'Starr'

The first time I discovered "Starr" she was on her back, looking toward the sky.  Whatever is she doing?  Perhaps a bit of cloud watching???  No, it turns out that she is enamored with stars -- but had slept the night away and thought she might find a bit of starlight in the early morning.  She had seen a sliver of moon once in broad daylight.  Why not a star?

Our visit led us into a discussion of stars.  She was bumfuzzled because Bibliofile had read to them all about stars and he said that stars are balls of gases held together by their own gravity.  Surely she thought they were much more romantic than that. At that point in the reading she broke down in tears and the whole group had to stop the educational process to give Starr several shoulders to cry on.

And so I gave Starr my thoughts on the mysteries of life -- and the perceptions that each of us has.  If her perception is that the stars are beautiful shining beacons in the dark sky, why not keep those thoughts?  Why not spend her evenings watching the stars as she has in the past?  Magic can often be the very best part of our lives and  we should hold it close and nurture it.   For isn't there a value in living your life through dreams and ideas and fanciful notions?

"When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires

Will come to you

If your heart is in your dreams

No request is too extreme

When you wish upon a star

As dreamers do..."

Lee Harlington and Ned Washington

Symbols

In my creative life I find myself drawn to symbols - some of them over and over.


Here are my 'most used' symbols:

Bells, stars, the moon, birds, circles, dots, spirals, letters, music, metal, time.  I'm sure there are many others -- but these are the ones that usually end up in my work no matter whether I'm beading, punching or doll making.  These symbols represent comfort and joy.  They put the world to rights for me.  I never get tired of them and often read multiple meanings into them.

Here's the official definition for the word 'symbol'.

sym·bol - ( n.)

1. Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible.

 

2. A printed or written sign used to represent an operation, element, quantity, quality, or relation, as in mathematics or music.

 

How about you -- do you find recurrent symbols appearing in your work?  I know that many of you have some of the same symbols list that I do, because I see these same symbols in the work I love to look at.
 

 

Isn't it wonderful to have a treasure trove of images flitting through your mind -- images that please you, bring you peace and make you want to flaunt them in your handwork?

"We are symbols, and inhabit symbols." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

"Star Gazing"

Taking a bit of time for star gazing!

Feeling the vastness of the inky sky above me - dotted with teeny, tiny lights (that aren't really teeny tiny at all).

Thinking that these dots once guided sailors and travelers from place to place. Could it be, that by looking at them I can also find my way?

 "Star light, star bright

First star I see tonight

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have the wish I wish tonight."

"Star Gazing"

Here is a "Star Gazing" pocket.  Once again my 'stash of stuff' came to the rescue.  A rusty star, cut sort of cockeyed, was just the thing to hang in the center front of the pocket.

As you can see spirals worked their way into the scheme on the back of this pocket.  For the 'trim' fiber I used Wildflower's 'kelp' with those rusty gold tones that you see in kelp washed up along the shore and the aqua of the sea.
 
I think tonight, if the sky is clear, I'll step out into the summer evening and see how many stars I can count in the dark heavens.

"Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star". - W. Clement Stone