ArtFire Collection: Tangerine Fire by emeraldlily

I love orange... always have.... used to be one of my favorite colors during childhood and I guess I never outgrew it :) Today, I just about love every color but shades of oranges still very much draw me in !

Today's Collection, curated by emeraldlily, is called Tangerine Fire and features all sorts of orangey delights...

TANGERiNE FiRE !

Products featured range from supplies: flower seeds, fabric, buttons, graphics, soaps & candles to the decorative: gourds & magnets to accessories & jewelry: handbag, earrings, scarflet. To view this fun Collection on ArtFire, click HERE.

Thanks to emeraldlily for featuring one of Brizel Supplies' designed vintage button sets...

"A set of EiGHT vintage plastic sewing buttons, two different complimentary sets, in a delicious tangerine red color.

FOUR are satin luminescent in a deep tangerine red... measuring 1 1/16" (27mm)
FOUR are thickly rounded in tangerine orange with some subtle white marbling... their centers are slightly dimpled... measuring a little over 7/8" (23mm)"

Click HERE to peruse through my button studio shop, currently brimming with well over 300 lots of modern & vintage sewing buttons !

I'm delighted that emeraldlily featured one of her own delicious tangerine items...

Chunky Woolly Mammoth Tangerine Orange

Neck Warmer

"'wool•ly mam•moth' [noun] a mammoth that was adapted to the cold periods of the Pleistocene, with a long shaggy coat, small ears, and a thick layer of fat.

Treat your neck with the respect it deserves. It keeps your head on. So, keep it (and your décolletage) from draughts* with this mammoth chunky neck warmer. It's like a woolly jumper, only without the jumper bit.

Made from 100% premium wool (from sheep, not mammoths) so it's nice & warm!"

Emerald Lily is created by Kathryn Cairney... Her bio reads on: "I am passionate about what I do, which is why Emerald Lily's mission is to create wearable fashion that you will treasure and enjoy for many years. I focus on designing colourful and stylish pieces that often replicate parts of our environment using a combination of metal and fabric, such as flowers, the seaside, animals and even our galaxy."

Click HERE to visit her ArtFire studio !

ArtFire Collection: Loves Me, Loves Me Not by thesunnysidebiz

Technically summer is by no means at an end but there is a distinct shift in the weather and twilight is arriving sooner at night and later in the mornings. I am not waking up as early as before !

Today's featured Collection is called Loves me, Loves me not... curated by thesunnysidebiz and features a sweet array of marguerite flowers...

LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT

""He loves me, he loves me not..." I heard her say as she walked past my house, pulling the petals, one by one, from a daisy she had just picked from my neighbor's corner garden."

A delightful but dangerous notion to pluck each daisy leaf to assess the status of someone's love and yet there is something charming about the dare. Click HERE to visit HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT on ArtFire.com.

One of Brizel Handcrafts' tagua nut pendants was featured in this Collection...

"Delightful Daisy pendant necklace, an eco friendly Jewelry product made from rainforest tagua nut, aka vegetable ivory. This is a one of a kind multicolored necklace, in tones of white and yellow, and its guaranteed to put a smile on your face and keep you cheerful !

Delighful Daisy features a large flower medallion, made with six natural white tear shaped tagua beads that have been sewn together and embellished at the center with a golden yellow spiral. The floral pendant measures approx 2 1/4" in diameter. This necklace has been made adjustable... strung on a yellow faux swede ribbon. The silver bead located at the top slides down to provide the desired length."

Thanks so much for the feature !

thesunnysidebiz specializes in celestial offerings...

New York Beauty Quilt Square Shoulder Bag

"What really makes this bag a head turner is the fabulous New York Beauty quilt square that I used to make the front pocket. Lined in yellow heavy cotton, this denim shoulder bag has an adjustable strap, a zippered pocket inside measuring 7 inches by 7 inches, an easy to get to pocket for sunglasses or your readers, Large 12 x 12 pocket on the front and flap over the top that buttons down for extra security or can be tucked inside when not needed. Button is metal stamped Sun design."

When visiting thesunnysidebiz you can feel all the love that has gone into Trish's handmade items... the sun, as the daisy, is a perfect representation of the sunny side of love... check out her beautiful studio on ArtFire ! Click HERE to visit thesunnysidebiz :)

Personal project: Silk Tapestry Medicine Pouch

The month of August, being my birth month, is usually a time that I set aside to manifest personal projects. Typically the days are scorching hot and folks being on vacation, sales are quieter than other months of the year. It is ordinarily a perfect time to craft.

This year, however, is proving to be rather different all the way around. I have been busy reconfiguring all three of my online businesses... moved two over to ArtFire.com & I am attempting to learn the ropes there for an overall different experience and I have completely reorganized brizel4TheAnimals on Etsy.com. What keeps me there is my animal advocacy & marketing team... I am currently lining up 'all the ducks' for Team EFA's September Charity of the Month- Defenders of Wildlife- which organization I am responsible for nominating. My animals at home are in need of daily special care which requires me to push through personal growth issues and research late at night for appropriate homeopathic remedies. Twilight is happily producing apples, pears, plums, quinces, figs, olives which I am conservatively picking as I can... AND my sanity requires that I craft so that has to be built in as well :)

I celebrated my birth day with a full moon in Pisces which not only is out of the ordinary but is also my lunar return. Such a special occasion to have one's solar & lunar return on the same day. I could not let the 23-24-25 pass by without taking time to create something very unique.

Meet my new Silk Tapestry Table Pouch...

... a custom bag for my Medicine Cards, a set of animal totem illustrations by Angela Werneke, as presented by Jamie Sams and David Carson. The above shot shows one of their template cards sitting on top of my pouch to display the inspiration behind my color scheme & design.

In the past, I have always made custom divination bags with fabric and beads (you can see my portfolio on flickr & on the bottom left hand column of this blog) ... but my love of silk sari and banana silk yarns, as well as buttons, has had me 'hooked' in this technique for many years now... and I am delighted to continue my affair with such divine crafting materials.

In the Medicine Card tradition, when I did my first card spread, it was to find which animals are my lifetime totems. These are my animal guides... creatures that have selected me to learn and navigate the waters of life under their tutelage.

The front of my medicine table pouch is embellished with the first four directional totems... east, south, west & north...

FOX

CROW

DOG

SPiDER

The back of the Silk Tapestry Table Pouch has my second set of animal guides: above, below, right and left...

BEAR

SKUNK

DOLPHiN

SQUiRREL

And the interior features my ninth totem teacher, within...

BAT

and then there is a tenth guest... a representation of 'me' with Eagle, who soars the highest of all creatures and can deliver my prayers to the great spirits !

I began this pouch on full moon eve, August 23rd, and completed it by sundown the day after full moon climaxed on August 25th. My medicine Silk Tapestry Pouch spent that night and the two following nights moon bathing... so that each side would be 'charged' by the moonlight.

I am still soaking in this beautiful new creation !

RESOURCES

Medicine Cards

Of course, I want to thank the creators of the Medicine cards- whose images I have not shared here due to copyright, information about them can be found on Jamie Sams website HERE.

Silk Tapestry Table Pouches

Brizel Handcrafts has ready made Silk Tapestry Table Pouches which you can peruse by visiting my art studio on ArtFire.com. Click HERE and feel free to contact me for any custom work you'd like me to consider !

Brizel Handcrafts also makes animal totem Silk Tapestry Boxes... you can find these in my Etsy shop brizel4TheAnimals :)

Buttons & embellishments

The Animals Magic Shop & The Faerie Cupboard on Etsy are a fabulous resource for beautiful animal themed buttons. Lisa & Sky are valued members of Team EFA: artists helping animals. Visit their shops by clicking on their store names !

Beads

The hand painted crow bamboo bead was purchased through OutPostJewelry. Click HERE to visit Etsy shop.

Treasury Thanks: Lavender by thedoghouse

I am delighted to be writing this blog today as it features several favorite topics... the color purple, the herb lavender, yummy baked goods, and an etsy EFA team colleague of mine: thedoghouse.

Its hard to know where to begin today's tale... because you see its a chicken and egg thing... but in all fairness, Jane would agree that it all began here:

A snapshot of this year's lavender harvest at Twilight !

What you are looking at is organic dried bulk French Provencal Grosso lavender flower buds... It was harvested and dried earlier this month & then listed into my Etsy shop: brizel4TheAnimals in a variety of weights & formats.

The listing reads: "Create lavender scented aromas to soothe your soul and those you share it with... stuff sachets for your closets & drawers... sprinkle in a bucket for a soothing foot bath... stash in your pillow for an easier nights rest... make tea... mix in with your Herbes de Provence... throw a potpourri... make oils & perfumes... create soap, house cleaners, bug repellent sprays... stuff wedding favors... use for love spells !"

"Organically home grown on my land, far far away from city smog, up in the mountains of Northern California where the air is fresh & clear... where wild hares frolic in the moonlight on the boundaries of my orchards and spiral gardens... I do not use ANY spray on my herbs, either chemical or organic... so what you get is 100% all natural, unsprayed, untreated sun dried organic herbs.

This french lavender of the Grosso persuasion grows in a large scale spiral orchard composed of 18 different varieties of apple trees. Bearded purple irises and lavenders of all kind grow in between the trees and grace us with their lovely blooms all summer long."

That my blog friends, I am told, inspired Jane from thedoghouse to create this absolutely gorgeous treasury collection...

LAVENDER

This divine collection of EFA TEAM products featuring multiple hues of purples- lilac- violet- plum- mauve- rose- LAVENDER is... delicious !!!

Click HERE to visit the actual treasury on Etsy so that you can browse through the individual listings. My personal 3 favorites are... AldanaMica's Capelet Cowl; thefaeriecupboard's Rhinestone Brooch; and layla's wonderful bar of button soap ! But... i have to say that i could easily expand my favorites to include the catnip mouse and the Lavender Days photograph.

- There is something extra special about lavender ! -

I dream about planting more french lavender (especially since I sorrowfully lost a huge 9 yr old Grosso to the wildfire this year) I find myself wistfully thinking about pruning lavender flowers, drying them & making beautiful scented bud. A dreamy visualization of standing in front of a big lavender bush, with gentle sunlight & a small breeze, bending over with my shears & pruning to deposit armfuls of divinely scented flowers in large baskets. Well... I'm enamored :)

Jane, on the other hand, headed to the kitchen to make these:

Lavender infused Cupcakes !

(wistful sigh)

Oh Goddess... my salivary glands get activated just looking at them. lol. Wander over to her website's blog to read an entire post about these delicious treats she made (click HERE to get there). All I can say is... how I wish I had been one of her dogs that day :)

Apart from creating treasuries & baking cupcakes... Jane runs several businesses... one is a dog related affair in which she hikes with dogs all day (lol) and another is selling animal themed products online on venues such as Etsy.com and Folksy.com.

I had hoped to be showing off some of her apparel personally- as in on my body- but I didn't get round to figuring out how to create self portraits that would do them justice ! Instead I will show you her own pictures of my two recent acquisitions...

"Relax... This vintage plum 100% cotton women's T-shirt features a hand printed image in charcoal grey of a greyhound lying upside down along with the caption 'relax'."

What more could a virgo busy-body like me want... than an image of Max, one of Jane's greyhounds, showing me how to rest & relax... on a purple hued organic shirt that is oh-so sooooooooooo soft that I would never want to remove it from my body ? The answer is... a second one !

"Follow The Trail... This aubergine 100% combed cotton women's inside-out sleeveless T-shirt features hand printed pawprints in white on the back & front."

Equally soft and yummy- I feel sure that Molly, the second greyhound in Jane's household, inspired this lovely apparel art. and that was my main birthday present to myself this year. I was a glutton for dog themed shirts...

I highly recommend that you stop by Jane's shop: thedoghouse to see what goodies you might personally enjoy... click HERE to visit thedoghouse !

ArtFire Collection: Moon Magic by Morgaine-du-Mer

We are on a roll here with moon love this week... wasn't that a super nice full moon we had ? Oh I just lovvvved moon bathing with Piscean energy... I was born under a full moon in Pisces so there's something extra special for me about it !

MOON MAGiC curated by Morgaine-du-Mer is an extra lunar special of a Collection...

MOON MAGIC

Many delicious moon themed products and art inspirations with different phases & cycles of the moon are featured here including the mystical blue moon ! Click HERE to see the actual MOON MAGiC Collection on ArtFire.com.

There are some fun and unique listings including a gorgeous triple moon celtic wood carving by a favorite ArtFire artisan, a cartography t-shirt with lunar moonscape, a stained glass mirror, a moon gazing hare draw string bag, ACEOS - photographs and original art... and then one of Brizel Handcrafts' Silk Tapestry Table Rugs...

"Harvest Sun and Moon, a one of a kind mini Silk Tapestry Table Rug... a unique decorative item handmade with silk sari & banana yarns... fabulous for any little table, mantelpiece or altar area !

This stunning miniature table rug featuring a lush orange harvest Sun cradled by the crescent Moon is framed with divine violets and purples. Harvest Sun and Moon measures approx: 11 3/4" height x 6 1/2" width finished size."

Brizel Handcrafts' Silk Tapestry Table Rugs are miniature rugs celebrating divine celestial energy with moons and suns alike... sometimes they have intuitive psychic eyes... My handcrafts are inspired by my spiritual path which is paralleled by my personal growth work. I use divination cards to assist me in those journeys. These little silk tapestries make lovely altar rugs which your deck or divination tools can rest on.

Click HERE if you'd like to see more of

my original & unique Silk Tapestry work !

Thanks to Morgaine-du-Mer who is today's featured curator...

"if you are as enchanted as I am by beings who are unseen by most and imagined by many... If you have ever walked along the seashore and out of the corner of your eye seen a mermaid flip her tail before disappearing beneath the waves... Tread lightly in the forest and caught a glimpse of elfin magick beneath a cluster of mushrooms... Maybe you ambled through a shady glen and became enveloped by the glimmer of faerie light left behind... Or danced at midnight under a full moon and heard an ethereal whisper beckoning you to look beyond the mist... Then come and meet those who dwell in mystical realms... "

Moonlight Mermaid

"What can this mermaid be musing about

on such a beautiful full moon night?"

"An 8"x10" (20.32cm x 25.4cm) Archival Giclee Print created from my Original Pen and Ink/Watercolour/Acrylic on Bristol."

"As a child I could usually be found with my nose in a book, endlessly daydreaming of far-off places, times gone by and magickal kingdoms. The seaside has always been especially enchanting to me.I enjoyed imagining my own fantasy world then. Now I paint it !

I am a self-taught artist working in the mediums of pen and ink, acrylics and watercolours. The original paintings from which I produce the prints take many hours to complete. All artwork is hand-drawn, inked and painted individually; nothing is computer-generated.

I use state-of-the art equipment to create a print that is as close to the original as possible. Each print is made by me on Archival (acid-free) Matte paper with Archival Inks (lightfastness rated at over 100 years if displayed indoors under glass). Seven colours of ink are sprayed simultaneously onto the paper creating a dazzling array of hues. Known as Giclee, this is a more expensive process than laser printing. The detail is sharp and the colours are vivid. Mats and backboards are acid-free. Each print is signed."

If you'd like to feast your eyes on more fantasy art...

swim down to the Magick Mermaid Studio

to gaze on Morgaine-du-Mer's work...

Click HERE to arrive to that island !

ArtFire Collection: The Crescent Moon by MosaiCollage

Another celestial feature today... curated by MosaiCollage... THE CRESCENT MOON is a heavenly moonlit Collection of divine products...

THE CRESCENT MOON

In fact... there are so many delights here that as of today, some of the featured items above have already sold. Click HERE to visit today's yummy version of THE CRESCENT MOON Collection on ArtFire.com. So many lovelies that I personally enjoyed... for example, I lust for mocahete's copper & silver earrings...

I was over the moon to have one of Brizel Handcrafts' Silk Tapestry Table Pouches featured in this Collection...

"Brizel Handcrafts presents CRESCENT NEW MOON, a Silk Tapestry Table pouch and fiber art meditation bag for your spiritual sacred space. A perfect holder for those personal ceremony accessories, ritual altar items and divination tools... Crescent New Moon makes an ideal tarot card holder and dream journal keeper- a divine celestial gift for any occasion.

This unique Brizel Silk Tapestry Table Pouch featuring a crescent moon, is made of handcrafted white silk sari yarn with black & magenta accents and contoured in night blue. It is embellished with dark blue spiral vintage buttons at the back which secure its closure flap. Crescent New Moon measures approx: 7 1/2" height x 7" width finished size"

If you like this Silk Tapestry Table Pouch...

come see some of the others I've created !

Click HERE to visit my lovely ArtFire studio

Brizel Handcrafts :)

But before you do... feast your eyes on this beauty... created by MosaiCollage the curator of the above Collection:

Southwest Pottery in the Moon Light

A gorgeous "mosaic made with ceramic and stained glass. The moon, stars, and pottery are tiles I fired in my kiln. It's backed on MDF (medium density fiber board) so it won't warp in wet conditions. I've sealed both the front (the grout) and the back. This mosaic measures 9 1/4" X 11" and comes ready to hang."

Personally, I think its a magical piece... not only do i love the composition but look at the iridescence !!! It reminds me of a scene from Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, a book that I adore and love to reread on occasion...

MosaiCollage lives "in sunny Tucson, Arizona where I spend lots of time making mixed media mosaics, sun catchers, and wind chimes, including my own hand made tiles. I use glass, wood, ceramic, polymer clay, shrinkable plastic, paint, metal, beads, charms and other found objects. I sometimes grout my mosaics, or I pour resin over them, or use nothing but the objects. I take great care in making my mosaics and want to make all my customers happy with their experience shopping here."

DO take a moment to visit MosaiCollage studio

Click HERE to see more delightful artisan mosaics !