Luna's Baublebilities

May has been a very busy month with lots of glorious weather - except for yesterday. Yesterday it was 40 degrees and blattering rain all day. In the last two weeks we have enjoyed several warm and sunny days filled with the scent of apple, plum and lilac blossoms. Molly brought in several stems of plum blossoms to decorate the house with for her birthday party this month and set some on top of the computer monitor. It was like having a perfect Japanese painting in the study for a few days before they wilted.









Recent rainy days have stripped most of the more delicate blossoms off the stems so we are now left with just the lilacs, but all of the colors we have in our yard have burst open - white, lavender, dark lavender and red violet.

Even the rainy days have been beautiful - except for yesterday, but I already mentioned that. These rainy day photos were taken last Thursday. The leaves were still quite small at the beginning of the day but after a few hours of moisture and subdued sunlight, they were bursting forth so quickly, you could almost see the changes from moment to moment. Days like this make C.S. Lewis' description of the Narnian spring sound like an understatement.




















Here are some recent Round Robin Photos.


On this fabric, I added the 5th layer to an already full yard. I used my favorite handmade stamp - a stylized carnation blossom. I have found that this simple shape can form the basis for a number of very elegant motifs. Other artists have added amazing rainbow colors, discharged diamonds, silk screened tic-tac-toe-ish shapes and stamped circles.













The color on this second fabric is hard to capture. In reality it is full of beautiful aqua and green colors with deep Prussian blue square outlines. It looked really watery to me so I used bleach to discharge a couple schools of tiny fish on there along with some bigger fish to hunt them. Unfortunately, you can't really see the fish well in these photos, they are very subtle. One of the fascinating things about this piece of fabric is that one of the artists before me used a crackled resist to apply a deeper green color over the existing yellowish aqua. that's a process I have to try - I love the crackle effect. I also really like the pine bough stencil you can see here.












I've been meaning to post some silk fusion photos for a long time. Here are a few sheets of "paper" I have made using silk fibers and textile binding medium, some of them have machine embroidery. I love silk Fusion paper! This material is very sturdy and has a wonderful sheen. It can be sewn, embroidered, painted or drawn on - you can even make clothes from it! I like using it to make small pocket purses and greeting cards.

I'm intending to open a new Etsy shop this summer for textile and jewelry supples that will include sheets of silk fusion, supplies to make your own silk fusion, dyed silk cord and ribbon and filigree jewelry components. Maybe a few beads, too - though I really do have a hard time handing over beads to anyone. I really enjoy all of the processes involved in making silk fusion and wearables but with a very busy little boy in the house, I find that I rarely get to actually finish anything other than a few earrings now and then. I'd like to keep making lovely things, though, so maybe selling supplies will keep my skills honed while I enjoy this phase of toddlerhood Maxx is in.






Speaking of the boy - here he is. I hope you have a day as wonderful as this one was - sunny and warm with time to bounce around the yard, blowing dandelion clocks.