Flowers On Silk

I am learning silk painting for use as backgrounds for my art. I have made two pieces so far. They were both done using different techniques. I like the bottom one more, as far as backgrounds go. The top picture has more detail and work, as you can see!

Hydrangea, delphinium, cosmos, dogwood, and sweet potato vine are some of the plants used to create this picture on hand painted silk.

On this hand painted silk background I used queen anne's lace, salvia, verbena and geranium
sweet potato vine and cosmos to create the "meadow" and butterfly.

Just an update on those caterpillars. I am just having fun watching these critters grow. New art to follow soon.

Look how big they are in only a few days!

Garden Visitors

I wasn't born a gardener. Neither of my thumbs were green. But when I discovered my love for creating art from flowers and nature, I had no choice but to plant a garden. I didn't know a pansy from a petunia back then. I am still learning. I have come to love my garden, with all of it's faults. One of the things I enjoy most are finding things I am not looking for.

Today was finally the perfect day to do some garden clean up. While I was ripping out unwanted weeds, and thinning through over grown wild things I spotted first, just one Black Swallowtail caterpillar (larva).

While in past years I have had one, maybe two of the interesting caterpillars on my fennel plant, I had never seen one this young. I have only seen them when they are green. At first I wasn't sure it was a swallowtail, but knew I would research it later.

Then while my ripping out of unwanted things continued, I reached down to pull some fennel that was sprouting but instead found two more of these caterpillars.

I went in to the computer to clarify that these were indeed swallowtail larvae, some, maybe just a few days old. Then I thought of all of the Queen Anne's Lace and Fennel I had discarded. Sure enough after an hour of carefully inspecting it all I rescued three more larvae.

This is also a Black Swallowtail larva, in an older stage than the small black ones.

My garden was a fun place to be on this cloudy day. I had so many visitors.

She wouldn't stay still long enough for a good picture, perhaps it was the dog and camera that were chasing her.


He's hiding there, knowing he is not allowed in the garden!

Cafe' Brandi

I was working on this piece for a long time...a friend asked me to make it a while back. I kept waiting for the right idea, or inspiration.

When I finally decided to do a collage, things went together more easily.

I made cups from leaves, flowers and hand made papers.

I added trim, flowers, words and more. I kept adding until I was happy with the result:
"Cafe' Brandi" - A Pressed Flower Coffee Collage!

Flowers And Glitter

I am working on some big projects right now, but took a break to make a few cards this week. I was curious to see how the glitter would look on these. I am happy with the results.