a brace of stars

Cane Toad Skin Stars Mo 18
linen thread and cane toad leather
I love making these stars!
they will help with binding the blue leather branch to the palm inflorescence
and integrating Reaching for the Stars with The Dream
spring is in the air, the first jasmine is out!
The Letter U
from An illuminated Book of Cats © 2010
Mo Orkiszewki, Rod Morgan & Ariel P Cat

crook as Rookwood

Old Man Crow and I are both crook as Rookwood (a cemetery in Sydney)
these photos are of a magical gathering of crows at Waverley Cemetery  back in 2006
a fantastic view from the clifftops
love the way the crows seemed to pose just for us
totemic beings
x fingers we’ll start feeling better soon!
NB feeling crook is Aussie slang for feeling sick with a dreadful lurgy
& can also mean getting a scolding as in “my Mum went crook at me” which totally confounded me in a grammar test when I first went to school in Melbourne back in 1969 (nearly 50 years ago!)
the good news is the framer did a great job framing Beauty
for All is [not] Black & White at Artsite
but I was way too out of it at the opening on Sunday to get any decent photos
this beautiful thank you card and clay scrolls mounted on a piece of Silky Oak
just arrived in the mail from Fiona Dempster of Paper Ponderings
with such good timing my beautiful friend!

wheel of life spins ’round and ’round

The Letter W
from An illuminated Book of Cats
by Mo Okiszewski, Rod Morgan and Ariel P Cat © 2010
It was 45˚C (113˚F) here yesterday… my brain melted down but this morning the memory of this page from our book put the heat into perspective with the deep cold happening on the other side of the world, the balancing act as Jude talks about today over at Spirit Cloth, she helps me keep my head on straight!

The Solstice

Honesty Mo17
may you have a suitably Silly Season, a magic Solstice & wonder-filled New Year!
Michael Leunig is a national treasure, his cartoons have kept me almost sane for nearly 50 years!

9 moons curve and glow from Jude Hill

9 moons curve and glow from Jude Hill‘s Threadcrumbs Shop
Old Man Crow promised he will sign and stamp the rest of the xmas cards today so I can get back to my bench!
I love the ritual of making 150 cards  every year!
here’s a link to the xmas cards we have made since 1991
Honesty Mo 17
all the OS cards flew out last week the Oz cards will fly today

Lunaria

Lunaria Mo 17
aka Honesty

Seasons Greetings

Honesty Mo16

it’s 3am on this long hot Full Moon night

less than a week to go!

take time to smell the roses

“take time to smell the roses” Mo16
Cecil Brunner rose from one of our gardens dried in one day on the dashboard of the van, grape vine tendril, lichen, emu feather, glass & clay beads, linen and red Gütermann upholstery thread, parchment circa 1812, laser cut wood star from Els of Fiber Rainbow, Moulin de Larroque handmade watercolour paper, 5H graphite, white gouache
the bench is clean and ready for whatever wants to happen next, a gathering of fresh grape vine tendrils from one of our gardens, lichen fragments & those banksia integrifolia seeds with black boar bristles and beads from back in January
PS the lichen needed to be opened up

that’s better
sometimes it’s easier to see these things through the once remove of the confuser screen…

Quality Control

about a quarter of the hand deckled cards have ink smudges where the edges caught on the printer head
each smudge is being turned into a life size sketch of Actinotus minor
funny how the cards with the tiny sketched flowers make more sense
I have finally started to love my inner critic after 60 years, she keeps my edges honed & the work honest!