making a headpiece

I got another request to make a bridal headpiece recently.

This one was for Ari's sweet teacher.... and she loved it ♥

Pablo Neruda

A dear friend once gave me a book, 'The Captain's Verses'. It is one of the most beautiful books, that I have ever read. Those of you who know me, will know of my long love affair with poetry. When I dug a little deeper, I unearthed another gem. A book of poems, so perfectly formed, from title to last line, that the experience of reading it, moved me to tears... Pablo Neruda's 'Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair'. If you haven't read it, don't read what's written below. Don't ruin what lies in wait at the bookstore or the library or on a friend's shelf. Go out and find a copy. And read it. From cover to cover. I envy your first time. 

A Song Of Despair

The memory of you emerges from the night around me.
The river mingles its stubborn lament with the sea.

Deserted like the wharves at dawn.
It is the hour of departure, oh deserted one!

Cold flower heads are raining over my heart.
Oh pit of debris, fierce cave of the shipwrecked.

In you the wars and the flights accumulated.
From you the wings of the song birds rose.

You swallowed everything, like distance.
Like the sea, like time. In you everything sank!

It was the happy hour of assault and the kiss.
The hour of the spell that blazed like a lighthouse.

Pilot's dread, fury of blind driver,
turbulent drunkenness of love, in you everything sank!

In the childhood of mist my soul, winged and wounded.
Lost discoverer, in you everything sank!

You girdled sorrow, you clung to desire,
sadness stunned you, in you everything sank!

I made the wall of shadow draw back,
beyond desire and act, I walked on.

Oh flesh, my own flesh, woman whom I loved and lost,
I summon you in the moist hour, I raise my song to you.

Like a jar you housed infinite tenderness.
and the infinite oblivion shattered you like a jar

There was the black solitude of the islands,
and there, woman of love, your arms took me in.

There was thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit.
There were grief and ruins, and you were the miracle.

Ah woman, I do not know how you could contain me
in the earth of your soul, in the cross of your arms!

How terrible and brief my desire was to you!
How difficult and drunken, how tensed and avid.

Cemetery of kisses, there is still fire in your tombs,
still the fruited boughs burn, pecked at by birds.

Oh the bitten mouth, oh the kissed limbs,
oh the hungering teeth, oh the entwined bodies.

Oh the mad coupling of hope and force
in which we merged and despaired.

And the tenderness, light as water and as flour.
And the word scarcely begun on the lips.

This was my destiny and in it was my voyage of my longing,
and in it my longing fell, in you everything sank!

Oh pit of debris, everything fell into you,
what sorrow did you not express, in what sorrow are you not drowned!

From billow to billow you still called and sang.
Standing like a sailor in the prow of a vessel.

You still flowered in songs, you still brike the currents.
Oh pit of debris, open and bitter well.

Pale blind diver, luckless slinger,
lost discoverer, in you everything sank!

It is the hour of departure, the hard cold hour
which the night fastens to all the timetables.

The rustling belt of the sea girdles the shore.
Cold stars heave up, black birds migrate.

Deserted like the wharves at dawn.
Only tremulous shadow twists in my hands.

Oh farther than everything. Oh farther than everything.

It is the hour of departure. Oh abandoned one!

Pablo Neruda

Marilyn

Marrilyn Monroe photographed by Sam Shaw, 1957

whiling away the days...

I've been enjoying the sweet sounds of Lee Morse

after whiling away this weekend with wonderful friends

and devouring far too many sweet treats! Ah, the lovely thing 

about celebrating a Summertime Christmas and New Year is

the sheer abundance of sweet fruits on tree and table.

The trees are laden with plums again, which I am about to head

outside and pick, in the softer evening sunshine. 'Tis pickling 

and jamming season again and I am looking forward 

to some good old home preserving this week....

 I hope you have all been enjoying a wonderfully 

delightful holiday season!  One filled with delicious 

food, delightful visitors and decadent days... xo

You can listen to many of Lee's beautiful songs here

dress

"This was the first video I ever made. We shot it in a circus 

school called 'Fooltime' in Bristol on a 16mm Bolex camera. 

We could only afford to process 12 minutes of film, so bits 

of the film are repeated, played backwards and forwards! "

Mariano Mochnacz - Photographer/Video Maker

snap!

Viola Farber 1958

Yayoi Kusama 1968

This post is a direct transcription from 

a post by reference library.

Too good not to repeat it.  HaHa!

Hmmm.... 

I'll let you make up your own mind Yayoi

more strange and wonderful images here

The Dollhouse #7

This incredible Doll House, made by Paul Cumbie in 1883, 

was modelled on Petit Chateau (or The Vanderbilt House), 

an amazing chateuesque mansion built between 1878-82.

It was located at 660 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side in 

NYC, but sadly demolished in 1926 to make way for offices!

A Winter Garden

I've been spending quite a bit of time

...in our beautiful Winter Garden lately.

 I love the way some plants look 

when they've gone to seed. 

Weeds can be so beautiful sometimes, that 

I'm reluctant to pull their roots from the earth 

and make way for flowers. 

Our vegie beds are bare. We were exhausted by 

the Summer harvest and neglected to plant Winter crops. 

We've cleared the debris and turned the soil and I've 

been shelling the dried bean pods I harvested in Summer 

and selecting new heirloom varieties of foodplants.

Now all we have to do is wait a little... until the weather 

turns, and the rays of Spring begin to warm the soil.

This painting is by Audrey Kawasaki. 

So bittersweet. Like a winter garden.

A Beautiful Book

This has to be one of my all time favourite illustrated books but

it comes with a rather hefty price tag. I only own a diary version.

If you are feeling particularly affluent today it is available from

 Amazon.com

...lucky you! xox

Winter Blooms

 I was asked to create a bridal hairpiece for a friend recently.

I took a couple of quick pics in our garden, amid beautiful 

winter blooms, before sending the lovely thing on it's way.

I've posted some beautiful pictures from the wedding on 

A Modern Fable if you fancy a little peek into the day. xo

the butterfly hunter

"Does there not exist a high ridge where 

the mountainside of ‘scientific’ knowledge joins 

the opposite slope of ‘artistic’ imagination?" 

~ Vladimir Nabokov

"My pleasures are the most intense known to man: 

writing and butterfly hunting."

~ Vladimir Nabokov

Images taken from the field journals of Vladimir Nabokov

and found via this post and The New York Public Library.

The Russian Author, best known for his novel ' Lolita ' was 

also a distinguished Entomologist with a particular interest in
Lepidoptera (or moths and butterflies). Parts of his butterfly

collection and other items are kept in the Nabokov Museum.

Dolly LOVE

For my birthday tomorrow I'd love...

One of these beautiful living doll assemblages
created by Earth Sea Warrior

And a couple of these geometric terrariums... 

pretty pretty please? x

The Dollhouse #6

'Shell Cottage' 

from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two

Yes! They really built this... it really does exist. Read more here

I would love to have worked on costumes and sets for those films.

Hmmm...

Today we are baking Easter biscuits, watching Easter

movies and philosophising about the holiday...

image found via I've had dreams like that

What do bunnies, a holy spirit, chocolate eggs and little girls 

dancing with giant bugs have to do with Easter?  Who knows! 

I did try to research this image... but I got confused. 

I love this beautiful vintage picture postcard though.

It's so surreal, so dream-like.

I hope everyone's enjoying a most lovely Easter break. xo 

How Wild The Wind Blows

Indeed the weather has been wild and windy here lately, but 
with dashes of random sunshine and masses of butterflies.  

Wanderer Butterflies sipping nectar in our flower garden.

So I've been busying myself inside this week. In the studio.

Making, making making for shop 1 & shop 2 (opening soon),

taking photographs for my portfolio, making new artwork,

contemplating making some more sculptural pieces

and listening (a lot) to the music of Nick Drake.

It seems that Nick's mother was musically inclined too and

a couple of her homemade recordings have been doing the 

rounds on the internet lately.  This is possibly one of them...

How Wild The Wind Blows

An acorn carries an oak tree

Sleeping but for a little while;

Winter lies in the arms of spring

As a mother carries her child

And never knows

How wild the wind blows

A thought carries a universe

A seed carries a field of grain

Love lies in the arms of change

As a joy carries a pain

And noone knows

How wild the wind blows

written and sung by Molly Drake (?)

Eerie... and beautiful, even if it turns out not to be Molly's song. x

Georges Méliès in 3D

We finally went to see Hugo and it was really wonderful.

At first I thought the story was sweet but a little too contrived.

When we came home and I read up on the life of Georges Méliès, 

I found that it was almost as fantastical as Martin Scorsese's film.

I think, indeed, Scorsese's film does the Magician's art justice.

If only Méliès could have seen his dreams brought to life in 3D!

You can view the much referenced A Trip To The Moon here.

Sophie Blackall

I love Sophie Blackall's beautiful and quirky illustrations.

'We Shared a Bear Suit' from Sophie's book 

'Missed Connections' available at Amazon

Recently, I stumbled across an article at 'The Inside Source'

with some wonderful photographs of Sophie's home and lovely 

collection of inspirational objects and fantastical curiosities...

To quote the article...

"Blackall's Brooklyn home and studio are a window into her creative process. 

One step inside, and it’s like you’ve been transported into a Harry Potter novel 

or Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.  Blackall’s home, which 

she shares with her two children, is filled with carefully-curated, nearly-ghoulish 

oddities that don’t necessarily creep you out, but just like her illustrations, instead 
bring an odd smile to your face ....  in Blackall’s own words, her dwelling is 
something of a “Victorian Natural History Museum....”  you can view more here

Oh, I love it all! xox

Oh Mickey!

"I think of a child's mind as a blank book. During 

the first years of his life, much will be written on the pages. 

The quality of that writing will affect his life profoundly."

Walt Disney once said.

Following last weeks post I was reminded of this picture. 

It was a random moment. We happened to stop by this wall 

and Ari happened to be dressed just like a...  mouseketeer.  

Mickey, at all times?  No. 

We're not big on branding. 

Just another  'cute'  op shop find in my mind. 

I do like... stuff.  And, I confess, I do like... Mickey Mouse. 

Actually I like a lot of what Disney has made to offer,

I like Pixar and I like the early studio animation work. 

 But what is it exactly that appeals to me and so many 

about the 'Disney World'  and about THAT mouse? 

The mouse that roared is available here from Amazon
and this book puts forth some interesting ideas too.