Significant Objects

I always like to see personal collections of amuletic objects. Keys rings and fobs are often powerful and significant. Keys provide access to specific areas of the physical world and other objects hold connections to a personal symbolic world. My nephew was wearing this wonderful collection this December.

The Sum of its Parts

At Christmas, my mother was wearing a pendant I made years ago. It was interesting to notice that after time had passed I could see it as its own whole self instead of as the parts I had combined.

Infinity Cards

At the December meeting of the Brunswick Arts Collaborative, Lonnie showed us how to make Infinity Cards. Two sheets of paper are folded and glued so that you can open the card sequentially to show four different arrangements of pattern and/or text. Here are some of mine. You can learn how to make an Infinity Card from The Toymaker at http://www.thetoymaker.com/Toypages/61EndlessCard/61InfinityCard.html

Smoketree Leaf

The colors are fantastic in my yard today!

Seeds and Stones

These blue seed pods are gorgeous in the autumn garden.

Ants Make Sand Circles

Ants work so hard! And here, they managed to find three different colors of sandy soil in one small, dry space in the middle of a parking lot.

Autumn on the Water

Found Wooden Circles

Circle of Water and Stone

I like circles and spots wherever I find them. Circles within circles...

Autumn Sumac

Dots on Stems

Crow and the Labyrinth Goes to the Gardens

An image of Crow and the Labyrinth is part of the publicity for the Maine Fiberarts Showcase at the Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine.

Mushrooms

Recently, I attended a really interesting lecture on edible mushrooms by David Spahr, author of Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada. Since then, I've noticed and wondered about a lot of mushrooms. I've collected, sauteed and tasted a puffball. I've looked, in vain, for black trumpets in the woods, but found some for sale by Oyster Creek Mushroom Company at the Bath Farmer's Market.

Most of my mushroom collecting, though, is by photograph. These were in Harpswell, Maine.

Mending in Place

I've been working on a series of small pieces about mending. In many situations, it's really more effective to mend something rather than to start over. The human relationship to planet earth comes to mind. My meditations on mending are small and portable so they have been going places with me. I mark time, in place, with stitch.

These pieces incorporate a cotton plaid from a shirt I picked out for my husband a long time ago. I carried them on a walk one late summer day at Thalheimer Farm on Orr's Island in Harpswell, Maine.

Barnacle Stone Circle

River Mending

In 2010, flying over South America, I took this photo of a river.

I used the line of the river in this piece, which is about mending.

Boro Cloth

I just took an on-line class called Contemporary Woven Boro, with Jude Hill, the Cloth Whisperer. I think she is a really fine teacher. Some of my most recent work includes new cloth woven from old cloth, as taught in her workshop.

In the class material, Jude Hill wrote, "Although Boro has become a bit of a trend these days, the raggedy edges and patching and primitive approach to cloth making... there is always a subtle reminder that this was not an intended art form. Or a fashion trend. This was life, mending, thrift, and respect for cloth. This is the result of living small with consciousness of means. The need to stay warm, the patience to repair, restore and to keep going... and the resulting beauty in that."

You can find Jude Hill here:

http://spiritcloth.typepad.com