Christmas countdowns and Sunday's blog pick

I admit, I'm procrastinating. I even decided to change the name of the 12 Days of Christmas swap to the Christmas countdown swap, since Group 2 will open their gifts on the "traditional" 12 Days of Christmas from Dec. 26 through January 6.


Let's check out a jewelry box. This is the outside of box 19. It looks like I need to stick the "9" down a bit better. I combined it, a vinyl sticker, with a strip from a Hershey's kiss tag to complete today's number.


Inside is a slide mount with the slide inside that I painted and drew small dots on using a gold leafing pen. The tiny clothes pins look huge when photographed up close.


It just goes to show how deceiving a photograph can be. These clothes pins are barely an inch long.


I got up early while it was still quite dark out to photograph this box, but simply could not continue. Instead, I went back to bed, not willing or able to face what was inside.


However, as the clock ticked away and I knew I had to face the inevitable, since, as the host, I was responsible for adding this to our Yahoo group folder, I finally removed the ribbon from the box that my dear departed friend Gina Wise had lovingly made barely a month ago. Gina told me in an e-mail that she spent an insane amount of time making the little boxes to house the gifts.


When I opened the box, I found a tissue wrapped gift that I wept over. Look at this beauty. Seven swans could never be more perfectly represented than Gina's lovely art square. A hand cut, collaged, and crowned swan sat in a pool of water made from HVAC tape colored with alcohol inks.


The background was one Gina often used, and although she always made it look easy, there were many steps to the technique she learned in a Somerset article a year or so ago. For even more interest, Gina added fibers and seven lovely colored rings to the fibers.


And although I said I wouldn't show the backs of these squares because they contained personal information, there is nothing here to divulge anything personal, other than Gina's name. The back discloses information about the origins of the original verse that we based this swap on. This was pure Gina, a lovely piece full of color and detail. Once again, I celebrate her art and will treasure this forever.

To lighten the mood (my mood), I have chosen an artist who was even able to put a smile on my face today. Alison Foshee makes gorgeous art out of disposable items such as push pins and staples. Although I found Alison's site by typing in "recycled," I don't call her art recycled or found object art. She uses ordinary, everyday items to make extraordinary art. I was blown away by the cypress branch and maple leaf she made from staples. So, if you like repetition in art, use of common place objects, and a bit of recyclables thrown in, be sure to check out Alison Foshee today.

And a few words about my Silent Sunday post: be sure to click on the photos, because I saved them very large so you could see all the lovely details of this place. They will come up large in your window, so to see the full picture, you will need to click once for a screen sized view and twice to see lots of detail.