This is a fabric card I made for a Christmas Card Swap in one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to. The recipient featured it on the Group home page.
It is old upholstry fabric, ribbon, custom dyed felt and the bells are on a canvas transfer with some minibells attached as an adornment.
I've waited for my swap card to come, but I've come to the conclusion that the person who drew my name didn't bother to send one. This is not the first time this has happened with this group, so I probably won't be joining any more trades there. First time, shame on me, second time shame on you! If I went for a third time, then I'd consider myself a fool!
While Goodwill shopping, I saw a few wine bottle openers in a basket of cutlery and noticed they looked like figures with outstretched arms, so I thought I could make some Dadas with them. Here a two of them, not quite finished, but you get the idea. The one above has a brass butterfly attached as wings. The base is a strange wood and tin thing--I cut it in two and used the second piece as the base for the second dada. Everytime I'm out at Goodwill, I look for similar openers. They come in various shapes and sizes, and seem to be made for dada making!
I really got into making Dadas after reading the book by Opie and Linda O'Brien, "Who's Your Dada: Redefining the Doll through Mixed Media". These bottle opener dadas were so much fun to make that I decided to take a weeklong workshop next year in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
The Masque of the Yellow Moon is an ancient Native American tradition, a time to pause and give thanks for prosperity and good promise at the time of the full spring moon.
The Masque of the Yellow Moon also represents a wonderful Phoenix area pageant held from 1927 to 1955, where 3000 high school students participated in a spectacular costumed celebration. Attending this yearly pageant was one of the highlights of my childhood, and now serves as my muse.
Long ago, I settled on this piece of mind, clearing a spot for memory, making a road so that the future could come and go, building a house of possibility.
I came across the prairie with only my wagonload of words, fragile stories packed in sawdust. I had to learn how to press a thought like seed into the ground;
I had to learn to speak with a hammer, how to hit the nail straight on.
When I took up the reins behind the plow, I felt the land, threading through me, stitching me into place.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.
