![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Serpent's Egg
09/06/2006 11:11 pmIzzie decided several weeks ago that it just might be a good idea to finally get the Serpent Sty in order before our grand European Tour. Put off the procrastinating and finally got started on the first day of our holidays two weeks ago. It was a grey and miserable day. Just perfect for pottering and rampaging amongst the rubble.
Decided that we really did not need those silly accounting technologies diagrams and notes from several years back and certainly not a pile of Choice magazines that must have been the best part of ten years old.
It so happens that the biggest stash of goblin stuff is right next to a pair of egg cartons. These don't contain any old eggs but special little critters that the Izzie painted many moons ago.
During the time we were living with our Fairy Godmother, she rather liked the Izzie artworks and asked if we would do some for the kids in the confirmation class that she was teaching . Already came across the lovely tradition of giving specially painted eggs as presents for new born babies (not to play with of course) and thought this was an interesting extension of the concept. So, she would provide the eggs and Izzie would blow them out and paint them. Being the theme of confirmation - birds, goblets and crosses and other assorted Christian symbolism seemed most appropriate. Must have done about fifty or so. Needless to say, some we liked so much that we could not bear to part with and so added them to our own special selection - a portfolio of sorts - you could almost say.
There was green ones and red ones and quite a few silver, gold and copper coloured eggs too. The prettiest were pitch black with gold and silver squiggles of most peculiar plants and other spirally creatures as well as the odd serpent, chalice and crawling critters. Used a lot of dots and blobs and some of the patterns were rather reminiscent of certain Aboriginal art designs. (Influenced rather than snatched or stolen as those were the days before Google and the rest of the world wide web and such art forms were not widely known in Europe back in the early 90s)
Used to really enjoy painting eggs. Due to the 3 dimensional nature of the little beasties, it is quite different than painting on plain old paper or canvas. But eggs are such delicate little things. So so easily broken and more than one filthy poltergeist got her paws on our precious beasties and squeezed the living daylights out of them.
Got to thinking that it would be nice to let the inner artist loose once more. But eggs are just too fragile. Wood is rather more complicated with all the special varnishes, treatments and such.
It was seeing some very pretty little birdies in our favorite arts centre that really got the Iz nostalgic. They are made of felt and other fabrics with the odd feather or two. But what really caught the Izzie eye was the gorgeous dot painted patterns adorning many of the pretty little critters.
One that really impressed the Izzie was rather pink and fluffy and would perch most perfectly in a certain room upstairs - the Den - dedicated to one of our favorite fictional creatures (Not most sneaksy and tricksy gorgeous Gollum but the other critter - the Queen of kitsch, cardigans and quills)
But on closer looking, what we thought was pink turned out to be mainly a rather pure shade of red. It was the patterns of white dots in rows that had created the optical illusion of pinkness. Most impressed indeed was the Izzie.
But it was slinking down south in Bridgetown that was the ultimate inspiration. The place is dripping not just with the colours of autumn - all those golden and red leaves, but it is also a pumpkin eater's paradise. The pretty critters are everywhere. But not just pumpkins but their other relations, bright yellow squashes and other assorted gourds. The place where Izzie always stays has piles of them lying around painted to look like chooks , ducks or water hens or even the odd scarecrow. But there were a handful of little ones - decorated in colours and patterns that would make them perfect ornaments on a Christmas tree. And unlike eggs, there is no need to worry about some silly twit picking them up and squishing the living daylights out of them. So, now we have found the perfect excuse to prepare our own little pumpkin patch. Last batch of bottles we tried growing did nothing at all. But after all the TLC and assorted mulch and stuff, maybe next time will have more luck.
But until then, there's always the bag of half born bears and the stone tablet with the quill bought last year that we still have not even connected to the Preciousss let alone played around with.
Yesss. The Preciousss has so so many toys and we have not got around to playing with the half of them.
Decided that we really did not need those silly accounting technologies diagrams and notes from several years back and certainly not a pile of Choice magazines that must have been the best part of ten years old.
It so happens that the biggest stash of goblin stuff is right next to a pair of egg cartons. These don't contain any old eggs but special little critters that the Izzie painted many moons ago.
During the time we were living with our Fairy Godmother, she rather liked the Izzie artworks and asked if we would do some for the kids in the confirmation class that she was teaching . Already came across the lovely tradition of giving specially painted eggs as presents for new born babies (not to play with of course) and thought this was an interesting extension of the concept. So, she would provide the eggs and Izzie would blow them out and paint them. Being the theme of confirmation - birds, goblets and crosses and other assorted Christian symbolism seemed most appropriate. Must have done about fifty or so. Needless to say, some we liked so much that we could not bear to part with and so added them to our own special selection - a portfolio of sorts - you could almost say.
There was green ones and red ones and quite a few silver, gold and copper coloured eggs too. The prettiest were pitch black with gold and silver squiggles of most peculiar plants and other spirally creatures as well as the odd serpent, chalice and crawling critters. Used a lot of dots and blobs and some of the patterns were rather reminiscent of certain Aboriginal art designs. (Influenced rather than snatched or stolen as those were the days before Google and the rest of the world wide web and such art forms were not widely known in Europe back in the early 90s)
Used to really enjoy painting eggs. Due to the 3 dimensional nature of the little beasties, it is quite different than painting on plain old paper or canvas. But eggs are such delicate little things. So so easily broken and more than one filthy poltergeist got her paws on our precious beasties and squeezed the living daylights out of them.
Got to thinking that it would be nice to let the inner artist loose once more. But eggs are just too fragile. Wood is rather more complicated with all the special varnishes, treatments and such.
It was seeing some very pretty little birdies in our favorite arts centre that really got the Iz nostalgic. They are made of felt and other fabrics with the odd feather or two. But what really caught the Izzie eye was the gorgeous dot painted patterns adorning many of the pretty little critters.
One that really impressed the Izzie was rather pink and fluffy and would perch most perfectly in a certain room upstairs - the Den - dedicated to one of our favorite fictional creatures (Not most sneaksy and tricksy gorgeous Gollum but the other critter - the Queen of kitsch, cardigans and quills)
But on closer looking, what we thought was pink turned out to be mainly a rather pure shade of red. It was the patterns of white dots in rows that had created the optical illusion of pinkness. Most impressed indeed was the Izzie.
But it was slinking down south in Bridgetown that was the ultimate inspiration. The place is dripping not just with the colours of autumn - all those golden and red leaves, but it is also a pumpkin eater's paradise. The pretty critters are everywhere. But not just pumpkins but their other relations, bright yellow squashes and other assorted gourds. The place where Izzie always stays has piles of them lying around painted to look like chooks , ducks or water hens or even the odd scarecrow. But there were a handful of little ones - decorated in colours and patterns that would make them perfect ornaments on a Christmas tree. And unlike eggs, there is no need to worry about some silly twit picking them up and squishing the living daylights out of them. So, now we have found the perfect excuse to prepare our own little pumpkin patch. Last batch of bottles we tried growing did nothing at all. But after all the TLC and assorted mulch and stuff, maybe next time will have more luck.
But until then, there's always the bag of half born bears and the stone tablet with the quill bought last year that we still have not even connected to the Preciousss let alone played around with.
Yesss. The Preciousss has so so many toys and we have not got around to playing with the half of them.
