Alpine terrarium

I have an early memory of roving the subarctic forests with my mother, gathering mosses, reindeer lichen, interesting bits of bark and small sturdy plants and returning home to arrange them in their very own biotope.

We'd layer pea gravel or sand, charcoal, and peat moss in a large brandy snifter or fish bowl then arrange the delicate mosses and trumpets of lichen.




Of course, the fun part was adding the final decorative elements: shells, rocks, miniature figurines (a porcelain siamese kitten the size of my fingernail! an owl sitting on a pebble!) As the days grew shorter, the small green world ornamented the frosty window. This weekend's expedition to a glacial lake was a chance to turn some cobwebby memories into green ones.

Seed envelope template

Around this time, I start saving seeds from my flower and vegetable garden to store for next year. Occasionally I give seeds to friends and family, and these envelopes generated a nice response. The pretty motif is from a 1930s Chinese seed catalogue. Here is the template - enjoy!

Button baubles

A few buttony things I'm wearing: a metallic flower ring, dangly french hook earrings, and a black pendant made from a Bakelite coat button strung on sheer ribbon.


I'm trying to visualize the piece of clothing that required a conquistador button.

Pre-war household labels

As a matter of course, my grandmother saved everything. She especially liked recipes and clippings, and while going through a yellowed binder of recipes she compiled, I found these cute and charming household labels from the forties.

I think they'd be perfect to use on home canned goods as suggested, or even as place cards, gift tags, or on bulk ingredients stored in glass containers.
Not wanting to use up all the original labels, I did a high-resolution scan and printed them on some medium weight creamy paper. There's a benefit to preserving the imperfections from the original printing: smears, rough edges and an ink spot or two. I like the unrefined, textured look. If you'd like to print your own, here are the PDF files: fancylabels.pdf, genpurposelabels.pdf, bluelabelslarge.pdf, bluelabelsmall.pdf

Autumn Vine Pumpkin

Vine pumpkins -- that is, pumpkins crafted of vines -- seem to be everywhere this year. Some are huge and have incorporated strings of lights, some are the right size to group on a table. Usually, they're made of grape vines. Lacking wild grape vines in my area, and borrowing ideas from last year's willow wreath project, I made a framework for my pumpkin using willow, Virginia creeper vines, 20 gauge black steel wire, and two 12" wire wreath frames from a thrift store. Spraying the metal frames matte black helped them blend with the vines.
A central post made of willow anchors the six structural ribs of the pumpkin. The metal wreath frames, wired to the top and bottom, add stability and a support for the vines. It's not shown in this picture, but I also put in a willow hoop 'equator' to encourage the round shape.

I'd gotten this far on the project with no real idea of what would fill in the rest of the shape. Since we'd had a hard freeze, I was a little concerned about any vines being pliable enough to bend around the pumpkin frame. Luckily, I found some Virginia creeper that was still bendable with pretty blue berries into the bargain. Since you often find Virginia creeper and poison ivy growing together and both have compound leaves, being familiar with their differences frees you to enjoy being out and about. In our northern zone, poison ivy is rare to nonexistent, but I still know the rhyme, "Leaves of three, let it be/Leaves of five, stay alive."

Florist's wire worked in fastening the vines to the framework. At the top, I gathered them in a big bunch around the core. At the bottom, I wove them through the wreath frame. After a certain density was reached, it was easy to just poke them in the top and they caught on the other vines. Hot glue was good too, if a bit messy.

Before it was completely vine-enclosed, I wound some orange lights around the core.

Here it is, mostly done. It looks a little like those 60's cane hassocks. I wouldn't try sitting on this, even if it didn't have a stem.

A warm glowing pumpkin!

Illuminated rustic shelf

Behold, a wall-mounted light box! It's made of reclaimed wood with a frosted glass panel. My inspiration was Pieter VanTuyl's illuminated shelf. Changing the materials to include weathered, rustic wood created more than a few obstacles.

The challenge in working with reclaimed wood is the presence of natural variations like cracks, knots, old nail holes, rotted bits. These variations certainly add character to the final product but also posed some difficulties structurally. I had a good source for the raw materials, and I went up to the family farm to look around for what I needed.

Most of the wood I found was warped or bent, but finally I discovered a beautiful solid piece of redwood. It was grey with half a century of weather, a strong grain pattern and sprinkled with dark lichen. I decided to use it for the front of my box.

First thing was to build a framework on which to attach the wood and enclose the light. The dimensions of the 1x2 framework were determined by the size of the weathered wood, because I wanted to avoid the distraction of freshly cut edges.

(just pretend the sketch represents both sides of the framework as symmetrical)

I also wanted any brackets and screws to be fairly invisible. With these limitations in mind, the logistics of the thing were puzzling. How was it going to stay on the wall? How to make the screws unobtrusive? I talked it out with my husband, and we came up with the idea that shelf brackets could be hidden inside the box and fastened to the framework. The light fixture would be enclosed in a masonite inner box to prevent light leaks.

The open place in the middle is reserved for the light fixture.

Chiseling out a spot for the glass using a VERY sharp chisel.

And the glass fits in place perfectly, yay! After I returned from getting the glass cut, I discovered I'd made a mistake in measuring. The glass was one inch longer than it was supposed to be. It was a happy accident, because making the glass longer unified the front panel with the top which suggested a connected piece.

The shelf brackets are hidden inside the box, so they are barely visible even looking up from the bottom.

Here's the finished piece mounted on the wall. If I had it to do over I would do a few things differently, but even so I really like the final result.

Iris and Tulip Bag

My Aunt K is a creative inspiration to me. From cutting her own stained glass, creating a tile mosaic for her kitchen floor, sewing applique artwork, beading, crafting a five foot high Swedish straw goat, and knitting just about anything, it would have been hard not to be inspired by her energy. During a recent illness, Aunt K decided to use her time in creating notecards, and I was thrilled to get a set of twelve original designs (here are two of them). Certain motifs are recognizably hers, especially the iris, tulip, sunflower, and butterfly. I decided to make a bag directly inspired by her work.

The bag is made of green/blue broadcloth with an applique of iris and tulip in a neutral shade, satin-stitched with corresponding neutral-colored thread. I used a double thickness of material for the 20" by 20" bag and free-handed the applique. From start to finish it took about 4 hours (at best, I sew at an absolutely plodding rate).