An Honest Playmate, and Self Mastery

No problem here with the rush to sexualize the kids, or with glitzy plastic acoutrement, these are natural kids, and a natural child is a lot of fun.  They may be a little patched from skidding into home base, with grass stains and dirty feet, but they are completely loveable and just plain kids. They get along pretty well, most of the time. Their summers last for a long time, time enough for extended adventures of limitless days awaking joyous to sunlight and promise. Remember going to sleep to the sound of crickets and waking up to mocking birds?

These ones are stuffed with recycled sawdust from the local lumber store, and dressed in hand dyed salvaged fabric. They have old mother of pearl buttons for eyes, french knots for hair and embroidered smiles.

Couldn't you use a good, honest playmate?  Of course you could!

I'm relisting some of my older things, these dolls and some wall assemblage pieces from 2009. I like to keep a lot of variety in my shop, so please don't be confused by it all -- there are actually similarities between these pieces and the jewelry I make.

Should I go, or should I stay? The Chimera's Dilemma -- a little boy-faced bird perched on an old spool, in the doorway of the house, wondering whether to migrate with the birds or stay home, either way, there's yearning involved. If you go, you long for home, if you stay, you long to fly.  It is a dilemma.

Here's an altered Altoid tin (a favorite format), with a theme of "Master," and whatever thoughts may be inspired by the face I found on an antique cabinet card. He seems to have alot of composure and self mastery, but he is a bit odd, too. It features also scraps of my own marbled paper (from before you could find the ingredients or kits, from before the net, back when I was in school, mom saved it for me), a scrap of pressed brass, and a grand old key tag, wrinkled and stained, that finally found its home, just short of the trash pile, and of course the master key. And the great old electrical cord, with copper wires that got shorted, covered with fine cotton braiding. It's a bit of a challenge for some, but I do love this piece, and have kept it on my studio wall. Now that I am making more space for newer work, it's getting listed on Etsy.

We've had a brilliant summer here, and now the first cloudy and cool days of approaching autumn seem like a loss.  Enjoy each day my friends, change is the only constant!