Wednesday's Whimsy!

Katie has been working on some new watercolor cards...

Many of them are bundled in packets for distribution by

"Hearts United Against Cancer!"

The Companions... Coming Along!

Well, they are literally held together with stick pins...

but insisted on being photographed!

Tell me... is that an "Elvis" impersonator on the right?

(Ohhhh... I'm all shook up!)

These guys are ready for a base coat of raw umber...

And then some layering of multiple washes...

And then... assembling all of the little body parts! Tsk! Tsk!

Wabi Wednesday!

It is so transient: this newly fallen snow on century old brick

which is now repurposed as our patio.

Snow and ice grow old.

This peek must be a promise.

Don't be a "Doubting Thomas".

-Haiku poem

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Papers!

Mulberry papers always add such wonderful texture 

and interest to a paper maché project!

Some of the papers I used had skeletonized leaves embedded...

Other papers had various fibers and string...

The painted, crushed tulle will serve as scarves 

for these three companions.

(Did you notice their little red boots?)

What a hoot!

The Companions...Have Waist-Coats!

For so many of us, as doll-makers...

the entire journey and process of a doll "becoming" is sheer joy!

My "Companions Along the Journey" series 

have been no different in this respect.

They each have waist-coat jackets and sleeves 

(100% wool felt, which still need to be dyed) 

and funny little individual hats.  

Aren't the vintage spectacles a  hoot!

I think my favorite hat is the simple rectangle style 

that has been folded twice and then stitched along the back seam...

opened up like a little "Dutch" hat,  ink stamp and coffee-stained

with vintage buttons added to the corners.

Today I hope to cover their little boots with paper maché,

and then cover their little bodies with paper maché mulberry papers.  

"Wabi" Wednesday!

After publishing last week's "Wednesday's Whimsy"...

I realized that the whole notion of wabi-sabi is such an

integral part of my own life and creative journey, 

that a "Wabi-Wednesday" post would be far more meaningful 

(and fun) than a "Wednesday's Whimsy!" weekly post.

Soooo... all that being said: Why not have both!?!

That's my new plan: Offer either a weekly wabi-sabi photo

to inspire... or a bit of whimsy to revel in!

These three mottled oil cans sit atop a stately crackled

architectural piece on my work table... 

"There is an aching poetry in things that carry this patina!"

They Are Among Us...

They are among us...   "companions along the journey"

That's the name I've given to the newest mini-series 

of paper clay and maché dolls I am currently working on.

Are they "other-worldly" or simply "kindred spirits" (or both)?

The inspiration came from two very different sources:

“Some carried their burdens well, some did not. 

And some carried very heavy burdens with gallantry and grace.”  

(Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein)

and...

“I am a companion of all those who revere You...” 

(Psalm 119:63a, NASB)

This new series acknowledges those unassuming friends, 

who join us along life’s journey… 

while bringing a smile to our face and assurance to our heart!
And so, the journey begins... Daryle

Wabi... What?

Wabi-Sabi…  Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. It reminds us that we are all but transient beings on this planet-that our bodies as well as the material world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace liver spots, rust, and frayed edges, and the march of time they represent.

Generally speaking, wabi had the original meaning of sad, desolate, and lonely, but poetically it has come to mean simple, humble by choice, and in tune with nature. Sabi by itself means "the bloom of time." It connotes natural progression-tarnish, hoariness, rust-the extinguished gloss of that which once sparkled. It's the understanding that beauty is fleeting.

Sabi things carry the burden of their years with dignity and grace: the chilly mottled surface of an oxidized silver bowl, the yielding gray of weathered wood, the elegant withering of a bereft autumn bough. An old car left in a field to rust, as it transforms from an eyesore into a part of the landscape, could be considered America's contribution to the evolution of sabi. An abandoned barn, as it collapses in on itself, holds this mystique.

There's an aching poetry in things that carry this patina... x    

We Americans are ineffably drawn to old European towns with their crooked cobblestone streets and chipping plaster, to places battle scarred with history much deeper than our own. We seek sabi in antiques and even try to manufacture it in distressed furnishings. True sabi cannot be acquired, however. It is a gift of time.

(Excerpted from The Wabi-Sabi House by Robyn Griggs Lawrence)

Share the gift...   Daryle