Holly Faeries

"O, I am green in Winter-time,

When other trees are brown;

Of all the trees (So saith the rhyme)

The holly bears the crown.

December days are drawing near

When I shall come to town,

And carol-boys go singing clear

Of all the trees (O hush and hear!)

The holly bears the crown!

For who so well-beloved and merry

As the scarlet Holly Berry?"

~Cicely Mary Barker

Raven Steals the Light

 "Raven came.

All the world was in darkness. The sky above was in darkness. The waters below were in darkness. Men and women lived in the dark and cold. Raven was sad for them.

He said, "I will search for light."

I was inspired to needlefelt this wall hanging by my favorite story for this time of year, a Pacific Northwest Coastal Tlingit legend of how Raven the trickster returned the light to the people on earth. Raven felt sorry for the people as they lived in darkness and cold, so he flew to the Sky Chief's lodge at the edge of the horizon to find the light and return it to them. He saw the Sun Chief's beautiful daughter come out to take a drink from a pool of water, so he turned himself into a pine needle and fell down into the pool. She swallowed the pine needle and became pregnant with a child. When the child was born, who was actually Raven in disguise, the Sun Chief loved his grandchild without measure and wanted to always bring him happiness. Raven-child realized that a special carved box in the lodge held the sun within it, so he cried and cried until his grandfather let him open the box. Raven quickly shed his disguise of a human child and flew off out of the lodge with the sun clenched in his beak. Flying back across mountains and forests, Raven returned the sunlight to the people of earth. This tale of Raven stealing the sun is also told with slight variations in Inuit and Athabaskan traditions as well. We read it every year on the Winter Solstice by the fire.

One re-telling I have been reading recently with my chidren, is an illustrated children's book written by Gerald McDermott, a consultant to the Joseph Campbell Foundation on mythology in education. I really love the lyrical way it's told. This one is called Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest.

Another beautifully illustrated children's version we have is How Raven Stole the Sun by Maria Williams.

It is also included in a wonderful anthology called The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice by Carolyn McVickar Edwards.

The Snow Faeries

The Snow Fairy

by Claude McKay

"Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,

Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,

Whirling fantastic in the misty air,

Contending fierce for space supremacy.

And they flew down a mightier force at night,

As though in heaven there was revolt and riot,

And they, frail things had taken panic flight

Down to the calm earth seeking peace and quiet.

I went to bed and rose at early dawn

To see them huddled together in a heap,

Each merged into the other upon the lawn,
Worn out by the sharp struggle, fast asleep.

The sun shone brightly on them half the day,

By night they stealthily had stol'n away."

As our cold, rainy winter sets in, I've been busy in my craft room making all these sparkly white snow faeries and thinking of all the snowy landscapes in other places around the world.

They can be found on my Etsy site here at: http://www.mountainhearth.etsy.com/

Winter Royalty

I've been busy in the craft room making many things for the holidays. Here are King and Queen Winter. Needlefelted from wool roving in icy blues and whites, they rule over the Winter season bringing snowflakes, icicles and chilly winds. They create blankets of snow to tuck the fields and forests in for a winter slumber. Sparkling ice crystals sit atop their magic staffs. They can be found here on my Etsy shop at http://www.mountainhearth.etsy.com/. 

And here is a little Jack Frost that I made as a custom order for a friend's season table in her Waldorf home preschool. He is rascally, jolly and  his hands are full of snowballs just waiting for some winter fun! I am sure she will bring him to life with her gift for magical storytelling!

Stay warm, it's chilly out there!

The Gnome's Garden in the Foothills

The little gnome, tired from a days work in his homestead garden, rests beneath the apple tree to the lullaby of a babbling brook...

He's just a little forest gnome,

the Olympic Mountain foothills are his home,

and he dreams and dreams under the apple tree

of all tomorrows adventures that will be.

I recently made this custom order for a friend to send as a gift to a family who moved away from their little  Olympic Peninsula homestead to be near family in a far away land. They were missing the Pacific Northwest and dreaming of returning one day. Having grown up in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains, and having that landscape infused into my being, I was happy to make this needlefelted wool wall hanging to remind them of that rugged, beautiful place. May their dreams of returning come true!

Tidepool

Growing up by the Straits of Juan de Fuca, where rocky beaches abound, I spent a lot of time playing around tidepools and observing the little worlds they held. I have always been drawn to tidepool art. One of my favorite artists, Margaret Owens does these beautiful ceramic tiles of tidepools and sometimes makes tidepool bowls. You can see her work here at http://www.tidepooltile.com/.

The very first wall hanging I needlefelted was a tidepool. I had this whole vision of seaweed, starfish and crabs. I had so much fun making it, that I have since made many tidepool wall hangings.

I just finished this one as a custom order for a friend and another is in the works!

A Homestead Dream

Some dear friends of mine just had a beautiful baby boy, and asked if I would make a wall hanging as a gift for their midwife. She had told them about her dreams to one day have a little homestead with a garden, fruit trees, chickens and a cow. Being a homestead dreamer myself, I was happy to work on this project and had a lot of fun doing it. When I was finished, I thought, "I wouldn't mind living on this homestead myself!" I hope that it brings her many hours of happy homestead dreaming.