Danish Inspiration

My friend Libby and I are doing monthly projects to help spark our creativity. The March project was to chose a time in our life and create something on a 12 inch square of muslin that represented that time. I have recently met Dorthe who blogs at Den Lille Lade and lives on the beautiful island of Bornholm in Denmark. Memories of my trip to Denmark and a weekend stay bicycling and hiking Bornholm came back to me. I decided this had to be the inspiration for my March project.

I have always had a fascination with block prints and decided I would carve some stamps and make concentric borders within the 12 inches. I printed on both muslin and paper. I was using Colorbox inks for the fabric but it absorbed the color and I am much happier with the paper print. This has a shadow underneath because I photographed it on top of the paper print. In reality it is much cleaner.

We were there in April and the bare trimmed trees were the inspiration for the outer border.

We came upon runestones and so I carved a set of runes. However I forgot about carving them backwards so they print in the right direction. C'est la vie! I decided to just go with it!

As we were biking we came upon a marker for a Viking dwelling. On one side it looked like a hill with trees on top but on the other was a stone entrance and this photo shows the construction with large boulders and stacked slabs of stone. It was a magical feeling place and so ancient. That is the inspiration for the third border.

The inner image is a church window.

If you ever have the chance to visit this wonderful island don't hesitate! Have you ever made art inspired by a place or a time in your life? I'd love to hear about it.

Catching Up on Inchies!

After a cold, a house guest and a trip to visit friends, I have returned to Every Inchie Monday. I decided to make the inchies for the weeks I was away so here they all are. At the top is todays inchie, Winged. It got a little out of focus because it is somewhat dimensional and when I put it in the scanner it wouldn't lay flat. The two that I missed are Rhythm, the musical notations and Endless. When I thought about endless two things came to mind, the symbol for infinity and the geometric symbol for a ray. I decided to put both of them on one little inchie. To see more inchies go here.

Little Birdies

These are my little birds having a hen party! I made a bunch of these little birds and finally got around to listing them on etsy! So far I've only listed three, but I'll add more in the next day or so. They are all made with silk dupioni and have silk or cotton tails and breasts with beaded crests and hand embroidered wings and eyes. Go check them out and let me know what you think!

Dance

Every Inchie Monday and the theme is Dance. I attempted to make a tiny dance diagram and I have to say it isn't my favorite. It was a little difficult to cut those tiny shoes. I printed off some from the computer and laid the page over a piece of felt and then did my best to cut them out. But, here it is for better or worse. Go to Every Inchie Monday to see more dancing inchies.

Gifts

Earlier this week I received the door prizes that I won during the amazing One World One Heart blog hop. I was a lucky winner of not one, but three of the door prizes! I want to share with you the talents of these creative women. First, Jeanette of Handmade sent this colorful envelope containing a hand embroidered heart which came all the way from Sweden. We discovered in our conversation that several years ago I had traveled to her town, thousands and thousands of miles from where I live!

Wanda of Needlewings sent me this beautiful charm with my initial on it. It is on a satin cord that is cleverly tied to allow you to adjust the length of the of the necklace. I wear a lot of black and red, so it is perfect!

Lastly, Wendy of Dragonfly Dreams sent me a bookmark and collage tag. There is so much attention to detail in her work, it is truly wonderful. Since I read constantly the book mark will come in handy!

As I was getting ready to write this post I popped over to each of their blogs to make sure I had the right addresses for linking them and I was blown away that each of them had great posts I want to go back and read. Jeanette wrote about making paper mache teacups and a link to one of her favorite artists for inspiration. Wanda has some amazing art dolls that are made with lots of gears and circuitry, very cool! Wendy has several posts about some necklaces she is making with the theme of birds and birdhouses. Frankly, I am coveting them! Head over to their blogs and see what they are up to.