origami love

 another "ever since I was a kid" thing

do have a lot of those?

something you have always loved?

folding a flat square of paper and turning it into a bird is a particular kind of miracle

(teabag paper soaked in beeswax, then folded, then reheated to meld the wax even further)

*

"meld" - that word always makes me think of Spock

:)

going for a dip

... oh don't I wish

:)

actually, here I am dipping things into beeswax again

(please don't look too closely at the sink full of dishes in the background!)

I'm dipping hydrangeas again, but this time I'm dipping a whole section at a time

(see THIS previous post for an earlier hydrangeas in beeswax session)

another change: I'm using a mini crockpot for melting the wax

and today is a particularly photogenic day with all the afternoon sunshine

- wee hah -

I'm soaking it up

aren't they pretty in an old jar?

I also love how they look in a simple bowl on the table

pure loveliness in my view

orange craving

if you have been reading my blog for a while

you already know that right about this time of year I get a big orange caving

I dry slices in the oven

.... and then use them to make stuff (of course!)

how I dry my orange slices:

slice the oranges relatively thinly - about 1/4 inch thick I guess

lay out on wax paper on a cookie sheet

bake at 200 degrees (f)

check every hour - flipping the slices over is a good idea too

do this until dry (about 3 hours?)

... and save the end bits!

drop them into a saucepan with a cinnamon stick and some water

simmer and smell .... my, oh my, it's like heaven

and then comes the fun part

... making stuff!

like these ornaments

ornament DIY ingredients:

dried orange slice

hot glue pieces of lichen in the middle

hot glue a deconstructed pinecone on top of that 

(or some other kind of bead, button or bauble)

dip in melted beeswax 

(beeswax: a fantastic preservative - and it smells great too)

 .... here's a link to the wreath I made last year ....

wax on

it's another dried hydrangea inspiration

you may have already read about dipping the dried blossom in beeswax for the do you like my hat collage

and this is how I did it - it's just a pie pan of beeswax melted in a 200 degree oven - pick up the blossom with tweezers - and dip it in the melted wax

set the blossoms on wax paper 

and you're good to go

they're still fragile, but have some sturdiness and body so they can be incorporated into other things

* * *

projects like this strand of hanging blossoms

a garland? 

a mobile?

pure joy is what it is

and today I was pirating some beautiful green hydrangeas in the local Kohl's parking lot

cars were driving past and I just kept my head down

I was thinking

"you don't know me"

do you like my hat?

here is another piece I have been struggling with for a few days

(what is up with that anyway?)

 I have some old tintypes that were my great great aunt's

they're round and edged in brass

on the back it says pocket gems

I think they were pocket sized mementos of friendship

do you like my hat?

( go  dog  go )

I was struggling with what to do with the empty space in the bottom half of the thing

then I thought of hydrangeas

... it came to me in the middle of the night ...

yes, my best ideas come when I am sleeping

but how to add hydrangeas?

... beeswax (I dreamed) ...

bees have the answer to so many of life's perplexing questions

(listed on etsy here)

beeswax collage

I just love working with beeswax

it gives an age and patina that is so natural and real

I made this collage using an old book cover and one of my own photographs

the book text is from an old french textbook

I used a bronze chain with jump rings as a hanger

*

and then for this one, which is quite a bit smaller

I made inchie collages and attached them to 2 inch portions of an old book cover

I used glue to adhere everything first

then I mod podged tea bag paper over it all

and then dipped them in beeswax

the beeswax was in pellet form

I simply put some pellets in a foil tray

and heated it in a 200 degree oven

(be careful to heat the wax JUST to melting - the burn point for beeswax is 181 degrees)

then immersed the pieces into the melted wax

you can rub the beeswax with a soft rag to get a bit of a polish

or leave it rough if you'd like

either way is beautiful in my opinion

*

I have many more posts about using beeswax

just click the "beeswax" and "beeswax how-to" labels below to get to them

photo transfer - 3 ways

I made the picture below using the photo transfer technique I describe HERE:

in this next picture, I have added colored pencil to enrich the image:

and then, I added beeswax, my all time favorite finishing product:

because of the large size (about 6X8) I couldn't dip it in beeswax

so I poured the melted beeswax over it

then, because it was an uneven coating,

I set it on foil and put in a 180' oven until the wax melted evenly over the whole thing

I scraped off some of the extra wax with a bone folder

and then buffed it with a rag

it really added the depth I was looking for

*

p.s. this a picture that was taken probably around 1945

it is my dad (on the left) and his brothers

cute, huh?!

I love how it turned out

:)

nesting instinct

this is an old art piece 

from back in the days of making tons of atc's (artist trading cards)

these atc's are all paper pieced bird houses

I used:

stamping

decorative papers

sanding

inking

a little bit of vintage lace

and attached them all to an old piece of fence wood

it's been hanging in my kitchen for 3 yrs now

and today I decided that it needed

beeswax

a quote I saw yesterday:

take something.

do something to it.

do something else to it.

- jasper johns

some things are much happier with a bit of beeswax

* * *

looking forward to the season of birds

this is what we woke up to:

it's just a little wimpy bit of snow up here in western Washington

it's very pretty and just a little bit of a nuisance

but with our hills and lack of snow removal stuff, 

it's enough to close the schools

and put us all into hibernation