crosspollination

After brunch at a nice local cafe which is situated in the bush, I found some pods that just screamed to be taken home.

I added them to my table of collected ephemera, most of which comes from the beach.

I dug the seeds out of the pods, which to my surprise were all unique in size and color, mostly due to various types of mold. The photos do little justice to the delicate colors and soft matte textures.

They take on different hues depending on the vintage paper substrate.

And some other pieces-in-process with just vintage papers…

This piece will be a long horizontal collage on a found board (Salvation Army dumpster!), titled ‘converstions at a party’.

And a view of the huge space we call home, studio, garage, barn, wood & metal shop…

Something was whispering in my ear today, “Make earrings.” I ended up with about 25 pair. Good thing it’s Christmas, maybe I’ll sell them all this week!

And a pic of my mezzanine work area.

A few days ago I made a fennel and apple salad after seeing The Chef at Home do one.

I never bought fennel before we moved here, cherimoya either. Wow, there are so many amazing delicacies to discover!

For this salad: Whisk together apple cider vinegar, olive oil, good grainy mustard, salt and pepper. Toss with a few apples, fennel bulbs and fennel leaves which have been chopped finely. It’s that easy, and the fennel loses it’s anise flavor when combined with the dressing, which is a plus if you don’t like anise. I ate the whole bowl- so refreshing and crisp.

Sometimes you cross paths with people, out there in the world, and it reminds you how many talented, awesome individuals are living chock-full lives, documenting the environment from their unique perspectives. We have been lucky enough to host a husband and wife team of photographers from Hood River, Oregon and San Diego. They partook of our couch, and shared so many amazing stories and images with us.

Above images of Australia by Bethany Franger - you can visit her blog and read more about her ongoing journey.

Above images by Blaine Franger - visit his blog for startling images of spiders, koalas and more of the Australia outback. They’ll be shooting all over New Zealand and Asia in the upcoming months, I can’t wait to see the results.

If you want to book Bethany and Blaine for your wedding or a portrait check out their website, location is most likely not a problem :).

Good luck, guys! Hope we meet up again!

I’m working on a series of collages geared toward children. The shop I’ve started working in has lots of awesome toys and clothes, but little in the way of art for kids. We’ll see what develops. I’m not sure how the giraffe (above) will get attached with the knitted textile, maybe handsewn on? Right now it’s just all laying on the work bench ready for the next step.

In other news, there’s nothing like a good car wash and bonfire to clear the air. We spent some time making my car feel loved, then helped our neighbor contribute to global warming by burning a little bush. Actually the fire was pretty big, the glowing pile peeking from behind my sexy man is much smaller than it started out. It’s Movember here- all the dudes grow mustaches to raise awareness for prostate cancer (who knew ‘mo’ was short for mustache?). I think Kyle looks quite handsome sporting a full chin-strap, but I reserve the right to snicker when he pares it down to the Wyatt Earp. What you can’t see is that his surfer locks are as long as mine.

I was lucky enough to attend several shows of Lance’s work in Austin. I was also lucky enough to have sold him some raw materials, and to have visited his home studio to purchase a small piece. The delicate collage of sketched tree trunks (above) is framed in my entry. The images below do no justice to the nuanced and breathtaking beauty of Lance’s work.

Thanks again to design*sponge for putting Leigh Wells on my radar. As you may know, I have a serious affection for any artist who uses vintage papers. But there are so many more wonderful aspects to her illustrations - the color choices, calligraphic flourishes, interesting use of hand-lettered typography. Her depictions of maps are particularly groovy.

Check out Leigh’s beautiful website, and snap up an original illustration at her etsy page. Oh, and did I mention she is sooo nice? The piece above is titled Where I Sit.