Lily

A friend gave me a flea-market-find jewellry box with a picture frame in the lid. It seemed like a fun chance to experiment with three-dimensional layers in a collage! Lily is the result.

Jeanne

 A friend gave me some leftover fabric, and I realized it was destined to end up in a collage. Jeanne is the result.

Jeanne Hebling was a French actress who starred in the early French films of the 1920s and 30s. However, this gal proved to be more than a pretty face during WWII, when she joined the resistance and used her apartment to host meetings and harbor Allied agents. After the war she moved to the US and ended her film career.

She is drawn with ink and watercolor pencil in purple shades to compliment the purple, teal, black and silver fabric pattern. Other details are created with silver gel pen, acrylic, and a sequin. She measures a compact 10x15cm and is completed with a silver colored frame.

Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedral

Antwerp, Belgium

Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedral and friend.

For how close Belgium is, I have spent relatively little time exploring the neighboring country. My main experience there was when we passed through on my first visit to the Netherlands. We were supposed to have a connecting train in Brussels that would take us to Holland, but when we got there the track was closed due to a gas leak. In order to get around the leak, all the would-be train passengers were packed onto buses where we stood for the over an hour bus ride to Antwerp. Except some of the roads winding through the small towns were also closed, prompting detours across unpaved alleys riddled with potholes that made sure we got to know our fellow passengers a little better. I held my breath that the overloaded bus wouldn't sink into the deep mud.

Zelfgemaakt Markt

I've been busy these last couple weeks preparing for the Zelfgemaakt Markt in Utrecht this Saturday. It took me most of a year to figure out how to search for Dutch craft markets (turns out they are called creamarkten...) so I'm really looking forward to finally trying one! Here's just a small preview of what I'll be bringing. I even had a chance to revisit wood drawings, including a traditional handmade Dutch klompen which I decorated with tulips (I'm sure the Dutch can always use more tulip-y things) bordering a view of the Dom Tower in the center of Utrecht. It's a holiday weekend and the weather should be decent, so here's hoping for a good turn out!

First Choice Sale

Craft fair season is starting, but I'd like to give my Etsy shoppers first choice! If you've had your eye on anything in my Etsy shop, now is your chance to save 20% with coupon code FIRSTCHOICE. This coupon expires when I pack up for my first market on Saturday (drop in to the Utrecht Zelfgemaakt Markt if you are in the area), so use it while you can!

Gardens

I'm really getting in to collages! I like how the dried flowers look in this one. They are "weeds" that grow along the sidewalk dense as a yellow wall. I couldn't hardly wait for them to dry to try them out, and I think they worked well. The lace collar is from a vintage lace pattern. The design in the background is based on an old deco ironwork gate. In my mind it leads to a garden, so the collage is named "Gardens."

It makes me happy to create something that is just about beauty. Not all art has to be shocking, revolutionary, or have abstract meaning. Isn't it just as important to celebrate what is beautiful in the world?

The collage consists of various papers, knitted emroidary thread, dried flowers, watercolor pencil, marker.

International Living's Incomes Abroad

I was consulted for an article in International Living's Incomes Abroad magazine. It's a very basic summary of the process I described under my DAFT posts. I would also say that getting the residence permit is only the very first step to building a life in Europe. Actually living abroad isn't without its challenges. I wouldn't guarantee the last sentence unless you are proficient in Dutch, but I also live in an area where people rarely practice their English so it really depends on the community. Click here for a larger image if you'd like to read it.