The sweetheart deadline is fast approaching! Tired of giving your love the stereotypical jewelry, roses or chocolates? Step outside the box this year and take a love tip from the Wenzel Lonestar Meat Company in Hamilton, Texas :)
Just one of the many fab new and vintage advertising signs one can find traveling the small farm to market roads of Hamilton and Comanche Counties deep in the heart of Texas!
Should you opt for the bratwurst bouquet this Valentine's Day, better pick out some awesome dipping sauce you like because something tells me you'll be eating it all alone!
Inspired by the abundance of hearts in production, the studio chicks have begun pairing up and falling in love. In lush up-cycled mohair blends and vintage cashmere, the budding romances will certainly lead to a bumper crop of spring song birds and primitive nesters!
In keeping with the primitive tradition, these wee birds are cut from a simple pattern on old fabrics that would otherwise be tossed in the trash. A vintage mohair garment never goes to waste at Hand of Bela Peck! Even the tiniest scrap can be used as beaks, bow ties, hearts and wings. What can't be used becomes stuffing for future rag dolls.
Mohair blends are by far my favorite up-cycled material. The thrifting gods have been very good to me this winter! With prices as low as 50 cents for an old sweater or jacket, I can buy in bulk and I often do! I've never met a mohair I don't like.
Having waaaayyy too much mohair blends lets me experiment to my heart's content! I have been chucking sweaters in hot baths, boiling others with mulling spices, and infusing the bland with hand-dyed color! One technique I've fallen in love with is needle felting mohair on top of mohair. I love the imperfection and instant charm!
This Valentine's Day show your love with a customized set of two love birds from Hand of Bela Peck! I love special orders and at the rate these chicks are pairing up it looks like there will be no shortage of love to go around.
Hearts of all shapes and sizes are pouring from the studio! So easy to make and such fun to embellish, I can't help but make them in excess! Choosing between primitive Valentines or bright whimsically romantic themes, I am reminded of choosing just the right box of Valentine cards for classmates back in elementary school.
Here in the studio, the thoughts and excitement of February 14, keep the sewing machine humming along and the stuffing flying! Now I just need to make my list of love recipients and make sure I have enough to share!
With February just around the corner- Valentine hearts are the primary focus of this delivery. From romantic to primitive to practical, small heart ornies are always a holiday hit!
The Grungy Marlowes are by far my favorite 2013 creation with their primmed-out staining and vintage rhinestone embellishments, they remind me of antique tokens of love found tucked away in secret places. Perhaps I'm even more partial as this Marlowe quote was something hubby use to say when we were dating. Now that we've been married almost 20 years, the first part stays the same but we ad-lib the second as to what we might be proving.
Some up-cycled decorator satin check gets an antiqued feel after it's mulling spice-infused coffee bath. Smelling of oranges and cloves, these hearts are perfect for a treasured basket or hanging from a cabinet knob.
Valentine's Day is never complete without a furry critter or two to delight the soul! The love birds, Herbert and Shirley, are still madly in love after all these years! And the new wee mice are over-joyed with their pink cocoons, hand dyed by another Hendley Market artist!
With the Romantic mice, Cyrano and Cupid leading the group, everyone piled into the market basket and headed to Galveston just in time for a front row seat to the Civil War reenactment activities on The Strand!
Mice are mushy romantics at heart! They believe chivalry is not dead, romance is an art form, and that a warm smile is worth a thousand words. My studio mice are no different. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, the mice have been busy brushing their wooly coats and cutting out red hearts to offer while courting.
Cupid carries a quiver of woolen hearts and is ready with a line or two of latin to woo the lady mice. He is not above some mischievous match making amongst his peers.
I used an old camel hair coat, laundered, to make Cupid. I really love his texture!
Cyrano has high hopes of finding the love of his life this February. He is quiet but thoughtful and quite poetic. He can quote Marlowe on the fly and steals hearts with his unassuming charm.
Cyrano is one of 2 last mice made of this particular vintage cashmere suiting. Luckily I have found another gray cashmere suit to upcycle into a new generation of mice.
Cupid and Cyrano are off to Galveston's Hendley Market this week to sprinkle romance along the Strand. They will be missed in the studio, but other romantics are hot on their heels.
On my recent road trip I did, indeed, go with all my heart. Actually I went with alllllllllll my hearts! And I returned with more hearts than I thought possible.
Hearts are just so easy to make. A simple pattern with one fluid line of stitching; a quick turn, stuff and a blank palette is born! No matter the base fabric, I love adding layers of paint, rhinestones, and ribbons.
The red plaid wool lived its former life as a Pendleton skirt and kept my chilly hands toasty as we ventured north. Even though my travels hugged the Gulf Coast, it was still cold by my tropical standards!
There were a few bark cloth hearts in the mix- perfect for primitive Valentines. A few random wool sweater hearts as were in the bag as well.
But then I found some silk checkered napkins along the way and I just couldn't resist making more hearts! Two large shopping totes and 5 bags of fiberfill later, I have hearts coming out of my ears!
Time to break out the embellishments and make these hearts sing! From simple whimsy to extreme grungy primitive, this year holds an abundance of love thanks to one long, cold road trip!
On a narrow median along Bay Area Boulevard, in front of Macy's and the Cheesecake Factory, the green grass has worn down to the brown dirt. Amongst the hibernating crepe myrtles is a paprade of sign holders jockeying for attention. There are four Santas wearing bright yellow closeout signs over their jolly red suits. One Santa leans against a shade tree with his elasticized beard pulled down under his chin. An everyday-looking woman strolls back and forth with her written plea for money to help feed her family of four. There is a troop of orange-safety-vested men with ratty buckets and pamphlets who knock on car windows unfortunate enough to catch the red light. And then there is the old man with the hat. The guy to whom my daughter shares her allowance or for whom she buys a meal.
Day after day, weather permitting, the old man stakes his claim on a five foot spanse of this median. He is not a window knocker or a forlorn distant stare kind of fellow. He employs old time schtick to get noticed on this over-crowded curb that borders the Baybrook Mall. Always smiling, he flips his hat high in the air, catching it with the enthusiasm and grace of a ballerina. He needs money. It's obvious. This man is homelessness personified. Even when his leg is in a cast, this man smiles, twirls his hat, gives a bow as the light turns green and his audience rolls on. As the other median occupants change faces and places, the man with the hat is constant. Next time I see him I will ask him his name, because no matter our circumstance, we all just want to have a human connection.
Eyes taken from photo by Steven Alssopp http://stevenallsoppsilentcities.blogspot.com/
I am not unlike the man with the hat, though I am not homeless. In this town, people see me, but they don't know my name. I am new here. This city is large enough that I can be annonymous everyday if I choose. But I want a connection. A friendly face to know my name and to matter. There have been days here, when hubby is traveling and my daughter is busy with friends, that have been deafening with silence, void of any meaningful face to face interactions. It's like standing on a remote Vermont hillside just after fresh snow; cold isolation in a beautiful place. It's what hubby must feel on business trips touring the glittering Singapore streets: alone in a crowd. As people, we need to share our experiences with someone daily.
No matter where we live, how large or small the town, the homeless are there.
Sometimes we disregard the homeless out of fear. If we look, if we smile, will we end up the same way? What if someone sees us talking to this person? Money is not the only thing we have to give. We have a smile, a nod, a handshake, a kind word. We have sandwiches we can make and handout, an extra blanket, a spare sweater, a hot cup of coffee. If someone is standing on the corner willing to be seen, the least we can do is let them know we see them.
This Christmas, as you leave the mall, or are out on a standard grocery run, please remember the homeless you see everyday. As a human race we are connected. This Christmas, make eye contact, give of yourself if you can. Offer warmth of the human spirit. It will do you more good than you fear.
There's something about pin cushions I simply can't resist. Easy as pie to make and so visually rewarding, custom pin cushions are my fave orders to fill.
Combining my love of vintage containers and up-cycled wool, this week's batch of pincushions are eco-friendly and durable.
Heart pincushions are the ultimate "show your love" gift! Perfect for a last minute stocking stuffer or a token of love for your fave stitcher :)
Just a brief post to share what's been happening in the studio. This week is busy with travel prep and last minute shopping of my own!
The Studio mice continue to grow in numbers and evolve. I must confess, I am in love with the new wool, the new form, and the colorful accessories!
After the last troop of wee mice standing on wire legs stole my heart I was still left with concern that too much repositioning would cause the delicate wire to break. Focusing on strength comes in baby steps. Before I feel comfortable to create a sturdy standing mouse, I thought we, as a creative team, should sit and contemplate their engineering. This troop represents the "working it out" process. Perhaps this is where my studio work crosses paths with hubby's work; examining the strengths and weaknesses of the process to create efficiency and durability.
The result is some relaxing rotund mice with friendly smiles and something special in their cocoons. Some will be momma mice, but others will become special Valentine mice with cocoon quivers and arrows of adoration.
These silkworm cocoons have been dyed by another local artist. I just couldn't resist their ready-to-go vibrant color when I spotted them at Galveston's Hendley Market last week!
I have adored using the vintage gray cashmere with the original mice, but all good supplies eventually run out and I have added washed camel hair to this mouse troop. There are also mohair mice in the work basket. I was able to find more vintage gray cashmere suiting but I am faced with an ethical fashion dilema: the fabric is currently a never worn $1400 Escada suit I scored for $1.50. I'm tempted to sell it on Ebay and wait for the next cashmere suit to come down the pike. But then again, my mice do fancy themselves as runway material!
So back to the studio I go! Time to finish these mice and start packing for the great Christmas road trip!
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