My leaf and I

Here I am at the exhibition where all the 87 south Swedish leaves were shown. I look happy don’t I? It’s because it is finally finished, ha-ha. It was great fun seeing how all the artist had made different interpretations of the leaves, not a single one looked the same or even similar. I can’t wait to see the rest, all 1913 of them in Stockholm in June. Although there was a lot of fantastic stuff there the most colorful “thing” to be seen was my dear friend Anna with her amazing knitted shawl.

She made it herself of course. Know wonder she is a constant source of inspiration to me!

Jeanette

The leaf is a FAL

This is my leaf – finished at last. I used all the stuff that I love the most. The inner leaf is made by wire covered with paper mache and then painted white. The birds and the squirrel are made from soda cans and the flowers are made of tea light cups. The heart is hand carved from a birch branch. The text around the leaf is added using decoupage and is a verse from an old Swedish love song. Last but not least I made a tiny embroidery and added to the stem. The whole leaf has sort of a love theme so when I made the embroidery I was thinking about the way lovers carve letters in the bark of a tree. So naturally it had to be J+P - the first letters in me and my husbands names.

Next week I will send the leaf off to the organizers. In March there will be an exhibition of the south Swedish leaves here in Malmö and then the big exhibition is in Stockholm at the beginning of June. Oh I can hardly wait …..It will be so much fun seeing all the other 1999 leaves made. 

Jeanette

Sneak peak

I am working on my leaf for the exhibition. I go from joy to despair. One minute I am SO content with the result and the next minute I hate it! Recently I learnt that there will be two exhibitions, first one in Malmö showing the leaves from the south Swedish crafters and then a second exhibition in Stockholm (the big one!!) where the 2000 leaves from all over Sweden are shown. Now this doesn’t lower the pressure I am starting to feel one bit! Not many weeks left now before the deadline either.

First I meant to do a wet felted piece. I even started on it…..Then I decided that I wanted a different feel to it all together. My leaf is a combination of metal craft, paper mache, wood carving, decoupage and some embroidery. One can say that it’s a mixture of the things I like to do the most…

Here is a sneak peak…..

Take care

Jeanette

Watch duty & wood carving

My husband had to mend the tiles on the barn roof on Saturday and I was assigned to watch duty in case he fell down. That was about as exciting as watching white paint dry but luckily I had my carving knife with me and after I found a few birch branches in the wood pile I had much more fun. With one eye on my husband and one on the carving knife I happily carved and carved. I used the branch “as it was” meaning that I tried to see what it resembled and then carved after the image I had in my head.

When my husband was finished I had three little figures. A bunny,

 a
party fox

and a rabbit with moveable arms and legs.

When I got home I gave them a stroke of paint with a little help from a friend….

Wood carving turned out to be a good cure against boredom!

Jeanette