the blessing of the cat goddess Bastet

our next door neighbour’s little black cat Muffin joined the circle of Bastet to bless Ariel’s grave 
so good to have some cat magic ’round the house!

Spring Equinox

‘The Letter W’ from ‘An illuminated Book of Cats’ © 2010
illustrated by Mo Orkiszewski with words by Rod Morgan & musings by Ariel P Cat
Ariel P Cat  was conceived on the Spring Equinox 1999
he lives on in our hearts

drawing the blues for the Full Moon

Seven for a Secret  Mo 19
5H graphite on watercolour paper
I want to draw all the magic & wildness in this beautiful old lady of a house and our favourite haunts here in inner city Sydney over the next two years for the Sayonara Sydney show in March 2021 when we hope to move to the Blue Mountains!
an old sketch for Dark Moon Dancer with the seven feathers
it’s the Full Moon on Good Friday and I am missing our beautiful cat Ariel who passed away 2 years ago
so I’ve been stitching away the blues
Ulrike Bogdan sent this beautiful resist dyed indigo scarf awhile back along with some indigo dyed linen, so I made a fringe to give it a bit more length, it worked beautifully as a stole but I was worried about losing it!
these beautiful words have me itching to make the next moon
“The moon, second-hand, worn at the edges, was hung up in the sky like something a housewife leaves out to remind her it needs mending.”
Brothers and Sisters
The Real and the Unreal selected stories of Ursula K Le Guin
Volume One Where on Earth
page 5
Glennis Dolce’s blue moon cloth, a beautiful piece of indigo dyed silk from Louise Watson, another Glennis moon on Liz Ackert’s pennon a crow feather for flying in the dark & a stitched feather on black velvet from awhile back

home sweet home

yesterday we had our first house inspection with the new real estate agent with only 24 hours notice, always have to worry a bit about what on earth they will think of us and this wild old lady of a house!?
the lounge room full of plants and art
looking into the studio
the office
dining room
industrial storage shelves
the milk crate wardrobe
the view from the bedroom window is nearly private, we will celebrate ten years here on December 1st
Old Man Crow in his music room
upstairs verandah
Ariel P Cat 1999-2017
so the house feels clean, the inspection went well & looks like we will be here for a good while yet!

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

Once in a Blue Moon sans the retractable ladder

Once in a Blue Moon by Mo 2017-2018
W 29cm x H 9.5cm
embroidered moon on electric blue suede over papier maché mold, 1.5mm black leather cord stitched with black linen thread over papier maché mold, bamboo rungs, waxed & knotted DMC cotton, vintage glass beads, bone beads, lead fishing weights, nickel silver links, lapis lazuli
photograph by Simon Fraser Cloud Nine Image Art
last year I was thinking the whole point of this slow stitching lunacy was the retractable ladder but it didn’t quite work so a few days ago decided to make a new ladder out of 1mm sterling silver plate
which didn’t work either
x-roads cloth by Grace Forrest-Maestas
imagine peace by Liz Ackert
Moon Unit II Mo 17
Fish Bones by The Pale Rook
and the redundant silver ladder
back in the box to incubate
this may take some time…
in memory of Ariel P Cat
‘The Letter F’ from An illuminated Book of Cats © 2010
words by Rod Morgan, illustrations by Mo Orkiszewski, musings by Ariel P Cat
13 moons have passed

a one line poem by Grace of Windthread

this morning I finished embroidering Grace of Windthread’s beautiful one line poem for the Full Moon
“We are burning Karma and it smells like incense…”
tonight I will stitch grape vine tendrils to the ends of the steel twigs
vintage silk ribbon stitched with indigo and pomegranate dyed silk from Glennis Dolce
inktense coloured pencil with red silk
this morning I edged it with ochre stained hand plied plant fibre string from a Yam Totem Arnhem Land 1976
to honour our beautiful muse Ariel P Cat 1999-2017PS grape vine tendrils inserted into the ends of the steel twigs, wrapped in eelskin, stitched with black linen thread & black glass beads
photo taken with a flash at dawn as the weather is overcast today

honouring with Honesty

the Honesty seeds planted on the 11th of April are sprouting on Ariel’s grave
three tiny seedlings emerging
Honesty seedlings sown on the Equinox

the blues

the blues Mo17
a heart shaped Banksia integrifolia leaf, white feather, Ariel whisker & claw sheath, Honesty seed pod, Cecil Brunner rosebud, clay, glass, shell, turquoise, lapis lazuli & myrrh beads, zig-zag Acacia, indigo cake from Tamborine Mountain Indigo on cold waxed white silk used for polishing the Book of Honesty, stitched to indigo dyed silk from Eliene St Romain, stitched to Japanese Abaca paper edge darkened with deep indigo Inktense coloured pencil, framed with ochre stained hand plied plant fibre string & indigo dyed cord from Dee Mallon, backed with  hand woven 200 year old German linen edged with vintage linen shoe thread from Margaret Johnson
missing Ariel more than anyone in my whole life, where else to put all the sadness and longing but in the work…

a memento mori for Ariel

A memento mori for Ariel, a talisman for Old Man Crow to hold onto, on Wednesday I began by stitching together a bundle of Ariel’s shed whiskers, tried adding some of his claw sheaths but that didn’t feel right, a white feather didn’t work either, tried binding the shard of a broken pot I found as we smoothed the earth in the hole for his grave but that wasn’t right either…  this morning my favourite sea worn piece of driftwood felt good so I lit a stick of incense holding Grace of Windthread’s one line poem “we are burning Karma and it smells like incense” in my heart for the making
Old Man Crow woke at that moment, Ariel had just visited him from the bardo
Ariel’s whiskers & Old Man Crow’s Bandaged Heart bound to my favourite sea worn piece of driftwood
you, me and the Ariel P in our moonboat
with so much love tonight under the waning gibbous moon

The Letter U from An illuminated Book of Cats © 2010