"Trinket" Heart

This heart was inspired by one lone earring -- found long ago, recently rediscovered.  I love the square with the openings, the dangles of beads and metal pieces - a perfect center for my latest heart.

I keep gravitating to the peach/light rust/gold - deserty colors.  Recently a friend, who hadn't seen any of my recent work, told me that the 'new' color this year is dark peach, even for fall/winter clothes.  Could it be - for the very first time in my life - that I'm right on top of the latest fashion???

"All the windows of my heart I open to the day". - John Greenleaf Whittier

An Itinerant Artist

 Recently I opened a box in my studio - wherein I found this art book which I made several years ago.  This book was actually the last of a five year love affair with book arts.  During the process of making this I began beading, for the very first time, and after this book was made I drifted off into the world of beading. 

From beading I've gone into punchneedle - which was something I was totally unfamiliar with until I went to a quilt show with a friend and saw some beautiful examples.  I loved the texture and the idea of creating an image using hundreds, dare I say thousands, of little tiny loops.

A lot of very creative people stay with the same venue throughout their days. Sometimes I wistfully wonder what that would be like.  But if I'm very honest with myself there's a reason why my blog is called 'Art Journey' - because I seem to be a constant traveler.  I stop along the way, learn a new skill and dive into it head first.  After awhile another sign post appears and I'm off on a brand new adventure down another road.

I feel so grateful to have had these opportunities, to be able to switch over to something as the whim hits and to have the time, energy and passion to explore each venue to its fullest. At this point in time I'm still happily ensconsed in the world of loop pile embroidery but who knows what adventures lie ahead of me.  There is no set roadmap in this life of mine and I'm quite happy about that.

"And you?  When will you begin that long journey into yourself?" - Rumi

Heart in a Pocket

A heart has encroached into the pocket world.  I found this trinket in among my tray of 'long lost items' and thought I would incorporate it into a pocket.

The colors here remind me of raspberries, which in turn makes me think of some of my favorite raspberry foods.  Of course fresh raspberries come first to mind, but then there is raspberry sorbet, any pie, tart, or scone that includes rasperberries and my all time favorite: chocolate and raspberry.  My mouth is watering as I write this.

So here's to the end of another raspberry season - honored with a little pocket that holds my heart.

"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. - Marcus Aurelius

"Harvest Pocket"

It is September, time for harvest.  Time to reap the fully ripe fruits, vegetables and in this area of North Carolina - apples.  We even have an "Apple Festival".  This pocket represents the time of the year when tables are laden with freshly grown food.

Here at my worktable I went through my 'stash of stuff' and was able to harvest a special brass charm.  I love the etching on this charm - etchings that look like corn cobs and pumpkins, leaves and pods. 

And on the back some colored leaves floating gently toward the ground.

"It is like the seed put in the soil - the more one sows, the greater the harvest". - Orison Swett Marden

"Rusty Heart"

Why are we so fascinated with rust?  I know that a lot of us like rust and even go out of our way to create it, or to use it in some fashion or another.  There are chemicals that will give a rusty appearance to almost anything.  Some of us carefully nurture rust by wrapping fabric around rusty nails and other implements.

Although this most recent heart is fashioned from un-rusty thread, floss and felt -- you'll notice a rusty heart dangling in the center.  Hopefully while this small metal heart may be rusty -- its is still a symbol of all that is good within us.

"It is better to rust out than wear out". - Edwin Markham

Early Fall

Its coming!!  As I walked this morning the very slight beginnings of color appeared.

Soon the forest will be aflame with gold, red, rust and brown.   Soon the air will be cool enough that sitting on the porch in the afternoon with a cup of hot tea will be quite comfortable.  Soon my walks will take me into a forest full blown in technicolor.

"Light in Nature creates the movement of colors". - Robert Delaunay

"Moon Beams" Heart

Shhhh - its night time.  The moon is shining in the dark sky and I am wishing on it.  Wishing for those things we all wish for - peace and pleasure, laughter and loving, conscience and caring.  As a girl I never realized that there was an actual 'man in the moon' until I put on my first pair of glasses.  I've been talking to him ever since.

I'm afraid my camera just could not capture the delicacy of the colors in this heart.  The loops are punched in palest lavender with Wildflower thread 'pale lilac' as the trim. 

"There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon". - Matsuo Basho

Skating Through Childhood

A local artist, Janet Orselli makes wonderful assemblage art out of odds and end, old stuff and bits and bobs.  One of my favorite pieces is this old roller skate with a shoe last and violin bow attached - all to make a thoughtful piece of art.

When I was a child we actually wore these metal skates.  They attached to our shoes with clamps on the sides.  We used our skate key to tighten the skates to our feet.  It was not the most perfect of designs.  The skates often came loose and in the middle of a glide the skate would end up dangling from our feet - and we usually viewed this from the sitting down position, having been dumped on our rear ends!

There were no sidewalks where I lived -- so we would take our skates out onto the black tar streets and try, not too successfully, to gracefully skate up and down.  One year my father began to add a room to our house.  The foundation was a cement slab and we thought we were in heaven as we glided across the smooth cement.  We were quite disappointed when the walls started going up and we were banned from the 'construction' site.

For a couple of years my skate key hung around my neck -- a talisman of this wonderful adventure in movement.  Thanks to Janet for bringing back these long ago memories.

"... to be a child, to be a child! To have the roads and the days all stretching out forward and upward and away." - Gary Jennings

"Home"

A touch of 'home' with this petite pocket.  How many times during my life have I put the key in the lock of a new home -- trepidation, excitement, looking forward to making this place at this time our very own nest.

As Penny Berens recently pointed out I'm beginning to have 'plentiful pockets' hanging about here in my studio. 

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts". - Oliver Wendell Holmes