Masks of me.....

I took a wonderful weekend class on creating face masks from a fantastic artist by the name of Rebecca Love Be sure to check out her website and particularly her African Masks. And if you can manage time to take her class, I highly recommend it! You learn how to cast a mold mask of your own face out of plaster strips and then press clay into that mold to then create your own image. And you embellish however you wish. Very fun.

I've finished 3 masks of me so far. At first it's down right frightening to see yourself .....with all the imprints that Time leaves on our faces. But now it doesn't really seem like me....just a face that I can carve or paint or embellish into whatever I want and that it is actually my face makes it very unique.

The one piece that is kind of half a mask was fired in a pit fire on the beach and that gave it those interesting colors. The symbols that I carved into that piece are Reiki symbols.

I have a collection of white plaster heads collected from San Miguel de Allende on my wall so now I've done a mask/face of me in whites to be added to that wall, which happens to be right where you enter my little studio.
Next I'm going to add a mask/head in whites of each of my grand daughters to add to that collection. I pressed the clay into the plaster mold that I took, today, so check back to see the finished piece soon.

So fun to be inspired!

Making Masks....

Yesterday I made masks of Presley and Kobain.
Today I'll press clay into them and soon I'll be able to hang their precious faces on my wall. So fun....

Manifesto of Encouragement

THE MANIFESTO OF ENCOURAGEMENT
By Rob Brezsny

Right now:

There are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness.

Someone you haven't met yet is already dreaming of adoring you.

Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life.

Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all of God's children.

A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, "nourish them."

Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you. Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favourite food is, and treat you to a movie. Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you -- for free.

Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.

The next great song is being rehearsed.

Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.

Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way.

Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they'll be thriving like never before. They just can't see it from where they're at.

Someone who is craving to be partnered, to be acknowledged, to ARRIVE, will get precisely what they want -- and even more. And because that gift will be so fantastical in it's reach and sweetness, it will quite magically alter their memory of angsty longing and render it all "So worth the wait."

Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche -- this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you.

Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest.

Someone is fighting the fight so that you don't have to.

Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are generally safe. Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties and clean drinking water.

Someone is regaining their sanity. Someone is coming back from the dead. Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable. Someone is curing the incurable.

You. Me. Some. One. Now.

Crowns Around a Campfire.....

The Crowns were a great success!
I hung them on a chandelier and everyone chose the one they wanted.
When I was making them, I had no thought as to who would wear what, but of course, as it turned out, each crown perfectly reflected the head upon which it sat...all evening long.
Last night was one of those moments in time when I am hit by the realization that life is so good.

Crowns for birthday friends....

Tomorrow evening we are having a gathering of friends with the intent to honor 7 friends who are having birthdays.....so I decided to make them each a crown.
I took wire and colored electrical tape and reached into my jars of goodies.
It was quite fun creating these. I think I'll let each person select the crown of their choose.....with my husband getting first choice, of course.

Check back to see how the crowns look on people instead of hedgehogs. :)

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

Creativity

Creativity blends all the best elements of human nature: perception, imagination, intellect, courage, intuition, and empathy. We need to be able to see, feel, taste, hear, and smell the magnificence around us, lifted from "the no of all nothing," as e.e. cummings puts it, into "everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes." We need to take in this magnificence at more than face value, imagining its innumerable possibilities: a scarlet tanager takes wing in a poem, a bowed oak trunk becomes a cottage A-frame, that view down the valley assumes immortality through strokes of a paint brush. We need to shake our minds free of ruts and clichés and sing a new song, tell a vibrant story, envision a unique way, offer counsel with fresh clarity, even if we seem to be faced with the same material we've encountered hundreds of times before. Only the strength of our hearts -- aided by glimpses into the hidden meanings of things -- makes such a feat possible. And we need to know that our creations flow through us for the sake of all: humans, toads, tigers, trillium, storm clouds, suns, galaxies, and even the stones at our feet.

We have the grand honor of being conduits for divine imagination. Thus not only do we embrace all that's freely given to us -- the very definition of gratefulness -- we also magnanimously participate in developing and fulfilling this gift. As we share in the creativity which emanates from Ultimate Mystery, we experience perhaps the greatest gift of all.

http://www.gratefulness.org

"The Promise of Spring"....a new piece

A new piece......."The Promise of Spring".

A tree with a door that opens and closes and within....a little fae holding a beaded branch of springtime.

Created with 2 gourds, tempered glass mosaic, French handwritten letters,
antique beadwork on a base of an old rusted iron lamp base.

A Prayer for the Gulf waters...please join me

Dr. Masaru Emoto is the scientist from Japan who has done all the research
and publications about the characteristics of water.
Among other things, his research revealed that water physically responds to emotions.
Many people have the predominantly angry emotion when we consider what is happening in
the Gulf. And while justified in that emotion, we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly pray the prayer that Dr. Emoto, himself, has proposed.

I am passing this request to all people to set an intention of love and healing that is so large, so overwhelming that we can perform a miracle in the Gulf of Mexico.

We are not powerless. We are powerful.

Our united energy, speaking this prayer daily...multiple times daily...can
literally shift the balance of destruction that is happening.We don't have
to know how...we just have to recognize that the power of love is greater
than any other power active in the Universe today.

"I send the energy of love and gratitude to the waters and all living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings. To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, planktons, corals, algae ... to ALL living creatures ... I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I Love You."

Please join me in often repeating this Healing Prayer by Dr. Emoto's.
Feel free to send it around the planet....post it on your blog.
Let's take charge ... and do our own clean up!

Metamorphosis....a new piece

This piece is called "Metamorphosis".
The "Chrysalis" ( the bower in which the fae sits ) is created with the use of a gourd.
The interior of the gourd has been finished with a tempered glass mosaic.
On the exterior of the gourd I have used French letters, beautifully handwritten in 1807.
The trim around the open windows of the gourd is lined with tempered glass. The very top of the gourd is finished off with an ornate piece of metal work from the Victorian age.
I have sealed the floor of the Chrysalis, with real butterfly wings.
The Fae is hand sculpted and costumed in antique fabrics and trim.
Silk wedding gown netting, bead work, rhinestones and pieces of the 1807 French letter are all used for texture and design of her gown.
When she is placed within her bower, one can see her back and sides through the openings of the Chrysalis. Her wings are antique beadwork and in her hand she holds a beautiful glass butterfly. "Metamorphosis" is about transformation.... a shift in consciousness. It is a prayer for our planet.