Wren's Nest

A Happy Accident

One of my new favorite things to do is collaging. So, I made a few and then decided to go the distance and beeswax them. Hmmm...I did it ok in class, but wow - did things go wrong. I'm not even sure what exactly. I think my wax wasn't hot enough. Anyway - I went from having some collages I liked well enough to complete messes. Tears were shed. Cooler heads (my husband) prevailed. Bring on the heat...

I blow dried them. The heat melted the wax and I scraped it off with a razor blade. What I discovered while doing that, is that, I didn't want to remove all the wax - I like how they looked with some wax - I liked how they looked scraped and some areas got darker and looked almost burned - very antique! So, what was a disaster - became ok. I mean, in the end, if they had been ruined - so what? (OK, if you know me at all, you KNOW that "so what" is not in my nature), but since it didn't come to that - it's easy to laugh about it now!

 

 

 

 

Inspirations

I'm feeling pretty inspired lately...these are some books that I'm loving right now! Such amazing art and inspiration within their covers!

First up is Kaari Meng's new book "Treasured Notions". I'm blessed to be going to France with the group she takes every summer. I can't wait to meet the woman who creates such amazing things and such beautiful books - the photography alone is inspirational - I love the look of her books (and I have them all).

Next is a book I found at Dick Blick's - it's chock full of patterns - fabric, paper, etc. Plus, you get a cd with some of the patterns on it, so you can print out your own background papers or whatever you like.

Here's an example (which is blurry, but I'm not retaking it - you get the idea). Everything from French to '30's styles are here.

 

Last, but NOT LEAST is THIS beauty. I saw a copy at my Anna Corba class and made copies of some of the pages to use in collage, but I was on a mission to find one for myself and here it is. I found it online at a used bookshop in Texas (I believe). It's over the top full of designs from the different periods in French design - including, chairs, beds, rooms, gardens, cookware,fabric, dishes - I could spend hours looking at!

 

Some examples

Fabrics

Chairs

 

Soup Tureen Lids

 

Flatware
So cool! I'm off to keep reading!

4 More 39 Squares

 

I'm so far behind in my 39 Squares Project. I have a few more than this done, but the pictures didn't turn out (even these are blurry), so I'll have to show those another day. It's been hard to get to stitching lately with the new pup...who'd have thought something so small would cause so much work!