“Leaves are the glowing gems that inspires our art, enraptures out hearts, and enriches our gardens. Once the leaves start falling, they are a wealth of carbon and organic matter to be carefully gathered, and later we take up their nutrients through our vegetables, and make them one with us. You are all Oak Trees, and Maples, and Sycamores, and Poplars.”…David Shane Odom

Click on the photo below to visit Shane’s shop on Etsy and see some of his wonderful masks!

I use leaves as inspiration in my artwork, preferring to spend my time outdoors putting about in the woods looking for treasures like the one’s Shane has collected above. Thank you Shane for the lovely woodland visit today!

Have a fantastic Friday all and share with me your inspirations!

When life gets in the way (and head) of an artist, that finely tuned thing we refer to as creativity, muse, or inspiration will often grind to a screeching halt.  “Things” had gotten into the way of my “flow” as I like to call it. Family responsibilities, employment woes, you name it, I allowed it all to overwhelm me and each time I sat down to work all I could see were my problems.

Fortunate to have a place to retreat to away from everything, I packed up some clothes, clay, sundry crafty bits, and high tailed it to the mountains of Maine

For two days I sat on the screened porch that overlook the mountains and listened to nothing more than the whisper of wind through the trees and birds who were ever busy at the feeders in the yard. I was an observer to the busy forest life that went on around me as if I were invisible. There are so few places nowadays where you can witness the rhythm of nature uninterrupted like this, and here it’s a magical thing.

Birds tending to their young, deer coming to the lake to drink, the whimsical otter that busily swims back and forth searching for a tasty mussel, the whippoorwill who sings as the last light of day disappears.

Mountain storms blow throw with a fierceness that is scary at times, and the wind howls like a freight train through the forest, and yet if I were not here it would still go on. I am just honored to share the experience, an observer.

I thought about the birds particularly after a fierce mountain storm the other night. All during the day they were at the feeders with their young, back and forth and as the storm approached they slowly disappeared to take shelter. The forest became quiet and as the wind came through, and then the rain, I wondered how they fared. When the storm had passed and the rain subsided slowly, you could hear the symphony start up again and within minutes they were back at the feeders as if it had never rained at all. And I realized that to the birds the storm was an inconvenience, nothing more, and they stayed right on track with what they had been doing before.

So I sat down to my table I have set up here and began to create once again. My muse was back. This time taking it in stride that I’ll run into a metaphoric mountain storm now and then, but maybe this time I’ll view it as an inconvenience and continue down the path I’m traveling in Nature’s stride.

Thanks for visiting!

I miss sculpting these miniature fantasy pieces and will add her into my Etsy shop along with more wearable art pieces.

I’m also working on a pair of Nature Spirit earrings for my April giveaway coming up soon. I’ve not done earrings with the faerie faces before so these should be a treat. Add to that they are Birch leaves and very sacred leaves to faerie and pagan culture, and with Beltane coming up will be a wonderful addition to someone’s wardrobe. Here’s a sneak peak of them in progress!

In between taking care of my grandsons, and dodging snowflakes I’ve been mixing new batches of clay and pressing leaves for new pieces.   Sometimes it’s fun to experiment with the clay to see how far you can take it with color or strength.  I use Kato clay for it’s durability and strength, plus it has a nice “give” to it also that is good in wearable art pieces.

I tried Lumina for the first time and have mixed feelings about it.   It is very flexible and can take quite a bit of stress, but it’s not easy to draw on and has a rubbery feel to it.  I may explore using it on a bracelet cuff idea I’ve been tossing about in my brain.  The white leaves in the pics are Lumina.   Next batch I will color and see how it takes.

The fun part comes next when I’ll pull a few leaf pieces that appeal to me and see what kind of spirit face they’ll have.   My next post will be work in progress pics.

Stay warm, stay safe, and don’t forget February 28th we’ll be drawing someone to receive my Pixie Led Necklace!