Glass Pheasant

Here is the project for the week.

Glass Flying Pheasant.

Mobile style piece, the weight catches the wind and makes the wings flap.

Healing Love Page

I confess, when I first read our assignment this week, I thought...eh piece of cake. I was stumped though. Really had to think and examine just how I was going to go about this page. Once I had named it, it became special, which is the point of searching our souls.


I decided to use the DelMonte symbol tag. It looks kind of like a heart badge. This lent to little badges along the edge which became symbols for badges of courage.
1. To face the past and leave it as a memory and accept it as history.
2. To seek out remedies that might not be found only as a little pill...holistic.
3. To take the excessive energy and turn it into productivity and not destruction.
4. To recognize that rest is needed not just when exhausted..to heal.
5. To accept the help and guidance of others but especially of those who love you.

I send Healing Love:
this message of healing love to every mind trapped in illness and depression
These are hard symptoms to acknowledge and find a remedy to alleviate the conditions and how they make you feel. Power comes from within and is met gradually (if at all) Each condition and the symptom is individual as is the treatment so, patience becomes necessary while Dr's. prod and experiment.
Usually there is not a 'cure' so the symptoms are treated while you wonder
will anything ever really help

The only image in the magazine I could find with outstretched arms was a bullfighter...so that is my stencil image..



The shackles represent the disease
breaking the links represent the courage to explore the symptoms and receive each badge.
And to receive the love that is sent.

The hearts are the spillage of love going forth to help the illness plagued to struggle with their inner complexities and to become whole again.
I give forth the energy of healing love.

Glass Box

An event in 4 weeks, Pheasants Forever, a banquet that raises money for habitat renewal and education. Platte's local chapter ordered glass pieces from me for their auction and sale. Glass box, a couple of dog heads with their retrieve, and a pheasant panel in free form. I have 1 piece done. Actually I have 2 boxes done but this one is cleaned up.

The box lids are decorative solder technique, in essence a small metal sculpture.

This is about the best picture I could manage. The pheasant has jumped out of the grass, the 'clouds' help anchor everything as does the grass.

Hope you might make out the wings.

(I can't believe I didn't have any misspellings!)

Healing Energy

This week our soul journaling exercise is giving healing energy. I began my page with soothing color.

My husband is going to be recieving my healing energy.

Craig has struggled with Manic Depression all his life. I am not sure if the medical field acknowledges this is herditary or not. I believe it is, as his mother has battled with the syndrone for as long as I have known her and Craig's siblings do as well.

Our son has symptoms of the illness but has not been officially diagnosed.

This illness coupled with dibilitating regular health becomes a battle.

Lost and Found Page

I am finishing the Lost and Found journal page.

Life is cyclic so I wrote what lost and found was meaning to me in circles.
It reads:
Sometimes lost 'things' of perceived importance brings into focus what we needed to find. Sometimes we never really lost anything and find what we were missing to be in our self all along.
It is a huge circle blowing between realms. (present life mingled with a past)
I interpret the leaf to be the bringer of insight, old and new, as the cycle continues in our journey into our soul.

I will put the picture up when I get home.

I will add that while I strive for this kind of acceptance, I don't always achieve the calm acceptance of the cycle of things, such as a young death.

As I was thinking about this last night babysitting.

I know I would not calmly accept the death of the children as easily the death of my parents.

I would be angry that they hadn't been able to have the chance to leave their mark as that of a person that has been here longer.

Yet, in the big scheme of things as we are supposed to believe, they have left an imprint on us and we are still supposed to be able to realize what their being in our lives, short or long has been to mean.

I am not going any deeper as then it will become a book, not a posting.

I wanted to let it be known that I DO know that lost and found is deeper than just the cycle of life's meaning.

Creepy

I went to bed around 11...read until almost 12 11:45 say
I take the Tylenol pm so I can drift to sleep...sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't
but most of the time I will drift better than without it
I digress
I was asleep
sound!
at 105
something whapped my leg
(like wake your ass up)

which of course I woke up
startled
thinking what the HE....
turn on the light and I hear this like rattle metal rattle kind of sound
and think
oh it was the wind...

I got up and walked to the front
NO wind!

so okay I have to address this noise
so I try to pinpoint it down

and it is in the back where I am ...oh joy
so it sounds like something is trying to dig through the metal door
I begin thinking this has to be a HUGE critter...

so I stare over at the door
but it doesn't really look as if it is being tampered with so I am puzzled

Craig has a plastic barrel of chemical he keeps back there so the temp stays constant on it...
and he has it on a nice stained piece of wood
kind decorates the space ...
okay THAT is where the noise is coming from
then I see "it"!!!

a MOUSE! but he is trapped in a trap I forgot I even had there..
flipping around cause he didn't get trapped where he would just die...it is his leg
well
I think I better get him out or next thing he will pull loose then he is still IN here alive!!!
so I go to the kennel and get a shovel
and scoop him up and toss ...trap and all...him out the door

ahhhh
I feel better
only what if there are more of them
and I didn't want to mess with more traps right that moment

I stuffed a pair of sweat pants around the door
so at the least they weren't visiting me while I sleep..
that issue is solved
only I still don't know what whapped me to wake up????

creepy

Lost and Found Journey

Taking the items I gathered, there weren't that many...a stamp, a charm, the foil from Ghena's cigarette box, the coke label, a receipt from the post office, a "made"cool stamp from an envelope I received today, some ribbon, the envelope from some coffee I made at work..I placed along the long edge of the page. Enhanced with some ink walnut and old paper, and that was the lesson for the day.

Instant Gratification

"Focus" is my instant gratification exercise.

Tore out elements from magazine...layered and layered paint and tape...I hesitated to add another layer...I love it when I see everyone else do this final layer but I tend to over layer the last layer. I wasn't brave enough tonight. I stopped it here.

Focus...it is made by some to look easy and casual, when really it is hard.

I am going to focus on not trying to make my pages 'perfect'.

Focus on being free with my hand in techniques.

Focus to not be afraid to be expressive.

Focus on the experience.

Great exercise!

Journal Page "Misbehaving Glass"

I am still not quite satisfied with the permission slip pages...missing something yet. I decided to give the instant gratification exercise a go...but I am still working on those pages too. Yesterday I did a simple journal exercise depicting the glass replacement day from "hell" at the Lake Andes church Wednesday.

Old cute church was missing 7 windows that had plastic replacements. They decided in March they were going to get real glass replacements and contact me. They waited to long to confirm their project, as I was just beginning to become involved in doing some art faires. In conjunction with my job schedules and JR and Fred's working schedules we couldn't get together to get the windows in.

Wednesday it happened to line up so we went right away.

Glass is produced from different manufacturers. And like anything else has a "grade". The only manufacturer that made sheets large enough to make these replacements 'one piece' is Wissmach. Personally I do not like to work with this manufacturer because the glass has no consistency to its pour and anneal stages, therefore the glass will "misbehave". Misbehave it decided to do this day. I couldn't get a straight break of this sheet for nothing. I ended up having to do some design change and place 2 pieces together for 1. To give it some interest we turned a couple of them to go in a different direction. In the end it was an okay install...and architecturally fine. Since i had to solder though, it took me 2ce as long to complete the install.

Instead of being done at 1 it was 5...from their I went to clean at Fergie's until 10 so it was a very long day.

Gayle, with the church could NOT belieeeeeve how calm I remained with all the off cuts. I just told him I was being tested...a LOT!

But they have colored glass windows now to give them the ambiance of spiritual worship today during their mass.

Working with glass a person does learn patience and to just accept what happens. There isn't anything else you can do...this lends over into life situations too. Working with glass, well any medium actually helps a person spiritually grow. Take things how they come and roll with it.

I think we are getting a new sense of this from our journaling exercises as well...

These pages I kept simple.. a sketch of the church...then I simply wrote the accounting of the day.

Permission Slip

Our first tributary on our newest journey was giving ourselves permission to...

as I listed my permission statements to myself, I realized that they sure flowed over to other areas of life. Now this of course is not an AHA revelation but, as we are examining our "souls" and why we are and try to become who we truly are...it IS important to correlate when it deems fit.

I haven't written it all out but I did examine it.

My picture shows that I have done my permission slip and an envelope is ready to take the slip in. Since this picture I did give myself permission ;) to elaborate a bit more on my journal pages.

I haven't finished so there isn't a final picture.

I shall post it when it is finished though.

And guess what just happened...I hit spell check and had zero errors.

This is amazing!

New Journal Journey

Belonging to the yahoo group Soul Journal http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoulJournal/
...we as a group work on the same themed pages...

Our new journey has started...

Our very own Kathryn The Collage Diva one of our moderators, is heading up this journey. Go to her blog... you can get there by clicking on her blog in the side bar.

She has our daily exercise on her pages. Here I am showing day 1 and 2.

(So it won't be very hard for YOU to catch up)

Day 1 My scanned items comprised colored paperclips, staples, and asprin...pretty much my office supplies.
Day 2 added my wash...green
Today we make an envelope and she gives us a template..

New Glass Project

Sept 6th saw the day the town merchants as well as other participants had been working towards......Old Fashioned Saturday.

With it's success and finish we are now preparing for hunting season.

Don't get all turned off.

Living in the rural mid-west times are tough. This is a farming community. No big factory jobs. Not a lot of people, and few jobs to begin with.

Spending visitors to our area, are what we live off for a whole year. Until their season comes forth again.

Hunting and fishing and camping surmise a big part of our survival.

So, that explained...hunting season is nearing and I am preparing the items that the fellas like to take back with them as gifts, or just to be reminded of their times had here.

The glass is almost cut for the new project, next I grind the glass, then foil, then solder it together.

This project is rigged up much like a mobile. There is a counter weight, will be a sprig of wheat, and it hangs below the bird. This will catch a breeze and set the bird into motion.

The wings will move.

It is called the Flying Series...and this model is a Pheasant.

Here the glass is laid out on my pattern...

Just Gonna ASK

The other day I was reading the messages on groups...only I forget which group, and I can't find it in the group messages as far back as the 3rd.
I know you have seen the side bar and floating words describing...whatever of the blog within. Some of the fellow bloggers have this feature.
It is called???something and has a site even to go to and create your own word fog...this is the message I was looking for.
Or even better HOW does one create a word fog on their blog?
help

Fire At Work

and whyyyy aaaaam i home at this hour do you ask
because fergies caught FIRE!

i went to the post office
i hear the fire bell
and the fire engine pulls a loopy in front of me
and i see the one further up the street
come across the street but at the end of the block there....
small town ya know

and i see him back back up

oohh this doesn't look good
immediately i think that fergies is on fire

and i see this big huge ball of smoke plume up
nope this doesn't look good at all

then marlin (owner/boss) comes fllllying down the road and looks as white as a sheet
he had to be doing 100

so i go into the po

and i ask paul what is on fire
he didn't know yet

then elaine comes in
i know she knows she has a radio
she says it is fergies

i says oh nooo
so i go home to change my shoes in case i can do something
but when i come back the street is still blocked off so i call ...colleen...fill her in

when i get back i can go up
so i do

marlin was cooking the brisket for tomorrows festivities
and he flipped it
the flames shot up and got sucked up in the hood
then the hoods grease caught fire
he went to pull the ring that puts just such a fire out
and_ nothing_ happened!
that was when he flew up the road to go get ghena
after calling the fire department

it ended up the kitchen is toast
but now they will be able to get the hood they did need...
but the bar is still serviceable
so
after we got things cleaned up in the bar
she is opening tonight in 2 minutes
but she won't really need me
so i came home

i wouldn't think it should take but a couple of weeks to build a new kitchen
basically all is needed is a new hood
the grills are fine
maybe a new ceiling
and new microwave
that one melted
everything else was fine
didn't even get the boxes of beer wet!
and they line the wall from the kitchen to the door
so
that was enough excitement for me
i work at the creamery at 9 in the morning so i am gonna go on to bed now..

Finally...

I have a moment to post to my blog.
I love the new feature following blogs with a time line update. I am not quite sure how it all works yet or what needs to be done to update my blog with this cool feature, but I should figure it out.

Yet I am still trying to figure out how to place my award (offered by Kathryn Antyr -CollageDiva) and name others that deserve an award recognition within...I will get time to sit and ponder this once winter comes..

Meantime, I am excited the soul journal pack has created a group to keep journals alive and keep the new found entities with in the spirit inspired and viewing.

I have a LOT of journaling to do to get myself up to speed, because I want to keep apprised and fresh along with the group.

If anyone happens to follow the soul journaling list and fall onto my blog, even tho I am behind...go to the yahoo group soul journaling:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoulJournal/
inspired by our own Sarah Whitmire, beginning the project on her blog
http://www.sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com
taking us into the journal soul...

there is a lot of encouragement, beautiful artwork for inspiration, and journal prompts to keep filling the pages of your journal.

Know this has been a grand experience and revisiting journaling techniques was just the boost to get me active in my art journal again.
So, get your muse in gear and get thee journaling!