Fairy Chant - Into the Fairy Tale Forest

Halloween Altered Matchbox Swap!

Karla! You outdid yourself! I received the Halloween package containing the altered matchbox you made for me. I cannot even describe all of the goodies in there. How did you ever stuff them all in that package?! Granted some lovelies were on the outside as we were allowed for this swap, but really it is amazing what you managed to fit into this goody bag for me!


I love my Halloween chic flat paper artdoll. Her face is oh so green with a delicate golden shimmer overlay. Her spider logo on her top is fabby! Spiders rule!!


I thoroughly enjoyed reading the bit inside of the covering case she came in and the paint decor you gave it is spookily chic! Love the gold trim. Your recycling design sense is over the top. Love the paint chip idea.


You can believe I am going to brew a cuppa 'Autumn Spiced Tea' [pumpkin spice] while I sit and enjoy the small accordion book you made with a matching cover for it to snug in to.


The variety of jewellery and boxes and tidbits are delicious! I have a little 'day of the dead' vignette set up in my hallway and the fuzzy leg bejewelled spider has joined the frey there. The spider captured in the tin is great too!

And I will put the special stash of glitter to good use around here.

Thanks again Karla! You are a creative force!!

A surprise mail day!

You know there must be some lovely quote I can find to describe the wonderful feeling a friend gives one! Just by being themselves; who they are! But then they go and 'do' somthing that just adds to the good feeling and so it is with a lovely art friend, Firuzan. Look what she surprised me with in the mail the other day!
The package was ripped open (by me in a state of excitement) and inside, a treasure stash of fabby things: handmade jewellery made by Firuzan, and wire sculptures that are so small and so sweet that she also designs and makes, a bracelet of curled cinnamon bark and one of whole cloves, lovely tidbits of seeds, seedpods, dried berries and acorns (Turkish acorns with hats very different from Canadian ones!), a hand sewn silk bag with delicate tassels on the drawstring filled with glass beads (they look like fisheyes),



and a little package of whole coffee beans that smells like chocolate, and a big bag of already ground for a turkish coffee maker coffee (real Turkish coffee!!),



and a stone in the perfect shape of a real egg,



and 3 more heart rocks! Well 2 heart rocks and one that I think may be green glass. It is a perfect green heart that is transparent in a wave-swept way. These I will add to my bowl of heart rocks that Firuzan had already sent to me a few months ago!
She also enclosed a greeting card with a warm message, and pictures of her magical garden, and flowers, and gold edged leaves and all wrapped up in tulle! Olive green and brown tulle.

My heart is bursting with joy! Thank you Firuzan!

To see her art and magic spot go here!

p.s. I found a quote. There are many suitable but this one spoke for me today:

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul"

~Bailou

And, all the leaves must fall...

Today I did something I've been thinking about doing for years and years. And the years pass by and I have to wait for another year to do it. I've wondered what it would be like to press leaves from one sole tree and put them in one spot as an installation so to speak. A friend had told me about an installation she attended where the artist had collected and pressed leaves so that they completely filled a file cabinet pull out drawer. Each drawer had a different species of leaf! Can you only imagine!!!! It's haunted me for years now. I want my own cabinet of leaves. But if I get enough of one kind to maybe store in a box, that will be my version of the installation idea.
Here's the chosen (maple leaf with smallish and fancy shaped leaves) tree:



Here's one bag of leaves. Hundreds it looks like. Who knows. I didn't take the time to count because by the time I got home the leaves were beginning to dry out and curl and not want to easily lay flat in a book. I disgarded a bunch because of this.



Here's a teaser. I did a few in the microwave press. It gives you an idea of the colors. Quite a lot of yellows and rich reds. No greens whatsoever. I do love the combination of rich dark green with deep strong yellow. This tree does not provide those. Nothing is perfect hey?



My goal is to use the leaves as a resource for color choice(s) in my artwork.

Nice to see you again,

Thanks for dropping in! Talk soon,*smiles* Norma

Bird Construction Zone

On my worktable (ahem! I mean my daughter's dining room table) is the panorama that is bird making in progress!
This pink robin is awaiting a coat of black paint on its' beak; then a light sprinkling of silver acrylic. AND the all important coating of glitter along its' back. Then it'll be banded (number of bird) and will be ready to fly! Well, after the legs get a coat of something that will cover the yellow string and shiny metal, and a hanging thread strung, that is...



Cut, sew, glue, cut, sew, glue, cut, sew, glue...



An early starling joins the fray! Each bird gets its' own armature!!



I am so excited! I finally scrunched up enough nerve to contact a retail outlet to see if they might be interested in selling my birds...and they want to meet me to see them in person. I'm nervous and excited all at once. So I am in full on bird making mode. BUT MY DAUGHTER GETS BACK TOMORROW! (Can you hear the pounding timbal in the background? No, wait, that is my heart!) Time to clean up!

Thanks for dropping by! *smiles* Norma

To see more fabulous artists who show us what is on their workdesk today, drop in here!

A Flock of Seagulls

Make that one seagull, one starling, one dove (use your imagination~he's generic), and two house sparrows.






What's wrong with these pictures! EVERYTHING! And that is why they made it to this post. Because today is 'Failure Friday!' I came across this post and just loved it so. This very day I'd planned on saving some failures in my bag; and so timing is everything here. In actual fact, I've already 'saved' a lot of what is wrong but I keep giving away the birds I make so never have any on hand. First, all beaks get a kiss of silver or gold acrylic. I mean a 'kiss.' All eyes are no longer a seed bead because they roll over. Now I use bugle beads that have a flat plane to rest on. And I've developed a technique for construction so that the eyes don't have to go through the ordeal of being manipulated through a sewing machine phase. Believe me they don't want to have to go through the sewing machine phase. The best 'save' is the seagull feet. I was originally (this is my very first prototype in fact) going for feet that kind of bend back (you know how pathetic bird feet are of deceased birds? The kind that pull your heartstrings) but these are ridiculous. I wanted some bulk in the legs so wrapped them in fabric. Forget that noise. I've figured out the feet on my birds.
Each bird I make has a number (like on real birds who are banded with a metal ring on their leg) as well as a word or two of 'inspiration' such as JOY or LOVE, etc. These are inspirational birds after all. I painstakingly hammered the metal letters to spell the word on used aluminum can metal. Forget it; they break in two in no time at all (by the way for folk who are reading this who have received one of my birds as a gift, I apologize for the breakage; if it's happened to your bird). Now I am going to try banding them with paper. It's a work in progress let's just say.
The glitter is heavy and rubbing bare in some places. Wrong kind of glue. I've got that sorted too! And that dove? Skinny as a rail. Maybe he is not a dove after all. We'll have to see.

So there can be a lot wrong with one's art. Someone once said something like: "Art is just figuring out problems." I like that.

Thanks for dropping by! *smiles* Norma

p.s. for those wondering when their birds will arrive; know I haven't forgotten you!

Halloween Witch

She is waiting to be made. Her bits and pieces surround her earlier today.



She stands made. Looking out of the gothic window at who knows what? A magic pumpkin coach arriving to take her to a party perhaps.





At the window in the next room a bride catches her breath.



Thanks for dropping by to see what I am working on today. To see other fantastic artists pop on over to this site. Every Wednesday it is a party!

*smiles* Norma

Gothic Bride

She always was a rebel so she wore white.



This wee thing was a complete inspiration due to having come across this post by Wendy at Bliss Angels. Have you ever seen something on line that you just have to have immediately and so you have to make it? That's what happened to me.
I am house sitting for my daughter currently so used the cardboard from a Kleenex box in her living room, and then I routed around her stash of supplies. This is what I was able to come up with. I plan to make more.

Talk to you soon! *smiles* Norma