Airy Spirits ~ Textile Art

Continuing with my new hobby love ~ a little more Textile Art, only this time, something with wings.

During the lock-down, due to Covid 19/Coronavirus, my brain got busy and spoke to my fingers, which began conjuring up butterflies. Although textile butterflies aren’t the easiest thing I’ve ever made, they’re mighty enjoyable, and all so precious when I’ve finished them. They all seem to have their own personalities, and they make me smile for one reason or another.

The Nectar Collector

Each one I’ve made is in a different fabric, and this particular one, called: The Nectar Collector; was made from Vintage Embroidered Fabric, which I tea stained then added a little ink to give it a warm peachy effect to the fabric itself

Why is this butterfly called: The Nectar Collector? Ah, well that’s an easy one to answer….

Butterflies ‘eat’ nectar and do so by the use of their ‘tongue’ – they have a long, curled proboscis, which is like a soft drinking straw, which uncoils to sip liquid food, and then coils up again into a spiral when the butterfly isn’t feeding.

But … what happens to all the nectar which the butterflies can’t reach, or miss because they don’t notice it?

Well, *I’m reliably informed by the Fairies which live in Cobweb Wood*, that there are special butterflies whose job it is to go around foraging for all the left over nectar which can be found on flowers, and collect it in special bottles. They then take it back to ‘Nectar Central’, where each of the bottles of nectar are dated, stored on shelves and saved for use on days when it’s too cold to go out or too windy, too blustery or those rainy days when the weather isn’t suitable for delicate Butterfly wings.

*Once all this was explained to me* it totally made sense, as I’m sure it does to you too, now that I’ve explained it to you!

The underside of a Butterflys wings are just as important as the tops, but for a totally different reason. The underside of a butterfly wing is actually called ‘The Ventral Side’. This ventral (under) side is more often than not, used for camouflage so that it can avoid being dinner for some passing bird or frog.

And the importance of the Ventral Side of the wings was important to me too. After all … I don’t want some passing frog to eat the Nectar Collector! So it clearly states on the underside of it’s wings that this butterfly isn’t for chomping on – for this is a Cobwebs Butterfly!

The tops of butterfly wings are used for signalling to another butterfly that the butterfly rather likes them and would like to marry them. (*That’s how it was explained to me, anyhow*).

Before this particular butterfly takes flight and leaves me, when it’s found it’s forever home, there will be a very tiny button sewn to the underside – of a particular colour and shape, which will have a special meaning. An explanation of the meaning of that button, will be sent along with him, so that he can be treasured for the treasure he actually is.

Now before I sign off …

I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU – to all who replied and commented on my last post [<— clickable link] and who helped me – because I was near to being a big melted down mess on the floor, and BIG THANKS to those who gave me hints, tips and guidance on how to use the new block editor that WordPress have forced upon us.

As you can see, with your help, I have made a post! [a roar of cheers can be heard from all over the land].

I can’t say that I like the new editor, because I don’t. I REALLY don’t.

• It has no spellcheck;
• No ‘update’ button;
• It won’t colour selected words in a paragraph – but simply colours all the words in that paragraph. (Unless you know a trick to that … and if you do, please share it with me);
• It has pop up boxes which appear out of nowhere and block the view of what you want to see – which I’m sure are meant to be helpful, when the time is right – but they’re a darn nuisance!;
• Things are hidden behind unknown ‘terms’ and names;
• Silly symbols which mean diddly squat to regular, not unintelligent users!;
• Everything about it is so darn tiresome and seems to need an abundance of clicks to do the simplest thing–
• even changing the colour of the words isn’t the one click it used to be!

The new system is clunky, silly, old fashioned in many ways, behind the times and boringly, stupidly long winded.

It truthfully feels like the coding has been written by a junior member of staff instead of someone who knows what she/he is actually doing. It’s taken me a lot longer than I would normally have spent building a post – but . . . at least I now have a post, after lots of help from other WordPress users.

My sincere thanks to you all – for without you, I truthfully would have thrown the towel in and given up. Bless each and every one of you.

Thank you so much for coming today and sharing a coffee and some time with me, while I introduced you to the Nectar Collector – who is the first of my Airy Spirits. I love seeing you here, and love chatting with you all. So please feel welcome to leave a comment. It doesn’t have to be a huge comment, just say hello – because it’s always so nice to know who I’m chatting with.

And …. before I sign off, there HAS to be some Monday jokes:-

Q:- Where are average things manufactured?

A:- The satisfactory.

~~~ ❤ ~~~

Q:- What does Charles Dickens keep in his spice rack?

A:- The best of thymes, the worst of thymes.

~~~ ❤ ~~~

Q:- What do you call an apology written in dots and dashes?

A:- Re-Morse code.

~~~ ❤ ~~~

Q:- What do you call a rooster staring at a pile of lettuce?

A:- A chicken sees a salad.

~~~ ❤ ~~~

Just before I sign off … although I’ve been commenting on blogs over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been told by various bloggers that they’ve found my comments in their spam folders – so … please check your spam folders, as a comment or two might just be hiding there.

Have a wonderful Monday, and a truly blessed week. Sending love and squidges through the ether to you ….

* the ASTERISK * marked * statements [above] may or may not be entirely, exactly d’ twufe, d’ whole twufe and nuffin but d’ twufe. But I’m absolutely certain dere is some sort of twufe.

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The Copper Topped Lavender Mob

I promised, last week, to share with you some Textile Art, made by yours truly. [grins]  – So,  Ladles and Jellyspoons,  may I introduce  …  The Copper Topped Lavender Mob.

Three enchanted mushrooms mounted on a piece of aged, half round, wood which was cut and sanded smooth for me by Mr.Cobs.

The wood was treated and sealed, and then finished in a way that I love – it has a soft sheen to it and it’s as smooth as a baby’s you know what!    It has a beautiful softness and warmth about it, and picks out the various shades of natures gift.

The mushrooms began life as part wire armature, with a selection of fabrics which go through a process of:  washing,  – dying,  – staining,  –  then a lot of sewing,  followed by colouring with a type of fabric paint,  and finally, finished with whatever I felt the mushrooms needed in order to bring them to life.  Everything is sewn by hand – even the gills (on the underside) are all hand pleated and stitched into place.   Likewise the frills on the mushroom stalks are sewn and stitched in place by hand.

It’s not a quick craft, but it’s certainly one I’ve fallen deeply in love with.

The end result from all the work and an abundance of patience,  is something magical, normally seen only in The Land of the Fae.

Although they look quite solid – they actually aren’t.  They do have a gentle stiffness to them – after all, I needed them to hold their shape and be the piece of artwork I wanted them to be.  But when you touch them, they have a ‘give’ or a slight ‘bounce’ – just like the regular mushrooms you buy from the supermarket or greengrocer have.

The green stuff clambering over the wooden base …  isn’t moss…  well no actually, it is, but it’s not real moss.  But the stones and stone chippings …. well they are real.  As are the trail of teeny tiny oak tree leaves.  Yes, they really are real.  How did you harvest oak leaves so small? [I hear you ask] ….  Well, what else would you expect from the Land of Fae?   Tiny fairies,   tiny trees,  teeny tiny oak leaves.  Naturally!

The ‘Copper Tops’ aren’t real copper (of course), the fabulous colour comes from them being blessed by the Sun.  These mushrooms grow in the woodland areas of The Land of Fae, and like nothing more than stretching their necks right up, in order to catch some of the sun rays, ~  from which they get their coppery sun tan! 

Oh, and of course … as artists of the world do …  the Copper Topped Lavender Mob are signed on the underside of the base ….

…. and the Union Jack nestled in the base is there to show they are UK mushrooms, produced in the United Kingdom by a UK artist!

These photographs don’t truly show the incredibleness of this little gang of three,  the pictures don’t share their magic;  nor their extraordinary twinkles which happen when the light catches various parts of them;  neither do the photos share the unbelievable glow they have!  I roped Mr.Cobs in to see if he could capture their amazing magical glow which my camera couldn’t….

photograph by Mr. Cobs

Mr.C took the Lavender Mob outside and perched them on the bird bath, hoping that the natural light would enable photos to show exactly how lovely they are.  Sadly it didn’t work.  It would seem that only the naked eye can see these majestic little creatures in all their glory.

I had the most amazing, enjoyable pleasure making these wondersome creations and they encouraged and motivated me to continue my journey with Textile Art.

But … the next magical makes are to be shared another time, for I’ve kept you here more than long enough.

The Copper Topped Lavender Mob have already gone to their forever home.  Daughter No.2 saw them and fell in love with them, so they now live with her, and her husband, and my magical grandson, Little Cobs.  And it’s the strangest thing.  but I feel bereft.  It’s kind of like having a child leave home.  I miss their presence. 

But … now it’s time to go.  

Hmmm ,,,  – hang on –  …  there’s something I’m forgetting  … [thinks] … oh crumbs!  It’s the JOKES….

These are the Jokes Folks!

What do you call a parade of rabbits hopping backwards?

A receding hare-line!

~~~ ❤ ~~~

What rhymes with Orange?

No it doesn’t.

~~~ ❤ ~~~

Why can’t you hear a pterodactyl dinosaur go to the toilet?

Because the ‘p’ is silent.

~~~ ❤ ~~~

I’ll be back with some more Textile Art in the next blog post – only next time it will be something a little different.  Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee moment with me.  Have a beautiful Monday, and a truly blessed week.  

Much love and and a bunch of squidges ~ 

 

 

Eloquent Acorns! They speak to you!

I love Acorns – and Pine Cones – and Broken Branches – and Conkers – and Sycamore Seeds (or as Daughters 1 and 2 used to call them:  Helicopters), – and Conkers (seeds of  the horse chestnut tree)  – and … well anything which trees give to us.  They’re all such wonderful gifts from Nature and given to us freely.  So making an Acorn project is an absolute joy!

These particular Acorns aren’t  ‘fallen from a tree’  Acorns.  These are cut and turned pieces of hard wood, shaped into beautiful little Acorns, sanded smooth and ready for me to do something wonderful with.  So I did.  I gave each Acorn a voice of its own and brought forth the positivity which I could feel just from holding the Acorn in my hand.

It was the oddest thing, but with each acorn I could feel a real feeling of uplifting comfort;  encouragement;  calmness;  peaceful and peace filled,   and .. oh … what felt like a hundred different feelings of wonderfulness.  I began to notice that upon holding each acorn in the palm of my hand, I would get a different word pop into my mind.  So I began to write the words down on my note pad.  And, as you can see from the photo’s – now, each acorn travels with its own word emblazoned on its little nut!

Each of the Acorns is meant as symbol of encouragement and positivity. 

Acorns really are little miracles.

I know that people now are too cynical and don’t believe in miracles, or there are some who are of the belief that miracles are the work of a dark force.  Whereas I …  aw,  I see miracles happen every single day.

This summer, I’ve watched the baby squirrels born in the tree tops, in the garden of Cobweb Cottage,  leave their nest,  with mommy in attendance,  and learn to carefully scramble down and back up the tree again.  I watched them day after day, slowly learn to race up and down the huge, tall pine trees, and laugh and cackle and ‘bark’ at each other as they’ve learnt to jump the wide spaces from one tree to another.  All the time they were keeping an eye on Miss Maisie the Cat who cannot understand how these strange, chattering creatures can move so fast!  And there I am,  stood in the garden,  giving thanks for being in the right place, at the right time, to witness the miracle of baby squirrels growing up and learning how to do what they were doing,  and smiling all the time, feeling blessed, because I was watching this miracle of nature.

I’ve sat in my craft room in the garden, and watched a Magpie learn how to play and get a bit of fun by standing on the high ridge of the Cottage and drop a pebble so that it bounces over and over down the roof and then finally hits the conservatory roof and flies off onto the decking where it makes a combined noise of ‘PLOP’ and ‘CRACK’.  And that Magpie LOVES his game.  So much so that he pops off, finds another pebble then comes back and goes through the whole game all over again.  Now … call me daft, but in my mind, him teaching himself this game is a little miracle to me, and I watch him in wonderment, all the time grinning like a fool – so much so that my face begins to ache!

I’ve heard baby birds in our nest boxes, emerging from their eggs and screeching for their food, when they hear the mommy bird land on the nest box with a beak filled with wriggling insects.  The miracle of life.  Nature.  Every day!  FREE!

Nature sends us Postcards all day every day, but unless you look up and see these Postcards then you’ll miss them and not see the Miracles that these Postcards hold.

And likewise …  Acorns are, for me at least, a Postcard.  And these Acorns, are my version of those postcards.  My interpretation, if you like.

Each one has a completely different, uplifting, positive, word of encouragement and meaning.  No two are the same.

They can be popped into your bag or your pocket and taken with you wherever you go.  Or, because they come with a ribbon on them,  they could be hung on a Christmas Tree, or a metal hanger, or maybe one of those crocodile grip/note holders on your desk.  Or simply put somewhere you want them to be, so that you see them now and again and they remind you of their message.

I have to admit that these weren’t a quick make.  I’ve been making these over the past few weeks, doing a bit now and again, then waiting until I can get to the next stage.  I knew how I wanted them to look so had already planned out how to get there.  But …  they did take rather longer than I would have liked.  

What’s that thing Confucius said about going slowly?  …  …  … 

“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”

Yeah  …. that about sums up life here in Cobweb Cottage.  🙂  Wise man, that Confucius.

Well, that’s me done and dusted.  Now let’s get to the important bit . . .

How the dickens are you?

Is life treating you kindly?  Is everything fine and groovy in your world, or is something causing you a bit of trouble?  Feel free to unburden yourself and if I can help in any way, or suggest something you might not have thought of then I will.  If I can’t help then I’ll sit with you and just hold your hand.

If someone is bothering you, then you tell me who they are and I’ll put on my boots and come and sort them out!!  I might be little, but when I’m roused I am MIGHTY!  (and I can control a classroom of  noise makers  even when their own teacher can’t – simply by saying  …..  “ERMmmmm  Excuse ME??!!!!!”  In the right way, right tone, and right volume.  And yet … they all still love me afterwards.  LOL! – yes, it’s really true!).  So coming and sorting someone out for you will be a walk in the park!

BUT …  if life is treating you kindly and you’ve won a few pounds on the lottery (or couple of dollars), then do tell because I can then laugh with you as we plan your spending trip!  Maybe you’ve made a new friend?  Got a new job?  New baby?  New House? (Rabbit 🙂 ).  New car?  Old car back from the garage but with a lower bill than you expected?

Whatever it is, if it’s happening or on your mind, then share and/or unburden and we’ll have a coffee together and chew it over.  Oh…  and I have biscuits – so we can chew on those too!

For now, I must thank you so very much for coming, and for spending a coffee moment with me.  I’m so happy to see you here.  Seriously so.  You make the internet such a great place for me to be  . . . and I know that for some folks, it can be a bloomin’ nightmare!  So thank you.  You’re amazing.

Sending much love to you my fabulous blog friend, and wishing you a truly wonderful day.

 

#Inkober2017 Magical Binoculars.

I read a quote by a man I hadn’t heard of before, Wayne Dyer.   I made such a connection with the quote,  that ‘Magical Binoculars’ became the inking you see in the photograph.

If you could have magical binoculars that you could focus and look at the field of intention, you would see what the source of all things looks like.   It’s a source of love and kindness and beauty and creativity, and it’s a source that excludes nothing and it’s a source of unlimited abundance.

Wayne Dyer.

Isn’t that lovely?  If you don’t get the ‘lovely’ first time, read it again. Read it as many times as you need to in order to use your own internal Magical Binoculars, and not only see what that quote is saying, but to feel it too.

If you look at the InkTober picture for today you’ll see a pretty standard view of a scene, looking out from a beach, as night is falling.  It’s not dark, but it’s not light.  You can still see the land and the edge of the sea in the distance, but you can’t really see anything other than that.

#InkTober2017 ~  Magical Binoculars, by Cobwebs @ The Cobweborium Emporium.  Photograph taken with the flash.

Photograph taken without the flash.

But …  what do you suppose would happen if you looked through the Magical Binoculars?  What might you see then?  What wonders would open up for you, I wonder?

Would you see the birds, flying in the sky, having one last stretch of their wings before going home to bed?

Could you see the man, stood on the end of that land in the distance, with his fishing rod in his hand?

Would you perhaps see the Mermaid, playing in the moonlight?

Who knows … for your sight may be different from mine.  Perhaps you will focus your eyes in a different direction. Perhaps you will lift your eyes to the sky above and see the Gates of Heaven.  Would you maybe, see the Angel?  Or perhaps you will look to the Edge of the Sea, in the distance, and see what is there and has been there all the time, but we miss it because we don’t use our Magical Binoculars.

Magical Binoculars. #InkTober 2017

The inks I used for this drawing were: 

• Black Ink
• Brown Ink
• Teal Drawing Ink
• Metallic Drawing Ink in Rose Gold and Silver (see pic. below)
• Yellow Drawing Ink
• Blue Ink

… in addition, I used a white Jelly Roll Pen for the highlights on the Magical Binoculars, and a tiny amount of Acrylic white paint in order to help the moon and clouds to be what I wanted them to be.  But apart from that, everything else you see is ink.

Use your Magical Binoculars today.  See if you can find the things you might normally miss because you’re too busy,  or not see at all, even though they’re right there, under your nose!

Wishing you a Magical Monday.

 

 

 

Beautiful Words make a wonderful gift.

I am very rarely given anything handmade by someone else, which is such a huge sadness to me because I love handmade things.  So imagine my heart soaring surprise when my fantastic delivery lady brought me this incredible work of heart.

Made from Scrabble letter tiles, to spell out the words – but not just any words.  They’re words which she associates with us.  It must have taken an age to plan it out,  and work out how to make the right words work with each other.  It’s such a truly wonderful work of art and I’m thrilled to have it – so much so that I’m in awe of it.

The ‘cobweb’ is made from sparkly, twinkly black wool and is so beautifully done!  She even went to the great trouble of making the fabulous backing paper herself!  I love it, and love my delivery lady too.  She’s the most incredible lady and I’m so very lucky to have her.  She’s always so happy, so cheerful, so quick to smile, so caring,  and … I love her to pieces just for being the person she is.

I should have actually shared this some weeks ago when I first received it, but between one thing and another I didn’t manage to get it to the blog here.  But better late than never, as they say.  This phenomenal gift lives in my craft room and hangs on the wall above my printer where I see it every time I enter and leave the room.  It makes me feel all warm and loved up when I see it  – as it’s kind of a visible validation that someone cares enough about me to take the time and trouble to make something so very special, just for me .  It’s an instant warmth to the heart and smile to the face.

Well, I hope everything in your world is groovy (cooo … there’s a word from several years ago!).  Do let me know you’ve visited simply by chatting in a comment.  I’ll always reply.  You don’t have to chat about my word art gift if you don’t want to.  Tell me what you’ve been up to or even where you’re going on holiday if you like.  Anything!  Chatting in blog-land is such a fabulous thing to do as it gets us all talking to each other, and that, in this day and age of technology and 140 miserable Twitter characters,  can only be a good thing!

In the meantime … have a truly blessed day and …  thank you so much for coming and spending a few minutes with me.  ❤

 

I’ll Rope You A Star ~ a handmade, little stars, Wand.

Did you know … that a Wand isn’t in the least bit magical?  It can’t do a thing.  It has absolutely NO power. NOTHING.  Let me explain more . . .

All a wand actually is,  is a ‘tool’ on which to focus your attention.  Believe me, if wands themselves really could do ‘stuff’ all on their own, I certainly wouldn’t collect the pretty wands which I do! (or any other sort of wand for that matter!).

Let me take you back to your school days.    Imagine for a moment that you’re sat in the classroom, and you’re giggling and whispering with the girl next to you.  Suddenly the teacher’s voice BOOMS out, and shouts your name!  You look up and see him standing there, with a cross face,  hands on hips.  He looks right at you,  gives you a stern telling off and tells you that you’re disrupting his class.

Embarrassing eh?

Now let’s replay that scene again . . . 

The teacher’s voice  BOOMS  out, and shouts your name!  You look up and see your teacher standing there pointing his index right at you.  He’s looking very cross.  Looking directly at you but still pointing his finger at you, shaking it the merest amount, he raises his voice and tells you off, – all the time he’s doing this he continues to point that finger at you.

Can you see (and feel)  how much more ‘menacing’ the whole scene becomes simply because he’s pointing his finger at you?

That finger doesn’t have anything magical about it, and yet it seems to hold so much more ‘power’.

That’s exactly the same as a wand.  All a finger pointing at you is doing is focusing your attention.  (and the person who’s pointing at you’s attention).  A wand is exactly the same thing.   It just focus’ the attention.

Well now I’ve blathered on about how wands don’t have any power, you can perhaps now understand why they don’t ‘freak’ me out, and even why I love to make pretty, magical to the eye, wands!   And this  ‘Rope a Star’ wand is magical to the eye.

The inspiration for this wand came from my childhood.  My mother used to tell me a poem, song, or story (I sadly can’t remember which) when I was little, but I do remember that I loved it.  Sadly I cannot remember what the story, song, poem was – and my mother has passed on, so I can’t ask her about it – but I remember a line from it which went something like:  ‘I’ll throw a rope out and rope a star just for you’ …  and that line conjured up such wonderful images inside my little mind,  and it still does now.

So I decided that I would throw a rope out and rope a star –  but this time I’d make mine a rope which wrapped itself around a wand, and the stars would hang from the wand itself.

There are little silver stars which dangle from lot’s of places on the wand, and there’s a crescent moon with stars hanging from the heel of the wand (at the top end as you’re looking at it in the photo.  The ribbon and star cuff around the top of the wand is removable.

Over the years I’ve tried to find the poem, song or story which mentions this ‘roping in a star’ and I’ve never found it.  But if you happen to know it or know where to find it, I’d be thrilled if you could either let me know or pop a link into a comment so that I could go and find it.

Have a truly blessed rest of your day, all,  . . .  and a fabulously twinkly, star lit night. 

Even a Fairy has to have Shoes!

 The Cobweborium Emporium welcomes you into the Realm of the Fae, where magic can be marvelled and wonderment rules.

 

Here is where Once upon a Time comes back to life . . .

Bodwink’s Faery Boots
handmade
by
Cobwebs

Many years ago  I was taught to sculpt in heavy, grey Stoneware Clay and I remember one day,  my teacher coming to my work bench and seeing at what I was sculpting he smiled warmly at me and said  “… it’s all in the details for you, isn’t it.“.   He’d noticed, over time, something that I hadn’t realised before,  –  I loved to make tiny little extra additions to all my sculpts.   It was a lightbulb moment for me!  Before this I just thought I was just doing finishing touches to any sculpts I produced,  because they seemed to bring my sculpted things to life.

I began to look for a medium which would allow me to sculpt little things.   Although Stoneware is amazing – it’s a little too gritty to make the smooth surfaces I wanted in my small things.  I found a particular mix of polymers was the perfect thing and these tiny Fairy Shoes came out of my fingers about 9 years ago.

I christen all of my handmade shoes with the name of the Faery, Fairy, Elf or any other inhabitant of the Faery Realm who wears the shoes or boots which I make.   These,  are Bodwinks Boots.

They measure less than one and a half inches long,  and they have a finish to them which makes them look like they’ve been spray painted in pearlescent paint.  Very twinkly, with a depth which suggests they’re ‘other worldly’.

Bodwink’s Faery Boots
made
by
Cobwebs

While you’re here … and I’ve got your attention ..   I’m figuring that you perhaps like Fairy or magical type things since you’re reading this blog post, and if so I would love to share with you something which I’ve held dear to my heart for years.  There is a company called Duirwaigh (it means ‘door way’) who produced a mini film called: A Knock at the Door

This was Duirwaigh’s first inspirational mini-film. It contains beautiful works of art from a range of fantasy artists, combined with some beautiful, inspiring text that leads the viewer of the film back to the magical place inside themselves.

From their website:  “A Knock at the Door takes us to the beginning and end of every journey; a place of wonder and innocence, but above all a place of remembering – to the most magical secret place of all – the place of believing.”

Sit back, relax and watch the movie.  Your inner child will thank you for doing it.  

 

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day.  ~