cliodhna’s wave

Congrats to Rachel!

and thank you so much to all who took part! and for your wonderful comments! Very encouraging and inspiring. I will take into mind the suggestions about presentation also, it is hard to sell things with just pictures I think, especially a textured art like embroidery. People want to touch and feel and see things up close and art is such a personal emotional response.

I put the names of all who had entered from here and from my facebook into a basket woven by the Tarahumara. They weave the most beautiful baskets, and they smell like the grass and pine needles they wove them from. I have loads of them in the house now!

I closed my eyes and fished around, looking for paper and picked out Rachels name! so congratulations and which one do you want?

Cats don’t know how to fly but then birds don’t have two wide eyes and four feet of claws.

Bird says ‘I can can fly and I have feathers that are as light as the wind and that carry me where ever I want to go. I see the tops of trees and the caterpillars seeking the heat from above the leaves, I see the snow on top ofmountains and the start of streams that gush freezing water down the rocky slopes. The wind is friend and the rain is worm bringer. My eyes are black beads that shine and flit constantly, my body is small and my heart beats fast, when you hold me (if I let you) you can barely feel me except for a vibration and heat in the cup of your palms.

Cat says ‘I bask in the heat of the sun and my fur is warm and soft to the touch. Bury your fingers in my stomach and rest your ear on my chest to hear the thunder that is my voice. The wind shakes the branches and distracts the birds so I can change in an instant from sleepy warmth to huntress and mistress of all I see. Sudden death in a flurry of feathers and I jump and trap. I dream of grassy oceans and dark forests and stalking, ever stalking the light that shines from the sky, the quick rustle in the undergrowth and the presence of another heart that beats.’

While in a sushi restaurant recently I was staring (as I usually do) at the fish in the big fish tank near the entrance. It contained four large goldfish and I thought for possibly the umpteenth time of how pretty and amazingly and satisfyingly balanced the pattern of their scales were. How gold and shiny and marvelously put together they were as they glided back and forth.

‘A quilt’ thought I, ‘a quilt of goldfish scales that shimmers and shines’ and I set out on the long journey towards quiltdom today. I have made a quilt before, it was complicated and took way longer than I thought it would so I am marignally more prepared now than I was the first time of the nature of my commitment to this quilt.

I made the pattern and sewed the patches and i am doing it the old fashioned way of sewing the patches onto a paper backing and I will stitch them together by hand. It holds their shape better and makes curves easier to sew than on a machine.

Onwards onto the path of quilt!

Ok, to officially open my new store at Etsy I am having a promotion and having a draw for an embroidery. I am giving away one of these three items you see here (the winner chooses). PLease visit the store at GreenBirdDreaming or click on any of the pictures. The pictures will bring you to the product page of that item and to get to the main store there is a little word ’shop’  beside the avatar under the words ‘GreenBirdDreaming’

so back to the promotion, please visit my store and have a noodle and then in your comment please tell me one thing you like about it and one thing you think could be improved. Maybe the pictures don’t strike you, maybe the product descriptions need outlining. Whatever!

For those unfamiliar with Etsy it is a worldwide online store for handmade crafts, supplies for handmade crafts and vintage items. there is everything here, from soaps to jewellery, from strange pictures of cats to king size beds. Its the best online shopping anywhere!

I put a treasury together on etsy.. called ‘Queens’ its a collection of queen related items from cool shops.. check it out and let me know what you think!

Queens on Etsy

Does anyone else have this problem?

I want to do big stuff, then I want to do small pieces,

I want to do huge quilts that cover a wall and then I want to do tiny stuffed birds with beads hanging off them.

I want to make skirts, underwear, felted hats,

I want to dye my own fabrics with the plants in my surroundings and I want to save time by buying the already wonderful luscious fabrics that exist out there

I want to do commercial pieces that will sell and make me money and i want to do one off exclusive squares of beauty that take days and days and you can’t possibly sell them for enough to recoup time, materials and emotional input

I wish there were four of me….

Balance Clio, balance, and of course the word I am still improving on…. patience

… in the Art Park in Chihuahua.

It was nice. There was a bit of breeze and I met all the other artists.. Some of whom have been there forever. i got bored around three o clock and then there was a meeting which whiled away 40 mins or so.

I sold two greeting cards and made 100 pesos (approx 7 dollars) but I will give it a few week and see do I make any sales. They said there are more people when it gets a bit warmer. I laugh at that, if this was in ireland this weather would be the most amazing summer day ever. Here, its still a bit fresh for them.

I bought this bottle of beer to see what it tasted like. its not often really interesting beers arrive in the local wal-mart.

I poured it into a glass, half for me and half for paul and then took a sip. I was immediatly transported to winter, Ireland, a cozy pub with soft seats, the real traditional kind of pub with carpet on the floor and fixture of old guys sipping their guinnesses and holding up the bar. I had to give it its own post! It was the stout flavour of course but then the extra depth and spiciness of the chocolate gave me the kind of memory recall you get with an old familiar smell.

oh, and Paul hated it! but then the first time he tasted guinness he said it tasted like bananas.

i am in the process of getting my etsy store back together. This time under Green Bird Dreaming. I have been doing some embroideries for it, these are smaller.

The leaves are out on the tree in front of my workroom window. Now I work in a green shaded room with those squawky black birds that always remind me of dinosuars fighting in the branches.

Its hard here to find places to sell art work. I am joining a sunday art exhibition in a Park here in Chihuahua. Like what they have on Stephens Green except a lot smaller. Hopefully fingers crossed!

I just got a comment on the previous post from two really good friends of mine, Linsey who I went to art college with and Simon her husband who owns the nicest jewellry store in the world! ( dublin, wexford street) I worked there for many a happy hour polishing silver, deciding which piece I prefered, this would change by the day and i never really made up my mind. Too many choices

http://www.djinnjewellery.com/