JoDee Luna's Blog, page 36

Easter Delights: Floral Centerpieces with Rusty Bed Coils

My recent creative compulsion is making florals with rusty bed coils and preserved flowers from my garden. I like to juxtaposition primitive springs next to nests, birds, and feathers. This creates a magical combination that cheers family and friends that gather around the table to celebrate.

The combinations of what you can do are as vast as your imagination is active. I like to collect eggs, berries, flowers, and birds to have on hand for creating florals. Like a painter who selects colors for the canvas, the floral designer selects items for the piece.

Here's a view of the entire piece.

You can also use clay pots in your floral designs. Adding a feather accent makes the combination come alive with color.

One of my next posts will show you how to assemble a spring floral on a rusty bed coil that has a clay post sponged with acrylic paints.

You can assemble the nests with a variety of different colors and combinations. I find this process to be a form of artistry all its own.

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The Promise

Nothing is as sweet as sensing God's Sprit and basking in His perfect peace. The longer I believe, the more convinced I am that true life comes from this intimate exchange.

I often think about what I would tell a new believer who sought to live the life of faith. One thing is for sure, I would tell them about the promise:

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." John 14:26

We need not worry whether we will go astray if we remember that love is a choice—we choose to believe and trust and God chooses to lead us through His Spirit.

 

"Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."

 

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Farewell, Mundane World: Hello, London!

It's happening again, as it has happened so many times before. "Get out!" I hear this little voice in my head saying. "Get out, before it's too late!" It's telling me to run, before I'm stuck in a life I've never wanted or planned for. I'm eighteen years old, and it suddenly hits me, like a vicious wave, dragging my feet down and down until the only place left to go is up. I want to fight my way to fresh air, break the constraints of college, friends, my boyfriend, and the comforts of this mundane life and breathe. So, I leave. I pack my bags, hop on a plane and fly half way around the world.

It's summer and I am in London. This is the first time I am alone and away from home.

They speak English, here. This could be a good starting point, I think to myself. READ THE ENTIRE POST…

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Hollow Man

Have you ever poured your life into a project you were so sure was of God only to find out that it was a hollow man of your own making?

It may even take on a life of its own, but your creation has no lasting purpose. I have. In fact, more times than I care to admit.

I've deceived myself into thinking that the Lord actually inspired me to construct the hollow man. In doing so, an empty promise corrupted my soul. It's difficult to face our hollow man. Those black holes where eye sockets should be only reveal a lifeless form. Even more painful than the discovery that your sweet dream is merely ambition is the process of destroying your hollow man.

First, you have to acknowledge the haunting realization that you've poured years of hard work into something that will never satisfy your soul.

I don't know about you, but I'm certain that casting my hollow man into the fire of God's purifying love is the only way to remain open to true life-giving pursuits.

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Spring into Spring

This post will show you how to make a floral nest using a rusty spring (mattress coil).

I was fortunate to have found a bunch of rusty springs in the field behind  my house; however, you can google them online and find some to purchase. First, take a grape vine garland and cut it to fit around the bottom of the spring.

Next, wire the garland to the bottom of the spring.

Glue flowers to the floral garland. I dry my garden florals with a preservation method you can access with this link, "Saving the Last of Summer's Roses."

Thread the top of the spring through the bottom of the nest.



Glue an assortment of flowers, birds, or butterflies to the floral arrangement.

Feathers are also a nice accent. I also like to add floral berries to the nest.

After you make your nest on a bed spring, you can place it in a lighted window and have some fun with a photo shoot.

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Treasures

Treasures come in unexpected forms; and for me, a recent find was serendipitous in nature.

Several times a week, I walk in the field behind my home. This brisk 30-minute excursion replaces my gym time and gives me a chance to pray and to think. During a walk last weekend, my thoughts filled with concern for two women who are very dear to me. I wanted to find a way to cheer them because they grieve the loss of someone they have loved for a lifetime.

So as I hiked along the dirt paths, a thought entered my mind: I wish I could find something unique in this field that I could use to make them gifts.

No sooner had I thought this than I looked down to see a tangle of rusty bedsprings. My heart leaped because I knew this was a find. My best friend, Barbie, used bedsprings to make décor for her daughter's country wedding. She had told me they were hard to find.

I dragged the knotted mess home and used the springs to create gifts for those I love from something that had soiled the place where I walk.

As I crafted the florals, I thought about the precious coming of Easter—a time when we remember the greatest gift given to humankind. I also pondered the way that God takes the ruins of our lives and transforms them something beautiful…something that endures.

What remains a mystery to me is why I never noticed the springs before. I have walked in this field for the past 18 years and yet saw them for the first time. It was as if they nested there waiting for my discovery.

Perhaps, I thought, this is the way treasures work; they remain hidden until the giver is ready.

 

 

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Remembering France With Love

Music has the ability to bring you back to a place and time distant from the present. It is much more than a memory. It is an emotion and sensation felt once before but not for a long time. I listen to the song, "El Matador," by Jonathon Wilson, and I am nineteen years old in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

It is raining, and I am in love. We are walking hand in hand down the streets of Paris. Outside, it is cold, and rain drops fall down from the sky, but it is perfect. I want to turn and kiss his lips, like you see in the movies, but his clothes are wet and he is cold. Now is not the time. READ THE ENTIRE POST…

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True Confessions Of A Creative Eclectic by Michael Scott

Where was I when they passed out the roadmaps to creative success?  If that happened in Art School, I missed it because I was in the other building learning about statistics, debits and credits.  I'm not complaining.  In fact I feel fortunate that I wasn't programmed with artistic shortcuts and principles as I was in business school. "Pick one thing that you like, do it well and you will succeed."  The next time somebody hears me give that advise to one of my kids, I hope they slap me because I wouldn't be walking the talk.  At times I feel so scattered, I don't know what to do next.

As a blogger, I spend a lot of time reading the posts of others, looking for insights and inspiration.  Last week I read a post by JoDee Luna, the author of an innovative book called Refrain From The Identical. Almost immediately, I picked up on her description of the "Creative Eclectic" and I knew that she had coined a name for my affliction. READ THE ENTIRE POST…

 

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Sing my Soul

This morning is one of those rare times when I am almost wordless, so I only have this poem to share with you.

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Technology-assisted Art

My husband calls my technology-assisted art "cheater art." When I showed him my latest oil painting in process, he chuckled and teased, "So is this the real thing or your cheater art?"

His comments rolled right off my back like water off a duck's feathers because my method helps me to grow as an artist. Although so much of this painting is not yet fashioned, I like the direction it is heading and can complete the rest freehand.

So, I laughed and quickly replied, "Hey, whatever works. Some artists use grids and some light boxes, but I use a computer and a projector. We're living in the 21st Century, aren't we?"

After all, I use high-tech methods to help my middle school students learn to read, so why shouldn't I use technology to help me paint?

The concept is really quite simple. When you project an image onto the canvas, you can see the shadows and highlights, hues and tones, and shapes and forms. This method helps me to set my linear brain aside and function from the creative areas of my mind. Instead of a lip, I see a melon-colored shape with a white blob leaning to the left. Under the eye, I see a shape that resembles a white heart.

The means we artists pursue may differ, but the goal is the same—artistic growth. For this portrait, I skipped the sketching and went right to the paints. However, I've listed a few posts below that will show you how to computer sketch before you paint.

So if you have a painter inside of you hankering to get out, try some technology-assisted art. Here are a couple of past posts to help you get started:

Wanna Be Portrait Painter Uses Digital Tools as Artistic Aides
Oil Painting: An Experiment with Light
Speculation: Curiosity that Fuels Creative Eclectic Dappling

 

 

 

 

 

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