Look who visited my garden today! She stopped by to rest up after the early morning thunderstorms. She seemed to like the violas....
She splashed about in the stream a bit and then leaned against the sweet flag to let the sun dry her off....
She flew over to the moss rose.....
to watch the chipmunks eating seeds that had fallen from the bird feeder...
I wish that I had an outfit like hers....
Curly magenta hair might be kinda fun too....
Sigh...the truth is that even though I'd really like to believe that there are faeries in my garden, I haven't actually seen one yet. Well, I did see a big luna moth once that looked a lot like a faerie until I saw the ugly proboscis tube thingy sticking out of it's head.
I while back I took a faerie doll making class at my favorite quilting store called Colorful Quilts. It was taught by Rick Petersen, a very talented local doll artist. Unfortunately CQ closed down a few months ago which is a loss that I've yet to recover from. CQ was the perfect place to rev up my creative mojo and I learned so much from the wonderful people who worked and taught classes there.
Anyhoo, I took this class, then naturally became completely obsessed with making faerie dolls. The face and body were made from polymer clay and armature wire wrapped with yarn. The wings were made from wire and fused iridescent angelina film. The arms and legs were wrapped with lovely hannah silk and the corset was made from wool felt. The skirt was made from silk flowers and her shoes were painted on. Her curly hair is sheep fleece that's hand dyed by my Seester who is a spinner. So that's the real story of how the faerie came to life in my garden.
This is one last piece inspired by my trip to Kauai last winter. This time I left the sandy shores and took a journey into the lush tropical rain forests. I began my beaded journey by creating a tapestry of twisting tangled vines...
Next I created the pink flowers to remind me of this plant...
The pink beaded blossoms also remind me of the rambutans that I ate for breakfast everyday ....
There was an abundance of unfamiliar plants and flowers to discover on my tropical journey...
Each one of those beautiful flowers flourished in my beaded rain forest as well....
Sometimes the vines and branches would part to reveal the unexpected. A cascading waterfall, a giant fern or a humble spider weaving it's web. It was all part of the magic in the rain forest.
I will never forget the time that I spent in the rain forest, wandering and wondering about the beauty that surrounded me. I hope that I was able to convey in my bead work the awesome beauty, overwhelming excitement and pure wonder of the magical days that I spent in Kauai.
