I is for inflorescence.
Noun: the complete flower head of a plant including stems, stalks, bracts, and flowers. Protea neriifolia (Narrow-leaf Sugarbush), UCSC Arboretum
Category: vocabulary
Sketchbooks Listed, Echeveria Eyecandy
The sketchbooks are kitted and listed! Each kit makes three books. The pages are cream-colored and acid-free :) You have a choice of cover colors: black, Warm (orange, yellow and gray) or kraft. I went detailed on the instructions, and introduce a good vocabulary word: bifolium (singular); bifolia (plural).
Here are three sketchbooks in Warm, before their bookmarks get trimmed.
I was shuffling around outside, pulling weeds between storms, and noticed this leggy echeveria on the shadier side of the yard is working on a flower display.
Buds closeup:
Love these colors. And just before it started raining again, (wind blowing, hard to focus) this closeup of a hen-and-chicks echeveria flower:
Yum.
Yikes
The new issue of the newsletter Cut, Fold + Make just went out and I forgot to harangue you to subscribe, if you’ve not already done so. There’s a complementary 1:12 scale vertical file holder template, as well as some inspirational and obscure links of creative goodness. Don’t make my imaginary business coach scold me.
It’s chilly nights here in coastal Northern California— as is seasonally appropriate — and Scarlett is taking comfort as she finds it, in recently vacated slippers.
Basket Kit Listed
The first woven paper basket kit is up on Modern Miniature Succulents + Sundries! Starting with a pre-cut kit takes all the tedium out of miniature basket weaving.
(Vocabulary enrichment moment: When looking for a nicer word than ‘tedium’, I encountered longueur, and this reflection by Francine Prose:
“I find myself using this word more often than I probably should, to describe those boring stretches of a novel or play during which your attention drifts … I would probably use it even more frequently were it not so difficult to spell. What I like is how the sound of it suggests a combination of languor and length — the languor produced by something that is unduly long — though I have learned that its derivation has to do with length rather than lassitude.”)
I stuck with tedium. Anyway, some outtakes from the instructions:
Just color, weave and glue :)
Voilà!
The gift of vocabulary (and leather)
Superfun surprise letter!
Squeeeee! Some days the mail is extra-fun.
Last week I came across a post on Pat Sweet’s Bo Press Miniature Books about shagreen. I sort of thought I knew what shagreen was until I came to the observation “Stingray is such a strange leather.”
Wait, what?
Some time later, after reading up on both (and related) items, and with new-found appreciation, I thanked Pat for enriching my world. I had not known that they make leather from fish. Then she told me they make leather from all kinds of things, “If you can skin it, you can tan it.”
And then she sent me this!
The first black piece is polished ray skin; the yellow is unpolished; the celadon-colored bit is more traditional ray (which used to be called shark skin); the green triangle: also ray.
The lower black piece is chicken foot leather.
O_O
Here’s a closer look, because it is so fabulous and horrible:
Pat says this is chicken skin leather. I think it might be dragon.
Anyway, I have to go continue celebrating my birthday. We will be seeing more of these extraordinary materials. Each will become a part of something fabulous. Thank you, Pat Sweet, for sharing this treasure with me! And do check out her work. You will be glad you did.
ps: The shagreen dots are calcified papillae.
Perseverance
I’ve been thinking about perseverance today. First I had to learn to spell it correctly, all the time. I liked the definition:
steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success
It adds a nobility to the concept, rather than just drudgery, and I felt encouraged. But I was delighted to read a secondary meaning, a theological one:
continuance in a state of grace leading finally to a state of glory
I’ll have some of that, please! Totally worth perservering for.
nancyland.com 