Sculpted Flowers

This one was a while in the making.  It's my mom's combined mother's day and birthday gift and it was still late on both counts.  Oh well, I think that hand-delivering it to her in Texas makes up for that.

This is easily my favorite of all the pieces I've made recently, and that favoritism is directly proportional to how much time was poured into it.

The peony alone took a couple of days.

After seeing some of my flowers in other work, Mom requested a floral piece in 'Tuscan' colors, and I think that I delivered.

Because I couldn't find any 'Tuscan' frames with enough depth behind the glass for the flowers, I decided to give frame-making the old college try.  I picked up some trim lumber, a miter saw, and wood glue and went to town.  I also added decorative hinges to the corners of the frame to add a bit of detail.  It's certainly not perfect, but it was quite a learning experience.

Anyone have a good source for frame-making supplies and/or instructions?

For Helen

My grandma's best friend, Helen, passed away last week.  She was a spitfire up to the last and I'm very grateful I had the opportunity to visit with her while I was in Texas over the holidays.

She had white hair and beautiful blue eyes, and I always remember her loving pastels.  Her living room was bright and airy with white wicker and florals.  So I made this piece for my grandma, in memory of her.  I'll do my best to carry on her feisty ways.

I did a watercolor wash for the background and used different colors of Canson Mi Teintes papers for the flowers, stems and leaves.

The stamens are yellow trace paper, and some of the petals have watercolor washes or prismacolor pencil details.

The lettering is a lighter colored paper with prismacolor pencil over the top for a little bit of texture and depth.

I think you can see that I was influenced by Carol Gearing's Paper Cut Florals, Just as I was back during my wedding for my paper flower wall.

I was pretty happy with this frame job, I just have to find a decent frame first and size the artwork to it.  The other way round is very difficult.  This way sort of limits my layout and such, but the end result is cleaner.

Valentine's Breakfast

I've never been much of a Valentine's Day fanatic, but it was our first year as a married couple and there's so much loveliness on blogs that I feel I must aspire to (at least a little bit).  So here's a heart shaped pat of butter on top of lovely flocked paper from Paper Source next to our syrup and powdered sugar shaker for breakfast on the big day.

I used some paper flowers from my trial run for my wedding flower wall, added color blocked place mats made out of watercolor paper and card stock and called it a day.  Then we woke up and made breakfast together.  T mastered the bacon and eggs, while I handled waffle duty, I even used cookie cutters to make those into adorable little hearts.  We had mimosas made with rose sparkling wine, sparkling cranberry juice and orange juice.

It was a terrific way to start the day, and maybe even a Valentine's tradition.  Later we went on an 18 mile bike ride and then headed out to dinner.  I sort of insisted on a reservation being made (I may have also dropped a few reminders the week before V-day as well).  T didn't disappoint, we went to Caffe Pinguini, it was an adorable Italian place near the beach in Playa del Rey and my salmon literally melted in my mouth.

I think it's safe to say we can check this Valentine's Day off as a success!