First glimpse of Christmas

Sorry, but I happened to watch one of the Boston Legal Christmas episodes and it got me in the mood to put together this one of a kind set of Christmas ornaments part of which I had already made a while ago.

You wonder what the house has to do with it? In Germany when drawing a house like this one children say one syllable of this sentence with each line "Das ... ist ... das ... Haus ... vom ... Ni ... ko ... laus." which means that this is St. Nicholas' house.

I looked it up, it has 44 possible ways and is a problem from graph theory. Who would have thought?

All ornaments are crocheted wire tubes which have been shaped, attached in the right spots and flattened. This took me quite a while and quite a few Boston Legal episodes, I'm telling you! ;-)

You can find the set in my ArtFire studio now.

The Monday collection - Trees

I decided that from now on I'll try to curate a collection on ArtFire each week to share it with you. There are really cool items to be found you know, and this will be my excuse to do some extensive weekend browsing and go ooooh and aaaah - and maybe lose control one or the other time and get something for myself ;-)

So today I'll give you - THE LARCH! Nah, not really. I just couldn't resist because I love to say it. And it inspired me to make this tree collection. Enjoy!

My blog layout doesn't like the large collections. Please click the picture to get to the original collection!

Welcome to autumn!

If you prefer it, I'll welcome fall as well. Whatever you call it, it truly is welcome to me because it's my favorite season and I am really looking forward to it.

When the Starving Artists Team decided on "Change of seasons" as the subject for the September challenge, my brain started going into overdrive. My first idea was to crochet leaves in different colors with Swarovski crystals to enhance the colors and let them dangle from a chain on earwires. I'll keep that idea, you never know.

Then I thought it would be nice to have a tree with all the different colors - the green that is still showing, but will soon be gone, the yellow and red tones of fall ... so I came up with this little tree pendant on a slim tube rope.

Each tiny branch is crocheted individually with Swarovski crystals worked in as the leaves. You can wear the pendant from both sides of course with one side showing more yellow and green and the other one showing all three colors.

As there is not just one brown in nature, I chose to make the rope from a slightly different color. To me it makes the necklace look more alive. Of course it's no problem, should anyone prefer the same color for the rope and the tree.

This is available in my ArtFire studio now.

The twenty-second door

One day it will happen and I will see this tree. Not exactly this one of course, the picture is from 1987, but somehow this is one of my goals in life, to see New York, to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

 

Picture by James G. Howes

I just wish there weren't so many people, I tend to get nervous in the midst of huge crowds.

Gee, I get nervous at our local Christmas market! ;-)

That is one of the reasons why I didn't pack my sisters yet and just hopped on the next plane. But who knows?

Never give up your dreams.

Tree of life

The tree of life is a symbol in many cultures. It can have different meanings depending on if it is shown with or without leaves, with or without roots.
But you know what? It doesn't really matter. A tree is beautiful, one way or the other.

For some it's just a piece of wood that you can burn, for some it's inspiration, for many it is a friend. It's a place you can sit underneath, enjoying the shade, reading, chatting, dozing or sleeping. It's something that can accompany you your whole life through and many people are sad when they see an old friend like that being cut down.
There have been songs written about it (a favorite of mine being from 1968 sung by Alexandra) and there are countless poems and stories.

Of course I have my own tree stories to tell
- about the walnut tree in my godmother's garden that had to be cut down because it got to tall for its spot so close to the house
- about the cherry tree that my friend and I climbed in her garden picking the gorgeous deep red sweet cherries
- the sour cherry tree in our garden (when there were no garages there yet) I was sitting underneath with my grandmother telling her that my doll needed clothes
- the chestnut trees in the school yard and the park nearby where we collected tons of chestnuts to later make little horses and other animals out of
- the apple trees in our pastor's garden that were raided by the boys from our confirmation course until the pastor put a big bowl of apples on the table with a wink in his eye (he was the coolest pastor ever!)
- the lemon tree in the back of my friend's house in California where I sat for four hours with White Dude, the later foreign exchange kitty we took home after that vacation, in my arms

.... oh, I could go and on, but I'm sure you have your own stories.

My muse made me create two tree pieces lately. She can be a mean kicker if she wants me to do something!
One of them is a polymer clay piece. By making it I expressed how tired I was of seeing snow. I can't wait for the green to come back.


The other one is a piece of ocean jasper looking like a winter landscape (thanks, Ness, for pointing that out!). At first there was no tree, but when I felt I wanted to make the bezel even safer to avoid the rock jumping out of it, suddenly a tree began to shape and I followed the direction willingly.
I also love bare trees, maybe because they seem to be a promise life will come back?


These two pieces couldn't be more different. Just like my memories of trees.

I would love for you to share one of your memories with me.