The Amanita Mushroom Makes a Magical Wreath

Ha!  I'd never seen this one before -a holiday wreath made from the red and white amanita muscaria mushroom via Studio 391 Gallery in Mendocino.....Apparently , some are claiming Christmas traditions as harking back to Siberian shamans, high on amanita  flying through the woods with their reindeer spirits.  Or something like that....you can read about it here..   Or go here and scroll to the end where you will find this theory completely refuted.  Whatever the truth, there is something magical about coming upon these fungus in the woods (it's only happened to me a few times while out picking chanterelles up in the Mt Hood National Forest) and I love how they are celebrated here in this wreath.  (P.S.  They look fun in a wreath but don't ever try to eat them)......

There's Something About Tillandsias.....

How is it that tillandsias in all their earthy, organic, tropical strangeness can look so good with everything?  Even something frilly and romantic and victorian like this all glass box?

Click here to see something else we've done with tillandsias....and here and here and here too ! Oh here too.
Okay I just can't get enough of them....And we have a great selection right now.

Join Me on A Mexican Art Making Adventure

I am so pleased and excited to let you know about this trip I'm putting together with Jill Cardinal....You may remember Jill is a mixed media collage artist who has been offering classes at Oregon Art Supply......A few months ago Jill came to me and proposed that we offer a journal making  trip to Mexico and after much dreaming and visioning,  I am happy to tell you , our plan is finally hatching.  Now we just need fellow adventurers like you to join us.  The thought of making art for eight days in Mexico with a group of like minded folks sounds a little bit like heaven to me.  If it does to you, click here to find out more details.....And any help you might give us in spreading the word would be greatly appreciated.  P.S.  Not only will we make great art, eat fantastic food , and see amazing sites , I also promise to share with you two of my favorite shopping places in Oaxaca!!

New Favorite Color......

Another comment on the Country Living cover.....there were those amongst us at Passionflower who had some harsh words to say about the toile covered pumpkin, but I paid them no heed....it was actually the mustard colored quilt pattern on the white pumpkin that caught my eye.  Call it golden, call it amber, call it mustard or "moutard" if you will, but I am seeing this color everywhere and liking what I see especially when I see it backed up with white.

                                             
                                                                                                        

  Star witness number one to my new love affair with mustard, this beautiful backstrap loom woven runner I brought back from Teotitlan de Valle in Oaxaca.....to me it's a timeless piece with a great folk arty vibe..... and it lightens up the whole room while still being very mellow.                                                                                                             

Back from Mexico....

 

Having landed back from a great trip to Oaxaca, I still don't feel like I  have both my feet on the ground..... like part of me is still there......and part of me all gearing up for fall and the holidays at the store....

The photos are of some of my favorite masks from the wall outside my room where I stayed at the most highly recommended, dear reader if you ever were to find yourself in Oaxaca, Casa Colonial 

 So I'm transitioning from the sunny skies of Mexico to the damp Northwest autumnal cloud.....

And thinking about how much I would like to go to Oaxaca sometime for Dios de los Muertos.....

A Procession Like Few Others.....

I have been to New York, Paris, Cairo and some places in between but few have had the cultural depth and complexity of Oaxaca.

\

Here's a procession in Teotitlan de Valle, a prosperous weaving village a short drive from Oaxaca City.  The unmarried young women parade through the town.  They're preceeded and followed by surprisingly excellent marching bands, and then there are men in beautiful dance costumes, a clown or two, large balloons, and lots of noise and firecrackers.  You can see they are each wearing beautiful cochineal dyed, handwoven skirts.

 And they were each carrying a beautifully decorated santos figure on their heads.  This was in no way a show for the tourists......except for a tall, white haired, gringo with a very long camera lens, we saw no other tourists....this was a community celebration that harks back to traditions that have existed since before people can remember      - something that I'm not really sure why, but watching an event like this always instill in me a feeling of deep peace and hope for the world........

P.S.  I realize these recent posts from Mexico are a little off base from the world of Passionflower but all work and no play makes us all dull people and besides I thought it might be fun for you to see the kinds of things that I feel inspired by.

What I Brought Back from New York International Gift Fair

Here's some cards I picked up on my little jaunt through the aisles of Javitz Center.  Clockwise from top left:  1) Look for some great pillows from coral and tusk ( plus what might be my favorite heart  card ever) coming soon to Passionflower.  2)  Brooklyn clothing designer pipsqueak-chapeau -  unfortunately
we don't carry her line, I just always bring back one of her cards for Becky.  3) And finally Rhode Island based glassmaker, LBK Studio whose work we are expecting in October.
Her work was my favorite thing I saw at the show.  And no I didn't buy the wasps nests embedded with glass but to get a little sneak peek of what I did get click  here . 

City Girl or Country Girl

That's what someone asked me recently. Was I a city girl or a country girl. Well I'm a little bit of both and sometimes it's hard to choose. Loving my journaling class I'm taking with Jill Cardinal at Oregon Art Supply.

Things I Love

Well it's so shabby that it's not chic....just call this post the opposite of trendspotting....but even though I wouldn't want to sit here, or snuggle up and read a book, or pet my cat, I could stare at this burlap chair for hours.....it's the refined and the rustic living side by side that works for me.

There's a lot to be said for slowing down and doing nothing more than basking in the pure pleasure of just looking at something. I guess that's one thing I'm trying to make happen at the store.

A Little Experiment

A wreath of butterfly wings.....I want to pin them on and use small signs and text and not exactly sure what else.

It's not quite what I'm looking for plus it's completely fragile and impractical.....

Nonetheless, I think I'll keep working on it.

Easter Egg Containers.....

Ceramic egg cartons...they'll hold a dozen eggs.....love, love, double love them. They look cute in the fridge. But they weren't selling so well in the store. I decided to do something to show them off a little bit.

Here's my little montage of spring flowers in shades of pink.

I'll tell you a little secret. The tip of green fern was the last thing I added and I think it brought it all to life.

It was really pretty. And since Becky is now in love with her new i phone, she had to take a picture using her hipstamatic app. Which seems to be the go to app which has enchanted one creative person after another. I can see why.

Pretty nice photo, dontcha think? Thanks for that Becky.
And click here, should you like to get that hipstamatic app for yourself.

The Amazing World of Flowering Grasses

You know those blogs where people write about their imaginary closets and show you pictures of all the clothes they would like to have in them? Well this is about my imaginary art collection and all the work I would like to have in it. ( Of course there would also have to be the imaginary amazing building to house the collection and all the imaginary time in the world to enjoy it.) These prints by a childhood friend of mine would definitely have a room or two in said building.

Matilda Essig lives in the American Southwest and has been working on restoring native grass habitat on her property. Simultaneously she's been making these large scale giclee prints - almost three by four feet- of the various grasses on her land.

...There's just so much to love here. We don't usually think of grasses as having flowers. And beautiful ones at that. Plus these images allow us to contemplate a world that's hard to see.
And they make me think so much about grasses and how much they give to us ......mostly all of our grains like rice and corn and wheat are grasses....and about wind polllination....I can almost see the wind blowing these grasses about...oh and about so many other things too.......Click here to go to her site Matilda Essig dot com and see more of her work.....and click here to read the article about her art and restoration experiences.

All images courtesy and copyright Matilda Essig.

The First Day of Spring

A day to bow down and kiss the ground.
Happy Spring!

More Blogs we Love

There's a lot (I mean a lot) of great stuff out there in blogland.....here's a few more of our favorites we're adding to the roll......

Binth - a Chicago graphic designer....we like her take on life......she's modern and yet seems to take a lot of quiet inspiration from old traditon.

Studio Choo - they have a quirky little take on nature. You may know them from the spot they do on Design Sponge called "We Like It Wild".........

And my new favorite bloglove Things Organized Neatly which speaks to the collector, organizer, arranger in all of us. Let me know what some of your favorites are and maybe I'll add them too!

(photos from top to bottom courtesy: Binth, Studio Choo, San Francisco artist Lisa Congdon's Collection a Day Project via Things Organized Neatly)

We Love Resurrection Fern

We're adding some new blogs to our blogroll.....(and because I don't want to assume, the blogroll is the list on the right that says "Blogs I love"....hand culled by me....you can go there anytime and click to get the most current updates for the particular blog....it's fun, like creating your own inspirational reading list.) I first came upon this blog Resurrection Fern by landing in her etsy shop knitalatte. One of the things she likes to do is crochet rocks like those below.....

The Etsy shop led me to the blog which I find myself going back to over and over......it's full of quirky meditations upon nature, a pet snail, and lots and lots of inspiration.


Enjoy!

(Both photos above courtesy Resurrection Fern)

And now for something completely different....

I live in Oregon. It rains a lot. Especially this time of year. But there is something about living in this climate and having an ongoing love affair with the water element. And yet here I am longing for summer (photo below)......

Waking up from a long winter nap.

All I can say is "Wow" and "Thank You" to however it was that this article which you can click onto here landed in my inbox. It's about artist Jason de Caires Taylor who is taking art outside the gallery. He makes life size sculptures that he installs underwater and documents them becoming part of their natural environment. Makes me want to live underwater.

(photo from Jason de Caires Taylor via 24flinching.com )

Storefront Windows

I love it when someone can break through the visual clutter in our world and create something that actually makes you stop and look.....such was the case in this charming window from our downtown neighbors at Moss Hair Studio. They're on 7th and it's a busy thoroughfare. They said they wanted to "talk to the street"......

It certainly got my attention.
I say keep talking....
Who knew green paint, upside down branches,
paper, and string could be so arresting?

I have no idea how they cut hair, but if it's with half as much care as they put into their windows, I'd say you're in good hands.
Kudos to Moss Hair Studio for making our litte world in downtown Eugene a more beautiful place.

Love Note #9

Here's some images I culled online to put you in the mood to write that just right Valentine's love letter.............

And don't fret, if there is no "better half" in your life, you can always write a love letter to yourself. At Passionflower we have a store packed with handmade cards, inspirational books, rubber stamps, and other ephemera to get you inspired.

(Images above came from -top to bottom - San Francisco Floral Designers Studio Choo, Chicago graphic designer Binth, and calligrapher Marina Marjina.)

Our Secret Lives

Dudes & Dudettes - you probably don't know that Becky Tonkin (our amazing mangager at Passionflower) has this super beautiful tumblr album.....which is a collection of photos she has gathered from various sources that she finds beautiful, compelling, or which speak of a certain feeling............

Here's just a sneek peak at a few images....to whet your appetite......



It is eye candy at it's finest.....

Nay, more than candy, it's a visual feast. Click here to go to archaic youngster(her tumblr site) and see more!!!

(photos from top to bottom pinmarklet, leonorefini , metropolitan museum of art all via archaic youngster )

Fascination All Around Us

I have lately become enamored with this tumblr site called things neatly organized....

And if you have photos of things you've neatly organized you can submit photos for this site too........

It is a fascinating visual meditation upon humankind's constant attempts to make sense of the world around us.....and to create order out of chaos.....