Dulcimer Doll

Nathaniel, my 12-year-old brother, who plays the mountain dulcimer, was in need of a Christmas ornament for his dulcimer group's gift exchange. So I made him this one. The doll is just one of those normal ones that I make dozens of. The dulcimer is brown mat board colored with a marker and hot glued together. The fret board is cardboard with pen marks for the frets. The strings are made from sewing thread with wire tuning pegs. It really doesn't take long to give something an extra touch.

O Holy Night

Recent Art Work

My 4-year old sister Autumn's birthday cake - October 17th.

My 6-year old brother Asher's birthday cake - October 22nd.

My 2-year old brother Eli's birthday cake - November 18th.

The Harvest Festival

Here is a slideshow of my biggest art show of the year. It happened last Saturday. It went well.

Autumn

Autumn is my dad’s and my mom’s favorite season. Hence, my 4-year-old sister, who was born in October, is named Autumn. Autumn enjoys helping me find “bootiful” leaves for my pictures.

This picture is made of: Japanese maple, Queen Anne’s lace and cotton.

Here's my "bootiful" sister -- the real Autumn.

Weekend Events

This weekend I will be demonstrating and selling my corn husk dolls at these two separate events:

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Friday and Saturday, November 5-6, 2010

(I'll only be there on Friday)

Nacoochee Valley Farm Ole Fashion Farm Field Days

9:00 AM - 7:00 PM

This event will feature horse, mule, oxen farm work demonstrations as well as bluegrass music, art, pottery, barbecue and horse drawn vehicle transportation from parking lot to barn, field and vendor areas.
Nacoochee Valley Farm utilizes horse drawn farm equipment for field work and has free range hens, sheep, cattle, and hogs. This event is located at Nacoochee Valley Farm. For more information click HERE.

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YOU ARE VERY WELCOME TO COME TO EITHER OR BOTH EVENTS!

11 Corn Husk Dolls

I had a very good trip to Michigan. My grandpa made a nice working set up for me in the garage, where I made corn husk dolls. Above is a slideshow of the 11 dolls. Of course I wasn't just making corn husk dolls the whole time. The trip was peppered with activities and nice times visiting with family.

Talk To You Later

Yes, this is the first time I've made a corn husk doll holding a cell phone... or any electronic device for that matter. I was asked to make a pink corn husk doll holding a cell phone, so I made a pink corn husk doll holding a cell phone. She is going with us for our family trip to Michigan. We're leaving tomorrow and returning Wednesday. This doll is going to live with a friend of my grandparents up there. If you need to get a hold of the doll or me while we're gone, just call one of our cell phones.

Animal Hair

In the past, when I've wanted to illustrate sheep I'd use cotton balls for the wool. But lately I've been using real sheep wool to illustrate my sheep wool. It's really nice to work with. I ordered it off of the Little Barn website. While I was there I also got some camel hair to experiment with.

Here is one way I used the camel hair.

I bought it with my corn husk camels in mind but it also works for human hair.

I still did use some for my camel hair. I also mixed in some maiden grass.

I have more nativity pieces to post later.

Passionflower Pressing Procedure

Isn't this an exquisite passionflower?

One might want to preserve such a flower, but the flower is a bit too thick and a bit too moist. And so the dissecting begins.

First, cut off that little triangle thing on the top and set it aside.

Then cut off the yellow star looking thing.

You may put those two parts in a flower press.

Now this is what you're working with.

Flip it over and cut down into the back, removing the thick circle. This takes out extra thickness and moisture.

Like this.

You can throw away the circle you've pulled out.

Now there is a hole that you can see through in the middle. It will be covered after it's pressed and your re-assemble the flower.

Now you're ready to put all the pieces in a press the way you would any other flower, with the exception being that you should also put some desiccant board in the press with them. I think it pulls extra moisture from the flowers.

After they're all pressed and dried you can glue the three pieces back together again, and you'll have a pressed passionflower.

Brook Trout

I wanted to make my brook trout consistent with my brown trout, so naturally I wanted them both mounted on the same kind of cloth. But to my surprise, I couldn't find any more of the cloth that I had used for the brown trout. I know it just looks like plain black in the picture but it has a velvet-like texture and a sparkle to it. I looked through containers and through my closet where I thought I might have leftovers, but found none. So Dad took me to the thrift store, where I hoped to find some. But, really, how likely is it to find black, velvet sparkly material that matches the background of another fish? Well, the likelihood of it didn't matter. God provided me with the perfect material. The two fish backgrounds look like they were cut out of the same material. And as a bonus, I picked up some of the same material in brown, which looked useful. All of the material came in the form of second-hand skirts. God provides.

This picture is made of: money plant, onion peel, delphinium, corn husk, pansy, tendrils, black hollyhock, sea moss, lettuce, skeletonized leaves, cotton, aucuba and mica.

Corn Husk Nativities

Brown Trout

My dad has been an avid fishermen since he was a young boy. Now writing fishing articles for magazines is how he makes the family living. Trout are probably one of my favorite types of pictures to make. I enjoy the challenge of trying to mach and blend the colors. The fish itself is made completely out of plant material. However the total picture strays from the plant material a little because the background is mica mounted on cloth. Although mica is not plant material it is a mineral found outside so it is natural. It is helpful having Dad around to tell me if the fins look out of proportion to the rest of the fish or if the eye is a little too far over to the right. Dad enjoys reeling in trout from the west fork of the Chattooga River. I reel mine in from the garden.

This picture is made of: money plant, cronflower, cosmo, hydrangea, cantaloupe peel, dusty miller, skeletonized leaves, onion peel, tomato peel, corn husk, black maple, sea moss, mica (also called isinglass) and various other leaves.

Log Cabin Quilt Square

Who doesn't like a quilt or know some special quilt maker? It puts me in awe to look at the time, exactness and artistry that goes into some quilts. My grandma, on Dad's side, who is a quilter, recently showed me her big quilt book, which featured some such quilts. I've started quilts but the only ones I've finished so far are the ones that are made of leaves and flowers. That's OK. after all, the first coverings were made out of fig leaves.

This picture is made of: oak leaves, dusty miller, money plant, Queen Anne's lace, corn husks, birch bark, yarrow, bougainvillea, black hollyhock, zinnia, Japanese maple, larkspur, rose, skeletonized leaves, eucalyptus, cantaloupe peel, daisy, primrose, bloody dock, lamb's ears, onion peel, nasturtium and thyme.

Draped in Loofah

An interesting question I ran into in the process of making this picture was that of what to make the Spanish moss out of. It seemed natural, being a plant presser, to use Spanish moss to illustrate Spanish moss. But I found that real Spanish moss looked out of proportion on this tree. Its lines were thicker than what I wanted. So I ended up going with loofah sponge. Some people think loofahs come from the sea, but they actually grow on vines, making them fit very happily into my medium. So here I have a live oak draped with loofah sponge. Also of note: the tree is comprised of lots of small strips of different colored leaves, some of which are live oak leaves off of trees from St. Simons Island.

This picture is made of: delphinium, parsley, dill, orange peel, black maple, live oak, fall leaves and loofah.

Dog Picture (trying to think of a more creative title)

Our first dog, a springer spaniel named Solomon, used to chase squirrels. I'm not sure he would have known what to do if he had caught one, but he did seem to enjoy chasing them. We've gotten two dogs since Solomon died, Esther and Melody. Neither seems particularly fascinated with squirrels.

This picture is made of: corn husks, fall leaves, skeletonized leaves, hydrangea, gray poplar, cockscomb, black maple, bark, cattail, moss and poppy seed.

Tea Time, Again

My 3- year old sister recently received her first tea set. If things were her way we would probably have tea parties several times a day, but Mom says one per day is enough. I used to have lots of tea parties with my friends. I particularly remember having them with Kristen. She and I would have what we refer to as "non-breathing tea parties." Those were the tea parties where we couldn't stop laughing because one thing after another kept happening to start us off again. Tea time suffered a decline for years in our house, but now the tea parties are back!

This picture is made of: hydrangea (flowers and bark), dill, hollyhock, bougainvillea, baby's breath, gray poplar, cockscomb, golden rod, nandina, forget-me-not, alyssum, Queen Anne's lace.

2010 World Wide Pressed Flower Guild Gathering

In June I attended the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild gathering in Shipshewana, Indiana. Classes included dyeing techniques, tips for competing, several make and take projects etc. One of the best parts about these events is simply asking questions and talking to the artists. It was also neat being in Amish country. We saw horses and buggies along the road and people working in their gardens. The hotel was nice. The food was good. People were friendly. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to put this event together!! I look forward to next year!

My New Discovery

Have you figured out what this is? I'll tell you: It's my new way of drying corn silk, corn husks, wool and anything else I can put on it. It is made out of layers of bread trays. I think they will be perfect for the job, they stack nicely with spaces in between, have excellent ventilation and since they do stack I don't have to spread corn husks all over the floor to dry. If you want to see where I got theses bread racks you can read about it here on our family blog. I didn't like tearing down the old fort where they came from but I will admit that they do make capital drying racks. Please, if you have any spare corn silk, please may I have it? It may look like I have enough all ready but I want as much as I can get. I use it in my pressed-flower pictures, corn husk dolls and as the hay for my Nativities. So I go trough a lot of corn silk.

La Santa Maria

I'm finished navigating through this picture! I sailed through many confusing waves. This picture involved many tough decisions for me. I had to figure out how to make a sea, work with my perspective, shading and just general logic of what causes what and how that should look. It was a healthy challenge. I sought counsel from lots of people on different elements of this picture. Unframed the picture measures roughly 12X14. I'm glad I don't have to navigate a real ship.

This picture is made of: gray poplar, eucalyptus, dead daylily foliage, dead sunflower foliage, Spanish moss, cotton, candy tuft, baby's breath, moss, corn silk, birch bark and poinsettia.