Birthday's & Birth Trees.

 I been "un-plugged" for a while to re~charge and rest and to refresh my muse, and have been finding inspiration in Mother Nature during a run of glorious summery days here in South West Scotland.

The flowers are blooming all about, in the garden, in the hedgerows and even down amongst the pebbles on the beach. Tiny rays of sunshine, such rich, glowing colour.  They tempt me outside when I ought to be working in the studio!

 We have traveled into the hills to find the wild places, and sat drinking tea by the bubbling steam whilst bees hummed past and golden beetles clambered onto our knees.  I found a tiny set of wings left beside the path, like minature pieces of stained glass reflecting the blue of skies above. I think I might just have to work them into a faerie design!

We have had precious family time; grandaughter cuddling, trips to the beach, the farm, museums, picnics, crazy go cart riding, sunny day walks, lots of laughter & catching up.  We celebrated my lasses 30th Birthday too, it seems only a wee while ago I held her in my arms for the very first time! 

This lass of mine just happens to be a wood turner and as you can see my eldest lass & I took on a challenge. We decided to tackle a feat of engineering & create a completely edible cake for our birthday girl. It took us a whole week to work out and make, we were rather proud of our efforts but it may be some time before we feel up to making another cake!I 'm so lucky to have such a lovely family & spending time with them makes my heart sing.

Thinking of Birthdays ~ I am fascinated by family trees and our personal stories and with this in mind I have designed the first of my new blessing trees range

"The Birth Announcement tree".

 The design can be personalised and makes a perfect gift for birth, christening or naming ceremonies. I also do cards and postcards of the design.

The design was inspired by the Apple tree which signifies health, happiness, youth & good fortune.

The Birth Trees are now available to order here my Etsy shop.

I have lots of exciting new happenings coming up, workshops and exhibitions, and will be back very soon to tell you all about them.

A Summer Studio Shed & my new Open Days . . .

There have been busy goings on around here for the last few weeks

and now at last a long held dream of mine has come true. After weeks of hard work by Mr O, middle daughter & her partner & me, cleaning, mending leaky roof and windows, sanding & painting woodwork, mending & making bunting & covers etc we have created a wee magical hideaway place for me to work in. 

I am so excited, so with no further ado I now reveal, my Summer studio shed!

Ta da . . .  Isn't it lovely.  I think I can safely say it was worth every bit of effort

I love that I can have the doors and window wide open to the world.

I can hear the wee stream that runs through the garden and the call of the birds.

 I wanted no distractions, no phone, no computers, now I can work in peace & quiet surrounded by nature.

Just in time too as recently I was rather pleased to be asked to join a lovely collection of  artistic ladies to make up the group "Stewartry Open Studios".  We are opening our studios during the summer months, welcoming the public in to view our work and our workplaces. 

Above are some of the works by the other 5 artists in the group: clockwise from bottom left ~ Pauline Saul, Susan Metcalfe, Jane B Gibson, Sheena McCurrach and Margaret S Milligan.
You can find out more about us as a group here on Facebook  here .

Here is a taster of what greets me every morning as I step over the bridge by the Summer Studio shed, the beautiful bluebell wood with the birds a-singing, and the stream a-babbling. Can you hear the thunder storm gathering at the start!

My own studio will be open the 3rd & 4th Thursday of the month from May to Sept 10am– 4pm.

May 22nd,  June19th & 26th,  July 17th & 24th , 

August 21st & 28th,  September 18th & 25th.

 If you can't make those days you can give me a call on 07841049023

and I will open specially for you if I can.

If you need directions e~mail me on ruthieredden@hotmail.co.uk

So if you are out and about do pop by if you can, you may yet get a glimpse of the bluebells in the wood as well as see my prints, originals & cards, my sculptures & faeries, works in progress, sketchbooks and doodles & my inspiration board & bits & pieces. The kettle is always on and it would be lovely to see you.

You can see more of my "Summer Studio" images here.

Lavender's blue, . . .. . .

Did I tell you I love sewing things, re-cycling, making & mending!  I have so many bits dotted about my studio; tubs of old buttons, some collected by my Grandma.  (Happy memories from childhood of playing with Grandmas old button box and marvelling at the jewels it held.)

I have piles of collected fabrics waiting for the perfect project, old pillowcases, lace tablecloths, remnants, ribbons & embroidery threads

A few days ago I decided to cut some wee fabric squares from one of the old cotton pillowcases. I sewed 3 sides together,  hemmed along the top.

I stitched a collection of bright buttons on the front and a ribbon tie at the top.

Filled them with the scented lavender collected from the garden last Summer

Hey presto, my wee lavender bags. I shall tuck one under my pillow and place some amongst the bedding in the old blanket chest.

Lavender Lore

* The Romans first bought lavender to our shores, it is said they named it from "lavare"  because of its use in washing, others believe it comes from “livendula” (meaning bluish.)

*  A lavender cross was often hung on the door to ward off evil spirits.

*  In the 16th Century, English women and men had lavender flowers quilted into their hats to "comfort the braines".

*  On St Luke's day in the 14 and 1500's young maidens would sip on a lavender tea and say.

"St Luke, St Luke, be kind to me, In my dreams, let me my true love see."

Beach combing, bonfires & driftwood creations . . .

 The unexpected sunshine of the last few days was the perfect excuse to pack up a picnic and head for the beach to hunt for treasure. Beach combing has to be one of my favourite things to do.  I always go home with pockets full of jewel like sea glass, shiny pebbles & sea shells. 

 The limpet shells  (top right & bottom left) remind me of the Cornish legend of  Jan Tregeagle who was set the gloomy task of trying to empty a lake on Bodmin Moor (believed at the time to be bottomless), with a limpet shell with a hole in it. We have a much better use for the limpet shells with holes in them,  we string them into garlands for the garden!

I love driftwood and pieces find their way into some creation or another, my favourite of the moment is wee "Cloth Ears" the pup who lives in our garden!

On my beach hunt I discovered these wonderful trees clinging to the rocks, their roots curling & stretching to find a hold.  They look like there ought to be magical creatures  living in there!

There was lots of wood on the beach too, cast up during all that stormy weather earlier in the year most probably, it inspired my boy to build a beach sculpture.

 Later in the evening, once the stars were out, the driftwood sculpture became a roaring bonfire sending tiny sparks flying into a deep blue night sky.

 A glowing sunset  made a perfect end to a beautiful day, everywhere looked so magical bathed all in gold and it reminded me how lucky I am to be able to call this beautiful place, Dumfries & Galloway, home,  such a magical wee corner of Scotland!

There has been a flurry of activity here with garlands, wee boats & wind chimes being made.  I love making my wind chimes, which can be made to order and cost £14 each plus p&p.  Each chime is embellished with ribbon & shells, as the breeze catches the chime you can hear the delicate song of the shells, a peaceful sound with echoes of the seashore lingering, and as the mobile moves in the breeze it's pieces shift and change about forming beautiful sculptural shapes.

For now I am away back into the studio to work on some new driftwood creations ready for an exciting new happenig that I shall reveal very soon.

A Wedding Present Blessing Tree

My latest painting commission ~ A wedding Present Blessing Tree

I have loved working on this piece, commissioned by a customer,

a wedding present for her nephew & godson.

This design combines lots of elements I love, entwined trees, a Celtic Blessing, 

and sumptuous glowing gold

I often look back over the workings of a design in my sketchbook to see how the piece unfolded, and am inspired in new & different directions.

Creating is an organic process for me, I sit & doodle & an idea will take shape on the page as I pull inspirations from my memories of things I discover on my walks, from music, words & poems I hear.

The finished painting with the words of the Celtic Blessing running around the sun. And a first for me, I managed to upload my first ever  (a wee bit dodgy in places) video me doing watercolour washes over the tree trunks.

 

(You can see another wedding commission design I did a while back

based on the Scottish thistle  here )