Two Years Ago

Two years ago I was making these cats. I don't make as many now. Most are custom orders based on someone's pet. I do like making them especially in those instances. It is a bit of a challenge to get the animals personality. I don't know why but they always seem to get a personality. This one is called Sarge. Sarge is up for adoption and can be adopted through my etsy shop. He is not a custom order. Sarge came for a long line of black and white cats that I made just because I like black and white cats.

fabric+sculpture cat etsy backwoodscreations commission

Wednesday Wonders

Wednesday Wonders
Originally uploaded by backwoods creations

Things that have caught my eye over the past couple of weeks. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of talented people that are willing to share there vision.


1. feathers, 2. Treasure Map(detail 1), 3. Light As A Feather, 4. bullnegro, 5. little shack- custom, 6. Miser's Purse- Blue Wren (Female) Jan 2009, 7. red rose, 8. biology, 9. Maquette for a waistcoat

Ronald McDonald House Donation

I have donated this bird with pear mobile to the Portland Ronald McDonald House Charity Auction. There are several other Etsy Maine Team members participating as well. Definately a worthwhile cause to contribute to.

I decided that a single bird accompanied by pears would be a perfect small sized mobile. The leaves are a mixed media paper, paint, fabric and whatever floats my boat stitched onto hand wrapped wire.



I will be making more of these to go in my etsy shop. Each one is unique because each one is individually made.

charity donation mobile mixed+media bird pear primitive folkart

Eye Candy

I love the mosaic tool. Well, I love it now that I know how to use it. I am a bit challenged at times when it comes to these linky webby kind of things. But I do love the items in this. I have been crawling around finding all sorts of lovely things.



1. THE CREW, 2. Stitch, 3. Leaves, 4. Worm Scarf, 5. Heart stone, 6. Chicory Brooch, 7. Victoria Street in Edinburgh, 8. Girl In The White Dress, 9. in the greenhouse

Now I have to figure out how to do this easily with my etsy favorites.

No Knead Bread

I normally don't post two days in a row. But I couldn't resist sharing the results of my first try at the NY Times No Knead bread recipe. It was a breeze!

After mixing up and letting it sit on the counter here is a shot of the second rise.


I must confess that I didn't leave it the requisite 12 hours. I also knew that I wouldn't be leaving it that long so I increased the yeast. However I also neglected to heat the oven with the dutch oven in it a half hour before the second rise was to finish. So it rose an extra half hour. It may have come out denser if I hadn't done that. Also because my cast iron wasn't quite seasoned enough (I thought) I oiled it slightly. I will not do that again! Here is the finished product.



It was quite yummy. I did double the recipe and have the other half aging in my fridge to develop some sourdoughish flavor. Can't wait to try that out. Next time around I will work in more whole wheat vs. all wheat flour as well. Friends of mine have made this a quadruple recipe and over the week just cut off hunks from the refrigerator to shape and rise. Such a simple recipe and so many ways to experiment...ahhh be creative.

breadbaking no-knead cooking recipe

Feeding the Creative Force

This past week I did manage to follow up on what I wrote in my previous post. I did sketch and then used those sketches to work from. I am not entirely pleased with the results. However it is the process that counts. During this process it got me thinking of different ways to work and manipulate the surface. Afterall that dialogue with the creative self is what it is all about.

These are some of the sketches I did. Not all are spectacular to look at. Sketching is about not always being spectacular. It is laying groundwork.

The results can be seen for these two pieces. The multifabric one is not quite done. I want to manipulate the color of the pink. Not quite sure how i will do that. But it is only ACEO sized afterall. Both are ACEO size.



The 3 leaves are more about sampling embroidery stitches then anything else. I like the shapes though.

Both are done on my great grandfather's linen handkerchief. I have tons of them that I stumbled across and have been using them off and on for little sample projects.

ACEO embroidery sketching creativity backwoodscreations

Whoosh! Wiz! Bang!

The title is a good indication of the past week. I did return to work and made it through without much difficulty. The fact that Monday was a big snowstorm that the office was closed helped. Nothing like four days instead of five to put a bit of pep in my step. It gave me a bit longer to spend more time working on my own projects. I am really looking at how and where I want my work to go.

Part of my many big projects that it broken down into smaller project steps (that whole gtd) is cleaning my studio. This is all part of really trying to get in touch with where I want to go with my own creativity as well. It is so hard to work in a cluttered space. What really is floating my boat? Well I found some old, really old, sketchbooks from - oh I would say mmmm, maybe twenty years ago. Some of the themes ares still hanging around. I think I will take a look at those. Way back then I was dabbling in thread and fiber. I didn't have confidence to move forward with it. No time for regrets! I am where I am. It has given me a look at some personal shapes vocabulary to work with. I also was strongly focused on nature and organic shapes. That is still consistent.



As I work on pieces like the one above I sometimes think I should sketch things out more. I was always bad at that.

embroidery art creativity backwoodscreations gtd

Welcome to the Working Week

I am going back to work tomorrow after having the month off. It amazes me how fast it went by, considering I spent most of it in a healing stupor. You know the kind I am talking about. A walk to the bathroom sends you back to bed for an hours nap. It has been only this past week were I have felt nearly myself. I would have a really good day alternated with a really low energy day. Despite that I have really tried to focus on getting little steps towards doing more creative work.

I did some today. But I managed to break my sewing machine needle. Come to find out it was my VERY LAST NEEDLE! This means no picture to share of what I am working on. SO what to do? Well there is this application that allows me to make a mosaic of some of my Flickr favorites. So here is my first ever Flickr Mosaic. It is heavily weighted with some yummy textiles and embroidery work. Not surprising since that is what I really like.


1. Grow Together, 2. Dream Landscape, 3. Doodle Embroidery completed, 4. Things I see every day, 5. Lonicera Pileata ... Freeform Crochet Scarflette, 6. #351 White House Too, 7. Darwin bird, 8. Wire Fox Terrier - ASTA, 9. bead embroidery bracelet

There are so many talented people out there!

flickr mosaic embroidery bird