral Bottle and the Vintage Ostrich Feather Pastoral Bottle.Both bottles are very old , especially so for the TinFlower one which is an old perfume bottle in crackle amber glass. I luv using old pieces of stuff in my work because I always try to recreate something that one might think it old. In these art pieces I think I have accomplished the Vintage Old look I was working to perfect.

  

"Blowin in the Wind"  Pastoral Vintage Bottle 

A caged heart filled with clear crystals, a swirling poesy branch and an amber jewel makes this bottle very whimsical.

" The Lovely Plume "  Pastoral Bottle  with Vintage Black Ostrich Feather 

I made this little bottle with a Vintage Black Ostrich Feather and added a little nest made of copper wire .

This is a pendant with a beautiful embroidery of Forget-Me-Nots . I forgot to take a picture of the back which also shows the flower, almost as nice. I added a few crystals to the Brooch ( could be turned into one but I have done it as a pendant for now ) . I will probably make some Brooches later on as well.

So there you are some of my Treasures I've done ....I will soon be adding these to my shop on Etsy .

Until next time Sweet Pastoral Dreams 

The Fountain ~ Enchanted Fairy Tree with Crystal Fossil Heart

"A zillion earthly stars entwined amongst the mossy covered ground. Surely, such a magical place like this must be the fays sweet home of reverie." ~Annabelle~

Dream a Little Dream

Of fairytales and voyages upon the splendid sea…….

Or upon a field of startling crystal swirls winking at you on an early spring morn…..

A sea that lived Millions of years ago… lost …but now once again found!

Like the flowers of the skies earth now dressed in stars!

A vision of pure beauty and allure I was fortunate to encounter on one of my morning hikes in the woods a long time ago.




And what I had felt at that moment was summoned up in Blake’s Poem…….




"To see a World in a grain of sand,

And Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour." William Blake




And of course I too was inspired ........




I wrote this poem after I was enchanted by the Treasure I had Found in the Wood Beyond the World.



A Zillion Earthly Stars


Along a narrow winding road

I came upon a hollow grove

When to my eye did meet

A fantastical, magical, wondrous load

It shimmered and gleamed

And in between the moss did grow

For in an instance I did think

I’d seen a zillion stars ablaze

The sun shined brightly through the trees

Its friend the breeze accompanied

And together played amongst the leaves

Casting shadows on the scared ground beneath

Fragmented light bounced to and fro sporadically

Upon the zillion earthly stars I’d seen

And in their enlighten glow

They cast a stage of a beautiful twinkling fairy dream

Dragonflies and bees

Hovering in the breeze

With every flicker of their gossamer wings

They glittered and they gleamed

One by one they scattered until there were none

Oh, but wait

A little dragonfly had stopped

And landed on a stone

And at the little ones delight

I placed my hand to touch

To see how this could be

Could it all be what I believed?

What I had thought

The dragonfly and stone

Were of reality


~Annabelle~ 

And then I created this Magical Fairy Tree. I once had it for sale but then changed my mind and kept it. I have a terrible secret to share, I have an achilles heal; I hate parting with my art but as I've grown in age I appreciate all the beauty that surrounds me and I adore creating and having others enjoy my work even more, it becomes rather one of  motivation to create the Magic .....the stuff that Dreams are made of. It's in the nature of humans to create but more importantly to have others admire and appreciate their work seems to be a driving force and enables me with more fuel and inspiration, thus a plethora of creations amounts in my studio, one more reason to part with and make room for more.

So here you are my Enchanted Fairy Tree ~ " The Fountain " name given by my daughter Emma, she thought it reminded her of the tree in the movie "The Fountain". And since I have been attaching little bird nests on my Vintage Bottles I thought it would be magical to add one in the tree. I didn't have a tiny whimsical bird for it but I'm sure whomever becomes the owner of this FairyTale Tree will eventually find one that will luv it's new home. 

Funny how life surrounds us with so much inspiration....see the colour similarities in nest feathers and cat ?

Etsy write up follows .......

This Enchanted Tree is one - of - a – kind ~ OOAK

An another of my original designs I was inspired to create after a long hike in the Canadian wild woods gathering Million Year old fossils {Bryozoans} from the Ordovician Period dating back 443-490 million years ago. 

They are simply and utterly magnificent with their crystallized swirls …magical and whimsical …and the Enchanted Tree I have constructed sits on one of the rocks from that period. This is no ordinary rock but a fossilized rock dating back millions of years and is blessed with a gorgeous crystallized fossil heart..... all created by Mother Nature herself....Earth's Prima Donna of the Art.

It may be that the tree is a harmony of the Oak, Ash and Thorn and when grown together they create a magical place where little faerie folk can easily be seen and so it is a very much in love duet you see, that sits under one of the offspring branches of the Hawthorn right next to the sparkling heart by the root of the tree.

I also have been working on some mixed media miniatures as you can see in this photo,three more bottles although I have changed their name on hubby's suggestion; from now on I will be calling them "Pastoral Bottles ". 

According to him the name Pastoral also means Rustic and anybody that knows me well knows how much I adore and love the word and everything that belongs in that category so naturally it fit. 

M is still working on a Dream Catcher that is utterly dreamy, I want one for my studio but I'll have to wait...

Until next time wishing you Pastoral Dreams 

Night Whispering Willow Spider Dream Catcher

 A Very Old  Ojibway Legend

  A long long time ago elders of the Ojibway tribe crafted beautiful circles out of Night Whispering Willow with intricate netting filling the void space inside the circle leaving but one tiny hole in the middle of it. The belief was all bad Dreams would be caught in the web and the good Dreams would continue on through the hole, a Night Seeing Owl's Feather then would dangle from the circle catching and guiding the good Dreams.

It was seventh grade when M was in History class and her teacher had invited a Native to tell the Legend of the Dream Catcher. I'm not sure which one of the Native Legends she was taught but she explained to me it was something to do with dew drops and sun and a spider and so this is the one I chose to tell.

"A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother. 

Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomis-iya!" he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it. 

"No-keegwa," the old lady whispered, "don't hurt him." 

"Nokomis, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy. 

The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. 

He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. 

Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web." 

>A_A<  Forgive me for the bad pictures...just took them tonight so I could place her ad on Etsy this evening.They'll have to do until morning....they really don't do any justice to her work....I'm a terribly photographer and need desperately to take a class....hint hint Stan, kids...haha! Morning light will definitely be better....until then look at these shots just to give you an idea.

Emma asked me if I would be interested in selling some of her work on my Etsy store and of course without hesitation said yes. I really love when my kids show some interest in art, I think it's wonderful and I adore helping out. I truly hope she succeeds for I do believe she has made a beautiful art piece that anyone would be happy to own. Silly me I never knew the legend, I liked Dream Catchers because they reminded me of the Spider's Web, well it goes without saying one more reason why now I really, really love them….I adore Spider's Webs and Dreams, Crystals and Feathers and all together…wow just amazing!

 So here is the rest of her ad for Etsy.....

Night Whispering Willow Spider Dream Catcher 

Wherever you hang a dream catcher be sure it is positioned near a space where there is light and air for it will whimsically sway  when caressed by the breeze and inevitably will bring you drops of golden sun beautifully reflected in the gorgeous crystals caught in it's delicate spider like web.

In the midnight muse of your sleepy slumber you are well protected by the watchful dream catcher for it catches all the dreams both bad and good but it has the magic powers to snare the bad and all the good dreams pretty well know the secret door and softly slip through the key->hole sliding down a downy feather so quietly even the mouse in the house wouldn't know he was dreaming. And like the dissolving of a vampire caught in the sun's rising so do the bad dreams caught in the web turn into nothingness leaving behind a fairy dusted sparkling spidery lace silhouette upon your wall.You wake from a deep restful sleep, maybe lucky to recall some of those intriguing dreams ,fuelling your imagination with the coming of day.

Although this Dream Catcher is made with copper wire Emma informs me that she doesn't enjoy working with the material too much for it happens to be very hard on the hands but hopefully I will entice her into making more of this sort, they are truly lovely! I adore the gorgeous Spider she made from solder and glass crystals and when she completed it I had to laugh for it reminded me of Eight Legged Freaks; you know, the Arachnophobia movie about Spiders...haha the large goggly eyes she created, you can't miss them and are perfectly suited ...very whimsical.

Presently M is now working on another beautiful design which I promise will be just as capturing. 

This Dream Catcher is approximately 4" in diameter and has a several dew drops of gorgeous grey crystals. All made with copper wire. 

Shabby Tattered Decayed Roses ~ Old Lovelies Rose Garland for Lamp Shade

Did you know Sir William Flinders Petrie, the English archaeologist, discovered dried roses plaited in a ring in the tombs of Hawara in Egypt; they had been picked in 170 B.C. 

A magnificent Obsession of mankind 's; undoubtedly confirmed by it's beautiful visage and scent, romantic allure  and it's medicinal and beautifying properties imprinted throughout the history of our civilization. It's no wonder we are constantly smitten by it's gorgeous lusciousness. And so it comes without any surprise to me that I am always  consistently surrounded by roses and lured by their magical power.

After creating a multitude of luscious shabby tattered decayed lacy worn roses and  reading Thespoena Mclaughlin's Workshop Tutorial on creating a Decayed Elegance Bracelet I wondered what I could do with my stash . Remembering back when I was a little kid reading Cinderella, a picture comes to mind of bluebirds swirling around Cinderella with needle and thread carrying in flight beautiful ribbons and roses creating a magical dress truly fitting a princess. 

Closest Walt Disney Cinderella picture I could find of the book I remember owning.

So with that vision in mind I set out to create a garland but not for my usual fireplace but for my lampshade; yes, my lampshade! A while back I had covered a  miniature shade with  tattered Chantilly wedding lace and attached three small organza roses to it. It turned out quite lovely and antique looking and so so Romantic; a larger version seemed fitting. 

So here you are a Vintage Shabby Tattered and Worn Luscious Rose garland for a lamp shade which just so happens works wonders in creating a beautiful Romantic mood in it's subtle light. What a perfect blend of creating a shabby tattered rose lamp shade and simultaneously making it a functional veil omitting strong light when one wishes to be in a serene dreamy romantic mood. All that's required are a few clips ( vintage antique jewellery rhinestone clips would be gorgeous) to adhere the garland to the light shade and when you want stronger light , just remove it ; it's even washable! Viola, I love this idea; do you?

Oh and I luv how my birdie turned out; it just needs a little sparkle to it's attire.

Thanks again  to Thespoena McLaughlin for the inspiration and tutorial for helping me create this garland and bird.