The Three Little Pigs are back in the store:

I'm still amazed that the BLHubby has such a specific idea of how the story should go.

He still thinks that I don't have the story correct.  He wants it to be VERY moralistic.  Be a hard worker and build a good brick house and you will be safe from the Big Bad Wolf.

And BLHubbs is really unsure about the girls.

In this set the piggies are sisters.  Why not?

Design Inspiration - More Scherenschnitte

I just love saying shear-n-SNIT- a. Though Scherenschnitte as practiced by an artist like Pamela Dalton makes work that is more folk or traditional in style there are artists that have made this very current.  Here's my wish list on Etsy.

Can We Shall We Valentines Laser Cut

This is done by the famous Robert Ryan or Mister Rob in London.  He sells prints or laser cut versions of his original paper cuts.

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Paper Cuts by Joe

This guy isn't that famous, yet. So his work is actually cut out by him.   He's got some over the top listings in his Etsy shop and lots of fun designs that are within reach.  I love that he suggests that this would be a great first anniversary gift as the traditional thing to get for your first anniversary is paper.

Get to Bed art print by Rural Pearl

I love the images Angie Pickman, aka Rural Pearl does even if they're prints of her paper cuts.  Lots of bird images that are sweet but a little edgy.


There is also an Etsy artist, Cindy Ferguson, I love who doesn't list a lot in her shop but has a blog where she GIVES you templates and tells you now to make some wonderful papercuts of your own.

Print with line from hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

I don't have time for another medium but I could get into cutting paper.

A New Kid in Town - Tuxedo Edition

This addition to the Noah's Ark animals has been living in my sketch book for a while and now it's in the shop.

I have two  categories of animals - Small and Large. The small ones are all cut from one inch soft wood boards.  One inch stock is not really one inch thick but a little thinner. It's cut one inch thick from the log and then sanded or surfaced and as a result it's not quite one inch.

The Large animals are cut from two or more pieces of wood and then glued together.  The pieces are not the same, the animal has a left side and a right so it looks like it's been carved and is "3-D".  

Both are shaped by sanding and with a dremel tool to add more dimensionality.  The painting finishes the realistic effect.  This penguin is a "Small" animal.  I've got a few more small animals living in my sketch book and hopefully will get them made and into the shop soon.

Design Inspiration - Scherenschnitte

I indulged in a picture book from Amazon that I'd been drooling over and it arrived in all it's splendor today.

Brother Sun,Sister Moon

Being a life long Mormon from an all Mormon family that goes back five or seven generations I've spent a lot of my life pretty ignorant of rituals and writings of other religions.  You have to live under a rock though, not to have heard of Francis of Assisi, or, St. Francis if you are Catholic. Born about 800 years ago he is said to have been the first to have a Christmas Nativity Scene, (His was live) so I can thank him for my love for Nativity Scenes.  Near the end of his life (in 1226) he wrote a song of praise commonly called the "Canticle to the Sun".  Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob Have I Loved ) who if we made Saints in the literary world she would be a big one, has "reimagined" the text of this prayer. It's paired with the jaw dropping illustrations of Pamela Dalton and the whole makes me glad to be alive.  Pamela Dalton is a Scherenschnitte (pronounced shear-n-SNIT- a) artist.  Scherenschnitte is the art of papercutting started by the German/Swiss in the 16th century and brought to American in the 18th century where the Pennsylvania Dutch made it their own. If you accordion folded a piece of paper and cut out paper dolls holding hands you've done a rudimentary bit of Scherenschnitte.  But  nothing like Ms. Dalton.

“We praise you for our Brother Sun, who in his radiant dawning every day reminds us that it was you who brought forth light.”

 She hand sketches the design and then cuts it out of one whole piece of paper.  Sometimes she folds it to create mirror images.  She then stains the paper with coffee and colors it with watercolors.  The process makes the paper curl up so she irons it several times in the process.  It's then mounted on black so the image stands out.

“For this life and the life to come, we sing our praise to you. O Lord, the Father and Mother of all creation. Give us, we pray, the grace to honor you this day
and forever more.”

The whole book is beautiful, and tender.  St. Francis (I guess a non Catholic can call him that) praises God for "Sister Wind" and  even "Sister Death".  He thanks God for people who forgive each other! Throughout, Dalton's illustrations show sweet German peasant children and lots of forest creatures.

Available in November

As if this wasn't enough - while looking for info on Pamela Dalton I discovered this! The wish list just keeps getting longer.