Lunamoth by Diane Etherton-Watt

I do like to see how people use the paper they buy from me. 

Diane made a lovely 'Luna' series of collages…

~ Luna Moth ~

~ Moon Flower ~

images copyright of Diane Etherton-Watt

Although she is having a bit of a break from blogging & selling, 

Diane blogs at Naturally Through My Eyes & her Etsy shop is Inspire to Inspire

The paper she used was Nepalese Mountain paper (available here). It's made from the bark fibre of lokta, which grows above 3000 metres in the Himalayan foothills. It's a renewable source & the collection & paper making provides valuable employment in the hill areas.

Out of Chaos...

So, there i was, in the midst of chaos.... printing photographs for my up-coming craft fair.... 

with only stepping-stone-like spaces on the floor to allow myself to negotiate wherever i needed to be... 

when the post arrived.

 Printing abandoned. 

Because of this... 

and inside....  

oooh, look a little closer... touch if you like.

I can't tell you what it's for yet.... 

but i can tell you this gorgeousness came from mudhound studio... 

and this.... 

is part of the most gorgeous textile art made by lisa at mudhound... 

i've written about it <here> with more photos...

or just go to lisas mudhound studio blog and see what she says!

Memorial Canvas

I've been looking into these twinkly eyes a fair bit this past couple of weeks & it's just dawned on me that I don't even know his name! That may seem strange, but it hasn't been important until now... I've been more concerned with the 'feel' of this man... his energy. I know him as 'Inghinn's Dad' and he recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge to the Summerlands. Ing wanted a canvas with his photo & a quote from 'Le Petit Prince' by Antoine de Saint Exupery in remembrance of her dad.

To begin with I just couldn't 'get' what I needed to do with this. Inghinn told me her Dad was a farmer who loved nature and she asked for dark green lettering. She would have let me change that if I wanted, but the photo background definitely lent itself to greens.

It took me a while just sitting with the photograph... connecting & feeling the energy. After a little while I had more ideas than enough. I printed the photo onto canvas and frayed the edges for a raggedy effect.... i didn't want any hard lines. The lettering too was a quite loose italic, done with a draftsman's ruling pen.

 

Wenn du bei Nacht den Himmel anschaust

Wird dir sein, als leuchten alle Sterne

Weil ich auf einem von ihnen wohne

Weil ich auf einem von ihnen lache

(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

It's from The Little Prince, and roughly translated it means, when you look at the sky at night, it will be as if all the stars shine brightly, because on one of them I'm alive, because on on one them I am laughing.

the canvas size is 10 x 14 inches...

 small enough to be personal & large enough to have a visual impact

Once i started, everything came together. By then I had an idea of how it should look.... the format, the colours... and a tree. For some reason I felt that a tree was important, and Ing confirmed that her Dad had trained as a tree surgeon in his youth. How I represented the tree was important too...

The bare branches with just a few leaves suggest the end of autumn, moving into winter... which is how I see the end of our life... more like a change of season, a time of withdrawal, returning to earth, preparing for the next stage of growth. The spirals suggest that continuity too,  the cyclical nature of life and ancient connections...

It was one of those jobs that from start to finish felt special, and was an honour to do... I hope that it gives some comfort when you think of your dad, Ing xo

Meet me at the water's edge...

This canvas was done around the same time as 'hear the ocean' I've just been looking through my list of posts to edit and realised I never finished off writing about this canvas!

Meet me at the water's edge

and dance to an ancient rhythm

feel the beat of forgotten song

re-discover what time has hidden

ocean dancing, ocean dreaming

with the gentle tidal rhythm

feel the healing waters flow

a soothing song to help us grow

call on water's energy

the power to nourish, nurture & heal

endless potency

ride the tides of ancient truths

meet me at the water's edge

ocean dances, ocean dreams

meet me at the waters edge

and dance to an ancient song

heed the urge to come ocean dancing

will you be carried on an ocean dream

wherever it may lead?

The 'ocean' background came first... then words at the top. I started the central spiral with the words 'ocean dancing, ocean dreaming', then just let it unfold... making up the words & the layout as I went along. The blue is FW acrylic ink, with white acrylic paint for the base coat & lettering.

It was written after reading of a call to bloggers to 'meet at the waters edge' at New Moon, and offer healing to the waters of the world after the earthquake in Japan... however, as I wrote it became a message to re-connect, our-selves, to the energies of water.


I started this one below at the same time... but it resisted my efforts to write on it! The first time I made mistakes in the lettering, then on the next attempt 'threw' the bottle of ink all over myself... and the carpet... so i abandoned the quotes i was using & started again with my own words!

ocean dancing

ocean dreaming

she holds me in her arms

and rocks me

in her surging tidal rhythm

ocean dancing

ocean dreaming

Silver Strands...2

Another re-working.... here is what i wrote last time I can't really add anything about the words that mel wrote... they still move me....

This time though, they were for the gallery and the visual impact of the words was more important. When creating any piece of work, some of the questions to consider are "who is it for" "where is it to go?" "who will read it?" Calligraphy in a general art gallery is still relatively uncommon, and unless people are familiar with modern calligraphy, they do like to be able to read it... just capturing the sense of the words is not always enough.

I loved the pencil texture of last time, but silver gouache on canvas was my choice this time around. I kept the plaster 'rocks' as before, and splattered silver paint & powder to emulate the 'strands of light'.

The first and last phrases were with a draughtsman's ruling pen... the centre part was with a Mitchells broad edged steel nib. The brighter, silver lettering created a much stronger effect, which I softened with the lighter italic in the middle to balance with the silver & grey in the background. Some glossy black added to the shimmering reflection of light.

Silver strands thread light downwards...

Into the heart of darkness...

Winds with the ebb and flow of time...

To send our hearts and minds

once more into these weavings...

Of magic and the old ways to bind and connect

our hearts once more with She who knows

Melanie Leavey

Cheers mel x

Silver Strands

24 x 36 inches

mixed media on canvas

£175 plus postage

Dance The Old Ways

 More words that move me, written by Cari Ferraro

Dance the old ways

Trust the knowing

Mend and heal

Energy Flowing

For this, I used wood dyes for the background, pencil crayons for the lettering, a chalk pastel spiral and decorators filler for the 'stones'.... so I guess that qualifies as mixed media!

I originally wrote about this piece over here... remember the posts are in reverse order, so the 3rd post on that page is how it started out & the first one is my reflections at the end!