A good start to January 2025

Good riddance to 2024!  In July I suffered a fractured bone in my right hand, in December I had septic bursitis in my left elbow.  So onto 2025 in which I hope everyone enjoys good health, inspiration and creativity!

As for me, I'm back to the graveyard, my favorite place.  This project started with an unfortunate purchase, a piece of think prefelt that was so lumpy I didn't know what to do with it.  I thought to wet felt over top...

...and chose greens and blues.  Sadly, the fibre I added did not fuse to the prefelt but still the end result was a lovely, dreamy landscape of sorts.

Which way was up?

A marshy pond perhaps?

Or a moonlit clearing?  

I went with the clearing after my sister said she could see a cemetery there!  Thanks Doris!  

Using my big garden kneeling pad, I laid out the piece and started adding landscape features:  earth and grasses and shrubs...  and a lovely huge full moon coming out from behind misty clouds.

When I had a background I liked, I cut out gravestones from paper and laid them out to see how to arrange them and to see what sizes would make the image 3D.

I then cut them out of very thin black prefelt and tacked them down.  A mix of a blue-y grey color was felted into the black and each stone got highlighting in light grey where the moonlight hits.  Shadows were also fun, in a greeny-grey color.  

And this was the end result!

Here are some close-up images to see the details of the gravestones.

In muted light, it looks even better!

For those who are wondering, I sewed three loops of felt onto the back and inserted a dowel through the loops.  I then used a piece of pipe cleaner to use as a hook:  since the image may not be balanced weight-wise, it was important to be able to move the hook to where it's needed to get the cemetery to hang straight! 

Graveyard weather

The weather has been wet and foggy for days, and we've been inside busy baking and finally hanging pictures in our living space... I needed a break, so I said to Mom yesterday afternoon, " Let's do something fun."  She said, "Okay, like what?"  I replied, " Let's go the the cemetery and find Dr. Robertson's grave."  Okay, not your idea of fun?  So we hopped into the car without Willow as the weather was pretty wet and drove to the Elora Cemetery.  

Our house was built for Dr. William Robertson in 1891, and he lived 1865 - 1941.  I had the plot designation, D7-9 and figured it would be relatively easy to find... not so!  The Elora Cemetery does not have any section breakdowns, so you're expected to know where the office is and go there first to locate the grave you want!  Gesh!  We were extremely lucky to be there at the same time as the ground's keeper, who was very helpful and patient.  He phoned the office and someone there looked up Dr. Robertson in the computer:  no hits.  So they looked in the old records:  success!  The plot she gave us was G46, close to the chapel.  The three of us hunted for the grave and after a while Mom spotted it, close to a pathway.  Yeah!  

I've read that at the time of his death, Dr. Robertson did not get a gravestone, his plot was unmarked.  Only afterwards did the citizens of Elora raise enough money to have this monument created.  The questions are:  where is Dr. Robertson's body, is it here?  What happened to the money that he had nothing for a gravestone?  And what of Florence, who died in 1930?  Where is she buried?

What a nice spot, and it stopped raining long enough for us to walk around a little.  

A close neighbour is this lovely stone with the elegant draping.

And we both appreciated this umbrella tree.  We figured the stone never gets wet under this dense greenery!

Post Halloween Blues

I can't believe it's already November and Hallowe'en is already boxed up and put away... it was a great month, though, and we did Hallowe'en in style!  

Our Hallowe'en definitely has a cute creepy look to it... here's our door wreath, used for years now.  I made the spider from a little kit, cutest little spider around!

Now, having an 1891 house certainly makes it easier to make a respectable display!  Our house back in Stratford never looked this spook-tacular!  

Inside I was all set to greet the trick or treaters in comfort:  our sunroom is just the best for treat giving, zipping a glass of wine, munching yummies and NOT freezing or annoying the poor pup with the constant doorbell ringing.

As night fell... pretty darn perfect!  In the end we had 59 trick or treaters, with the rain falling on and off but getting heavy around 7:30 which certainly curtailed the routes of the ghouls and goblins out and about.  The costumes were amazing, the kids were all polite and enthusiastic!  Just an awesome evening! 

Here's a wee video of our "home haunt": 

The next day we celebrated the Day of the Dead, our Jack o'Lanterns scaring off unwanted visitors so our invited spirits could enjoy their favorite treats.  A lot more solemn than the night before, we lit the candles and left the spirits alone to savour the goodies.

Still, it's a joyful event... this morning I read the following passage from the book In the Slender Margin:  the Intimate Strangeness of Death and Dying by Eve Joseph and it got me to thinking... 

...the silence, the fear of not experiencing a sign, the finality of death is exactly why the Day of the Dead is so appealing.  Break the silence, create the sign, welcome back the dead and appreciate life!  

And now we wait... 363 days to go 'til next Hallowe'en!  

Dollirium, sugar skulls and resting in peace in paradise

I am so honored that my Cere the Rat is included in Dollirium's Facebook banner for the current exhibit, "The Home Grown Doll Show".  Please do stop in and see all the AMAZING art, the show ends July 5th!  (I have my eye on a cute little zombie...)

 

And, after mending two shirts I took some time to quill, working on the Day of the Dead skull that I started earlier.  This is how far I got:

Nothing is glued yet, so things are a bit crooked but I think it looks pretty neat!  LOVE working with all these bright, happy colors!

 

Vacation photos?  How about a video?  Here is a mini video I took while standing in the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary's cemetery, Angels' Rest.  A stunningly peaceful place, the wind chimes soothed us as we stood and contemplated the souls no longer with us...

 

In print and in process!

So the tombstones are coming along... slowly.  Where does the time go!?

 

I'm using markers to color in the lettering and designs, it's the simpliest and the ink is supposed to be waterproof.  Hopefully we won't be finding out!

 

And imagine how thrilled we were to read this article in the Gorge Film and Art September issue.  Wow, thank you Julie! 

Never too early for Hallowe'en!

I'm sure you don't want to hear this but: there's only 86 days or so before Hallowe'en!  Last weekend Mom and I got our regular stuff done and then took a day to work on our cemetery props.  We're both very excited to have been invited to put our graveyard up in Elora, Ontario, for the Scare Fair weekend, October 19-21.  Thank you Julie and Tim for including us in your spooky fun, we're so looking forward to Monster Month!   

Here I am painting tombstones.  The rat (and other images) were "burned" into the styrofoam using black spray paint.  And I was THRILLED later on when Mom pulled down the welding torch and we discovered that it does indeed melt the foam so I can do all the lettering with this tool!  Awesome!!!   

And here's Mom resurrecting our Corpse Bride.  This Bride was on our lawn a few years ago but vandals forced us to take her in and we didn't use her again... until now!  Mom created a very sturdy neck and shoulders while still having access to the on/off switch at the base of the skull (which lights up).  The gown is indeed a real one, her spine is a stem from a Christmas tree, the base is an umbrella stand.  She still needs a veil and flowers, and white gloves, but we're well on our way!