Friends in the Garden

It’s finished!  My large commissioned piece is complete.  If you’re a blog regular you know that I’ve been working on the components for a large garden piece for some time.  The last friend to join the garden was a female yellow warbler that I created this past week in Michigan.  More on that trip later.  This particular piece was a challenge for me because I had to figure out how to make new flowers and creatures.  One of the special parts is the dragonfly that is hovering just above and barely in the weaving itself.  It’s a special guardian.  

 I made the wings out of the lace from the dress that Heather wore the day Dan proposed.  I was delighted when they stopped by yesterday to pick up the weaving—I felt really good about how the piece came together for them. The piece was ultimately so intricate and three-dimensional that I felt I needed to make a movie that I posted to Youtube to help reveal its character.  The link is below:

When the piece left the studio last night I briefly considered taking a day off.  That’s when I remembered that I was commissioned at the show in Madison to create a willow tree by a shore, very similar to the piece that found a home there.  A person came by on the second day of the show eager to buy the piece, only to discover that the willow was gone.  I love willows and feel a special bond with them.  There is a Czech expression that if you have troubles you should talk to the old willow.  The political turmoil in this country is such that I’m looking forward to chatting with my new willow.

And as promised last week, I’m posting some images of the finished armor for the chorus members of Pippin, as well as the armor for Charlemagne, Pippin’s father and Pippin’s half brother Louis.  Huge thank you to Nancy and Alice, and all of the other worker bees that made this come together!!

 I still need to engineer and attach the strap mechanisms so that it is an easy on-easy off costume change for the soldiers.  I’ve been collecting black plastic clips from old backpacks and fanny packs and the like.  I have about forty and I need at least seventy for the performance.  I’d be delighted to receive more donations of these if you should come across some no longer in use. 

We made a quick decision to do one more trip to Michigan this summer.  We hauled the boat, which makes the trip a bit longer, but it was soooo worth it!  Jim and Tommie were able to get the boat on the bay three times, and I accompanied them on the second venture.  

It was an amazing early morning boat ride out on Tuesday out to the Pinconning bar on Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron.  The sun was shining and a gentle breeze moved us along and the humidity was delightful compared with southern Indiana.   

We fished into the early afternoon and Jim and I caught walleyes steadily until there were fifteen in the boat.  While we trolled, Tommie focused on catching perch, which are Grandma’s favorite.  He was able to contribute seven to the fish fry.  

 And oh, was it a fish fry!  Fresh bread, sweet potato waffle fries, Grandma’s cole slaw and potato salad made it a meal to remember.  For desserts, Grandma made some delightful chocolate/cherry/almond no-bake cookies that went well with a glass of wine.  Sadly, though, there still was no pie.  We did collect transparent apples in Michigan in Grandma’s orchard, found a few ripe volunteer blackberries in our garden, and bought a big basket of peaches at the farmer’s market this morning.  There just has to be a pie soon, right!?!?

Until next week,

Martina Celerin