Natures First Green

Everything these days seems to be glowing with inner light. The trees new leaves, the shimmering water and the lush new grass. All this growing and greening has me in the mood for some new creating. Here for your enjoyment are some pictures of recent projects.

In the slide show above I am excited to share some pictures of a series of small travel journals I made with paper from envelopes saved from historic family corespondents. Many of them were purchased by Passport & Go to be included with a travel package for their clients traveling to Egypt.

Below you will find some pictures of items I have recently posted to our Etsy shop.

Enjoy the inspiration of this bursting spring!

New Energy

The new year with its lengthening days, and this late January icicle melting sun must have warmed, and awakened within me, a new urge for action.

I have been moving forward positively on many fronts. A fellow artist (Stephanie Mckay of Rivulette,rivulette.blogspot.com) and I have been tromping around town looking for the perfect art making home for our creative endevers. A studio, with ample space and convenient to down town Burlington. The catch, it must be very, very affordable. We have seen a few and expect to see a few more on Monday. Perhaps soon the Flying Turtle will have a place to bed down.

This past week I have been in major book production mode. I have finished eight so far. Many have paper quilt collages on the covers, and decorative longstitch bindings. I keep developing new designs which keeps the stitching exciting.



Last night I came home very inspired from a brush-making workshop at the BCA clay studio where I learned how to make real animal hair brushes. The focus of the class was to make brushes for glazing potter. I am also very excited to experiment with the brushes for watercolor painting.




Well, guess I'll sign out and see which way the next breeze blows me. I am excited to see where this new year is headed.

Looking Ahead

Hello all!

Our first year in operation is winding down and I am now reflecting on on some of the challenges and rewards of our first official year in business.

In the last week I taught a lantern making class in Hanover at Left Bank Books (all 10 of us had a wonderful time).



We also sold our work at two craft fairs, with mixed success and continue to produce more work for a third craft fair this Sat. at Memorial Auditorium Annex, right next to the Burlington City Arts Clay Studio.

Todays small achievement was learning how to attach my new Picasa web album to my blog. How fun!

I am sick today so it is hard to be excessively optimistic but over all I am very pleased with the progress we have made and what we have been able to accomplish in our first year.


Peace and Light in this dark time as we look forward hopefully to the new years beginning.

Hope

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,..."

Emily Dickinson

This was a week where hope was ever present as was the need of hope.
The hand-ufacturing was rolling along at a measured, yet productive pace. I am learning about time, my use and distortion of it, as I try to consider its value to someone else as it is embodied in a piece of work.

Hello World

New born to the blogging world we here at Flying Turtle Designs are excited to be spreading our wings. Our fledgling art and craft company started nearly 1 year ago is progressing well. With more time now to devote to the business I am excited to share that our work has been accepted into the Frog Hollow Gallery in Burlington, VT. I feel that we have really entered the B-town art scene now. It is starting to feel real. We will also be displaying some of our work at the Shelbure Art Center in their winter show.

With much to celebrate I am happy to share it in our very new blog.

Best to all! More to come!