Fragments of Nature ~

I've been busy in the studio!

Thank goodness...

I think the worst is over with the pollen around here ~

It's so good to finally feel a little better

and get something accomplished.

I know you've seen this botanical here before...I just love it!

Scroll down to the bottom of my blog

to see how to save it at its largest.

Another clipping from an old Victoria ~ love, love, love!

I thought I'd share with you my bits of progress with

the new nature assemblage.

I placed little ledges inside the opening on the back of the canvas ~

See them on each side?

These will allow me a sliver of a shadow box space...

I slathered matte gel medium all over the place and using the original pages

from a great old bird book, began the process of covering the entire back.

Wrinkles? Yeah! Who cares...I love them :) They add character, right?

I added a piece of stained tissue paper over the very center to dilute the text a bit.

And that wasn't enough.

I lightly dyed some scrim, ripped it to size and it will now

be the foundation for my fragments of nature ~

I'll probably stitch the scrim on...that's the beauty of working with canvases,

I can use strong thread and sew right through the back.

I haven't done it yet though ~

And to show you where I'm headed with this piece,

I positioned a few found nature elements here and there over the scrim,

and placed the glass over top.....

each item will be carefully secured.

Next I plan on taping the glass in with wide copper foiling tape

and then soldering over it to seal the glass down and the treasures inside!

I have some wonderful stain to age the solder too....

We'll see how these last few steps go ~

So that's the anatomy of what's on my work table this week ~

I just love working with these small treasures....

and seeing a new idea come to life!

Wishing you a wonderful Tuesday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

For the love of nature....

Seems no matter what time of the year it is,

I'm always drawn to elements of nature.

I enjoy collecting bird and nature images, nests, even sticks!

Some I use in my artwork but most

are just to have and appreciate God's handiwork ~

I think that's why I love the "cabinet of curiosities" look...

collected nature treasures displayed in scientific way

is so beautiful to me ~

I'm not a bug lover AT ALL!

But there's something about these pages

that draw me in ~

Preserving and pressing flowers is a true joy,

and to incorporate any of these into my artwork is even better!!

I'm always on the search for herbariums or botanical pages ~

The look of this room is gorgeous to me!

What movie is this from again??

See the herbarium on the desk below? :)

Collected treasures my son brought home for me!

Lisa of Tarnished and Tattered bought
some beautiful old pressed botanicals a while back

and she has preserved them in such a wonderful way...see HERE ~

I have an amazing collection of nests now and I've been thinking about

how to display them all together for impact, maybe something

with little cubbies with a different nest in each compartment??

Wishing you a wonderful Tuesday sweet friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

A wonderful time of year ~

In Georgia, our summers are unmercifully hot...

AND humid which always make it just miserable to be outdoors.

I avoid it at all costs!!

But finally, as we near the middle of October,

this is the time that I can finally enjoy being outside.

I love creating with nature's gifts and
getting outside to find these wonderful treasures.

Yes, some of the goodies above I purchased,

were gifts from precious friends or are

scans from me to you ~

but fall is a great time of year to get out and

find beautiful components for your artwork.

Still no pics of the new house.

Yes, I know...I should be popped upside the head.

We worked on the front porch this weekend,

going through all the things that used to be in our attic at the old house.

We got rid of 3/4ths of it!!!!

So I'm still plowing through and it seems that I'll never be finished ~

Maybe this week?

Wish me luck....

Have a wonderful Monday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Giveaways are such fun!! Plus a few goodies for you ~

I won the most wonderful giveaway a few days ago on Kathi's blog Vintage Inspired Jewelry and look what came Friday in the mail!!!! The prize was a 25.00 gift certificate to Kathi's Etsy store.....I picked out some beautiful earrings and they were so professionally packaged and she even included a few extra goodies too!

You can take a look around Kathi's shop HERE. The neat thing is, her prices are so great that I still have 9.00 to spend!! Thank you so very much Kathi, I wore the earrings tonight to dinner and just love them ~

Now for the goodies for you ~ a few gift images for you to use, just click to enlarge then right click to save to your own computer!

Thank you so very much for stopping by to visit me! I always love it when you do ~

Wishing you a wonderful Saturday,

xxoo, Dawn