A Different Kind of Mushroom

Do you know what these are? They're a common mushroom (more specifically I think thought of as a "shelf fungus") found in lots of places all over the world and in the States we call them turkey tails (trametes versicolor)..Curiosly, they're a major component in many herbal anti cancer formulas....I am fascinated by how they grow in concentric rings. Plus, they have a super velvety texture when they're fresh.

And their colors are more nuances of earth tones than you knew about.

I found a whole bunch out in the filbert orchard behind my house. It's pruning time and there were lots of downed logs with loads of turkey tails growing on them.

I brought some home and thought about displaying them all science like....maybe pinned onto some black paper with names and arrows written in white ink.

But then I decided........to make one big hybrid rosette out of them.

And enjoy it on my front porch for a while.
Turkey tails mesmerize me.

Longing for Mexico

It's raining and I miss Mexico - it's noise, it's color, it's civility, it's age.

Some pages from when I first started my travel journal: Yucatan November 08. I don't journal much but traveling seems to bring it out in me.

Here's one of my favorite pages from my Chiapas trip.

It says, " the river of life"....I had just come back from witnessing a beautiful Easter procession in the town of Zinacantan......And I had been interested in exploring the egg shape..a young Mayan girl (who was selling trinkets with her brother) made the drawing on the bottom of the page and gave it to me when she was done.

Oaxaca anyone?

Beautiful Bumblebee Tattoo Spyed at Passionflower

How fun is this?

I think the larger than life size scale of the bee is just right. And those are orchid flowers on the side. She's going to have it colored in but I like it in this stage too....

Retail Therapy at Terrain

If it weren't for blogging I never would have discovered one of the most inspiring stores I've been to in a while. Sara at Saipua (which by the way is my go to blog for great flower shots) wrote about a store called Terrain in Pennsylvania. Hmmmm, I was in Pennsylvania and I think a trip such as this is just what GPS systems were made for. I had high hopes as the store came well recommended. I was not disappointed.

Words and photos cannot do the experience justice.

It was whimsical.

It had high drama.

And quiet beauty.

It was part garden center/hothouse -

part kitchen store - part apothecary.

Kind of like Etsy met Smith & Hawken on steroids.

There was total attention to detail, a strong point of view, and some really great buying going on.

A little googling and I discovered Terrain is the love child of the Anthropolgie/Urban Outfitters visionaries. Of course it is. Click here if you want to go to Terrain's site but don't be disappointed because (like so many stores), the site is just a faint shadow of the store itself.
Nonetheless, I almost never encounter a store I really love and this was it.

Thank you Terrain for giving me something special.

Porcelain Happiness at Passionflower

I've been so excited about our upcoming artist's shows that I had my amazing talented graphic designer Cathy Simard play around with making us a few postcards to commemorate the event.

Here's the one she did for Katie......and the one for the Susan Goodwin trunk show is equally as amazing......

That squiggly line of script at the bottom is an e.e. cummings poem.....

Spring Cleaning Anyone?

Happy Friday

Art & Nature Co-Existing

I'm going to try to do a post a day - sort of like a little blog sketch book.

Shots from my house - late March last year. The magnolia and cherry blossom
in the lower right date the picture.

I love my Screen Saver

You know you're procrastinating when you're searching the web looking for screen saver images .....How delighted was I to find this one......It's from David Gray at Reuters news and it's a traditonal Chinese dancer during the Festival of the Lanterns which celebrates the ending of the two week Chinese New Year Festivities .....

I have learned the hard way that it's useful to have a solid color background on your screen savers - that is of course if you ever want to find an icon.

How delighted I was that the blue of the headress matches almost perfectly the blue of the toolbar.


I look at this image and it makes me want to write great things....I found it on
the

free people blog. Stay tuned for more screen savers. And send us your favorites.

Visiting Jeweler Susan Goodwin

I always love it when my jewelry reps Thomas & Greta bring me samples of Susan Goodwin to order - like in this picture.

But it's even more fun to visit her studio which I fondly think of as "Susan's Garden of Earthly Delights". Becky & I recently had the pleasure of a visit when we were in Seattle.


It is a working studio and there are bowls of gems and pearls and findings all organized -

And shells and glassware for containers.



Collections of optometrist's tools.



And of course the most beautiful collections of pearls.


Everything has a quality of clarity and brilliance.

And my favorite part of her studio is this wall of women's portraits. They look down upon her big work table that seats four. I imagine Susan is making jewelry for all these types of women - As she is working she's having conversations with each of them.

Then she served us a little cup of Mariage Freres Marco Polo tea -
and put on some Miles Davis music.

And we looked at a book of Alexander Calder jewelry.
They're having a Calder show at the Seattle Art Museum through April this year. I really want to see it.

Susan gave me a little lesson in how pounding metal makes it change shape and move.

So now whenever I see these earrings of Susan's, they will always be inextricably linked with the mobiles of Alexander Calder.

Long ago and far away, I think it was in January, we had our staff holiday party and I realized what an art loving, crafty bunch we are. Handmade cards and drawings and beads and journals and other goodies were flowing in abundance.

Becky made everyone these little egg cups (at least that's how I think of them) from paper mache.

Mine had a little "J" inside it and the words were all kinds of writing about flowers and mist and dew and lots of ephemeral things like that. I loved it.

And then we did a gift exchange and (lucky me) I got this beautiful miniature book framed in a small shadowbox that Becky made.
Wow did I feel rich. So much art made me want to luxuriate in it and so I decided to redo my mantle.

One of the great things about collecting art is that over the years you end up with a treasure trove of possibilities when it comes to putting together a vignette. So I mined my house for treasures and came up with these paper spoons made by Clare Goddard. They were paper and they were white - like Becky's egg but different so I thought they'd be able to have an interesting conversation together.

Then away with all the holiday goodies and on to the cool, spare, clean lines of the winterscape.
Here's my new winter mantle - Becky's art, Sue Tackmier card, the Clare Goddard spoons, and bare huckleberry branches. I like the objects all clustered together instead of spread out.
They become something greater than the sum of the parts.

A Beautiful Handmade Card Arrives in the Mail -

Becky opened this card from long lost artist Sue Tackmier in Portland.......she wondered had she made it and mailed it to herself in a dream? Needless to say we were enchanted.

Just the other day I was planning an October window display with Lynn Peterson about blackbirds and here comes one in the mail.....

Sue sent her business card in a glassine envelope onto which she has stamped her seal.
I love this and am now going to search for the one we had made when we incoporated....

I think we will start stamping glassine envelopes and anything else we can think of......

So happy to see some of her cards again - she is my Edward Gorey in sister disguise.
Sue told me she has been busy making shoes for ants......(Did I mention she is extremely droll - that's funny in an odd way)....I'd like to see some of those shoes.

This will make a lovely Valentine's card.

The World Through a Microscope

These phtos came courtesty the Nikon Photomicrography Competition .

Using a Microscope to See the World

I'm going to make a habit of giving myself time to aimlessly search the web for inspiration. Aimless is the key word here. Here's some photos from the Nikon Photomicrography Competiton

Tapeworms




Fly Larva


and Carrot Seeds