Trees and Birds: My Photo Gallery for Today

Here is her Etsy shop

My first photo to share today is a whimsical tree that is blooming with buttons! I am always interested in seeing how other artists pay tribute to trees, which is one of my favorite things to do. This is a beautiful new work by Sascalia, a friendly artist I found on Etsy.com. It is fun for me to get to know this talented lady from Great Britain. The original work was sold so quickly, and I had my eye on it! I'm happy to own a reproduction that was applied to a wooden plaque. The colors are bright and the detail is wonderful. It is hanging by my work table and I enjoy it every day.

My next photo to share is from one of my favorite customers, Kitty, and the Freckled Bird Pillow I made for her bedroom...it looks smashing on her quilt! It was a fun project because it began with her sharing photos of her bedroom and a conversation about how she would describe the various colors she wanted me to match. We ended up calling the red wool I should use Tomato Soup, and doesn't that just conjure up a particular shade of red? I believe the results were spot on and I'm glad that Kitty is pleased with her new folk art pillow!

If you would like to arrange for a custom item from my Nestle and Soar Studio, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at georgianneholland@comcast.net.

Time flies at year end!

Museum of Contemporary Art Show in Boulder Colo.

I am astounded that I haven't touched my blog since December 8th! I haven't checked in with the folks I follow, either, so I am really out of the loop! Besides my annual gig as Santa's little helper, I've been spending a lot of time planning and scheming about how Nestle and Soar Studio will function in 2011. This is a fun and terrifying job!

My new website is almost ready to go live, and that is something I've wanted for a while. I've been showing my folk art in museum shows and craft fairs in Colorado in November and December, and it is always rewarding to watch people look at my art...wonderful to receive face-to-face feedback. I am also designing a new series of bird-inspired valentines in time for the love-fest that is February! If you love love, you'll enjoy this new series.

Grandpa and Brayden (our littlest Santa)

The most important thing I've been doing for the past 3 weeks is getting ready to host family and friends for Christmas. Our kids and their kids won't all be able to gather at one time this year. I send out my heart to all of you who, like us, have kids in the service this holiday season. No matter how, when, or where we "gather" in body or in spirit, may each of our homes be filled with peace and laughter as we close out 2010 and prepare for 2011.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

Plant a Tree with your Holiday Gift Giving!



Bold and modern red and black colorway...

I am excited to be able to combine a wonderful Holiday Special on my Etsy.com shop with the planting of a tree in the National Forest! My most popular wool applique design, Bird's Eye View, comes in multiple colorways.

Through the end of 2010, I am offering these 16" x 16" handmade pillows at a Holiday Special price of $49! Each time you order from my Nestle And Soar shop on Etsy, I will have planted in your honor, a tree in our National Forests through the Arbor Day Foundation.

I invite you to visit my Etsy shop to see my entire line of Bird's Eye View pillows. If you visit my Holiday Special page on my Etsy site, you can select from all the colors I offer.

Another wonderful advantage to ordering from Nestle And Soar, is that I use lots of TLC when I ship my pillows [I will ship directly to the address of your choice]. I place each pillow in a muslin pillowcase, wrapped in a satin ribbon. And if you would like, I can leave blank the Arbor Day Foundation card, which will help you use that card (explaining the Tree Planting), as the gift card for your friend or loved one. How easy!

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

Beginning the Folk Art Design Process

Sheet wool felt and pillow back fabrics in my studio.

Sometimes I begin the process of designing a new folk art item by sketching at the park or while visiting the Botanic Gardens in Denver. Sometimes I am inspired to create a bird needle felt after seeing an episode of Wild America or National Geographic on television. Today I began the folk art process by looking at my supply of felt and fabric in my studio.

I am motivated by the feel of fabric. When I was 16 years old, I worked as the sample sewer at our local fabric store. They would hand me a pattern and fabric and tell me what they wanted sewn. They had a little sewing corner in that store and I would love sitting back there making their pattern sample! But mostly I loved walking around that store and touching all the textures of fabric that they sold. Nubby wool and slick silk, the softest fleece and the stiffest denims; I loved them all!

In my studio today I was mostly inspired by the colors of my wool sheeting supplies. I order often from the nice people at Prairie Point Junction in Cozad, Nebraska. From them I can buy 90 colors of wool felt in sheets or yardage. Once I ordered their Wool Felt Sample Pack which included a 6"x9" swatch of all 90 wool colors! What a treat to play with a huge color variety---now that really did get my creative juices flowing!

I am working today on a series of pillows that I will embroider on my lovely Bernina sewing machine, instead of embroidering by hand. It feels kind of naughty saying I will make something without complete hand work! As I practice making machine blanket stitches, I realize that I am much better doing that stitch by hand, but the machine results are starting to look pretty darn good! Using my machine, I can create 3 pillows in the time I normally spend making 1 using handwork. If I can make the machine-sewn designs look good enough, I will be able to charge less for each pillow, and I hope that will make my folk art attainable to a new group of folk-art lovers.

The bottom line for me is that I am so happy when one of my items is sold and I can mail it to a specific person who is excited to receive it. The energy there is one of the most satisfying parts of my life as an artist.

Well, I'm off to the studio again. I came upstairs for another cup of coffee, and before I knew it, I was chatting with all of you! Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

Freckled Birds Folk Art Pillow

I have freckles and so do my birds! This fun folk art pillow was recently featured in an Etsy article title A Colorful Countryside, and it has been fun to see how many people from around the world are enjoying these little birds! Click here to read the article. A Colorful Countryside Article.

There are many ways to applique a design like these birds. Lots of folks are enjoying the raw edge applique technique, which my design could be described as, because I did not turn under the edges of the birds when I sewed them. My birds are made of wool felt, so they will not fray or change shape. I found a helpful video about raw edge applique using a sewing machine, if you'd like to learn more.

The method I used for making my Freckled Bird Pillow involves all hand embroidery. Using embroidery floss and a simple running stitch, I apply the felt birds to the taupe linen pillow front. I know that it would be faster to sew these birds on by machine, but I like how the hand stitching looks in this design. I've sewn seed beads onto each bird to represent the freckles. It almost makes freckles seem charming...which is an attitude about freckles that I wish everyone enjoyed!

I've heard from dozens and dozens of people since the Colorful Countryside article was published this weekend. It is fun how immediate activity happens in this world of Internet retailing. I am pleased that this pillow design strikes a chord with people and I will have fun making the custom orders that are coming my way for this pillow design. I will be teaching an applique class in August and plan to teach several applique techniques. It is a time-honored method for creating quilt blocks, pillow fronts, and embellishing clothes and accessories. It is one if my favorite art forms!

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

Handmade Heaven

There is a great community of creative souls on etsy. Today, a lovely etsy lady at Fabric Fascinations built a scrumptious collection of home art items from twelve or so etsy artists. I'm including a link to that treasury here--you should check it out. I have decided that if I walked into a room decorated with all of these items, I'd feel like I was in heaven!! You can visit Fabric Fascinations at http://fabricfascinations.etsy.com/

Handmade Heaven Treasury link

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=121805