Today I have finished the original model for the Summer Angel’s head and she is now wearing a crown of shells. I began with a 3-dimensional sketch based on my pencil sketch and after many more 3-dimensional sketches, the final design finally evolved.  The shell crown continued to work, but I simplified the halo and unified it with the butterfly design with the simple little curl at the center. In reproducing the pencil sketch in porcelain, the details were too fine and would therefore be too fragile for the production process as well as in the final fired form.

It is delightful to make a move in the design process that unifies and completes a composition. But actually sometimes these simple direct answers can elude me until they seem to come out of the blue and alleluia the design is done! I am thankful to God for all and every design He gives me.

One nostalgic aspect of this design is that the shell crown is a variation of the shell crown of the very first 5” Limited Edition Angel, The Caroler, which I designed and made in 1980.

This week I am devoting my time to designing the 5” Summer Angel. This angel is the second angel in a series of five angels titled Seasons of a New Millennium; actually the 5th series of five 5” angels since I began in 1980. Wow that’s a lot of fives – it’s also interesting that the Biblical meaning of five is “Grace”. I am sure that only by the grace of God that I will have finally been able to complete the design of this angel.

I started this series in 2000 with the Spring Angel and it is now 12 years later that I will introduce the 2nd angel. This has been a long wait for my collectors. I had a not so recent conversation with a dear and faithful collector, Sydney Uthoff. She asked me when I would be introducing my Summer Angel. She went on to comment that it had been a long wait for summer to come and now I can joyfully let you know that Summer is almost here; in fact in few short weeks we will be offering this new angel who holds a butterfly. The butterfly is such a magnificent symbol for summer; full of lightness, movement, beauty, warmth and last but not least the symbol of metamorphosis. I chose the butterfly to represent summer 12 years ago and now am aware that this theme is perfectly appropriate for the reintroduction of the 2nd angel in the Seasons of a New Millennium series. The theme of the whole series is “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

The photographs above include some of the processes that I have been doing this week. I always start with sketches and sometimes the final design looks just like the sketch and other times it evolves into an entirely different design. This is always an exciting process because as a design evolves it is a rhythmic process where I give myself over to the design and let it flow to see where it takes me. I know that I have to work diligently and be completely confident that the final result will be good. Otherwise the rabbit trails and mistakes along the way have the power to discourage me. I am thankful for each design and feel fortunate to be on the receiving end.

Although I had lots of different ideas for the butterfly, my final selection has ended up to be a rather simple shell butterfly with a round overall shape and a scalloped edge to echo the shell body. I have pressed and shaped and formed these delicate parts and pieces and I am refining edges and putting them together to form the final butterfly design.

You can see that my design table is a bit messy. Even though my table is large I find that as I work almost every square inch get covered with models, tools, clay scraps and sketches until I am cramped and working on the edge of the table with no room to spare. It’s time to finish when there’s no room left.

The last image shows the initial model that I will now caste in plaster. There’s still work to be done in finalizing thicknesses and refining the final form for the master mold. I’ll give you updates as I finish the butterfly and work on the head design.

On my walk early this morning I photographed these peony buds. These images express the concept of expectancy as well as anything I know.

And in the now; the tender edges, pink veins and revealed folds of deep pink petals have no equal in beauty. It is possible to miss them, but we discover them in the careful focus and attention to detail.

I wanted to share with you how the recent introduction of the 2012 Hannah Necklace came about in our jewelry line.

Actually the idea of updating a cameo and producing it in porcelain was my daughter, Caitlin’s idea. I have several beautiful old cameos and Caitlin grew up with me wearing these. Right away, I loved Caitlin’s idea and couldn’t wait to finish the first design, the Cameo Bella so I could start wearing it.

I combined the Cameo Bella Charm and the Porcelain Pearl Charm in the Hannah Necklace and named it after our darling neighbor girl, Hannah who grew up with Caitlin and is now a beautiful grown up woman.

I have a new oval cameo charm and necklace in the works. Look for it later this spring.

Just in time for Easter I wanted to share my delicious egg recipe. This is a favorite for our Easter dinner! I also like to serve this all year round – it’s great for a cold summer lunches, with dinner, and for brunch.

Ingredients

6 Large Organic Free Range Eggs
Gray Celtic Sea Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper
Crème Fraiche
3 Spring Onions, sliced very thin
¼ cup chopped Fresh Dill
Grated fresh Horseradish Root – fresh is milder than prepared

Directions

This is such a simple recipe so it is important to have the best ingredients and not over cook the boiled eggs.

1. Bring refrigerator-cold eggs to a boil, immediately turn off the heat and let them cook for 8 minutes in the hot water. The yolks will be cooked but still very moist. After the eggs are cool cut in half and arrange on a serving plate.
2. Salt and pepper the eggs.
3. Add a small dollop of Crème Fraiche to each egg half.
4. Sprinkle the sliced Spring Onions on top.
5. Sprinkle the Fresh Dill.
6. Grate the fresh Horseradish to taste directly on the eggs as the final layer – I use a micro plane.

Enjoy!
Margaret

Last Saturday morning, my friend Jody and I went up to Wilsonville, Oregon to visit Boxwood Gardens, a grower and wholesaler of evergreens, primarily boxwoods and Irish Yews. The majority of boxwoods were trained and trimmed into topiary forms.

It was more boxwoods and more varieties of boxwood than I have ever seen in one place in my entire life. I have been training boxwood topiaries in my own garden for over 20 years, but this was a stunning display of mature topiaries of many classic and whimsical forms covering acres of land. There were some boxwoods simply trimmed into squares so that they were ready for an instant hedge.

Boxwoods and Irish Yews are two of my favorite varieties of evergreen hedge and boxwood is also my favorite for topiaries. Yews and boxwood are the bones and main interest in my own garden.

Even though it was a rainy, gray day, Jody and I were both smiling and planning for the next green “sculptures” for our gardens.

Because this is a wholesale operation, they are not open to the public, but they supply a retail outlet in Portland called Bentley A Classic Garden Place at 5529 SW Hood Avenue.

This pear image was a card sent to me by a friend in its first life. I thought the bosc pear was so elegant that I framed it. This is not the end of the story because I had to add several embellishments:

• • An old piece of gingerbread in the shape of an arrow that my brother, John, gave me. He broke it off the porch of his old house that he demolished in a little town in Nebraska. I gold leafed this to match the frame and added a cloud of gold strands pulled from antique gold bullion fringe.




• • A tiny watercolor of a pear that I painted.




• • Finally, a price tag with the printed words “bosc pear”.

I bought this framed print at an estate sale. Actually I was going to just use the frame and lose the print, but after it sat on my kitchen counter a few days, I began to find it rather charming. I had a drawer full of vintage fishing lures and found the one I attached to the frame bottom. It is not only a great color match, but, of course, the subject matter match is terrific.

I attached two small eye screws to the bottom of the frame and then just hung the fishing lure.

The 4” Trust Angel joins the 2” and 3” angels to complete the 2012 trio of new angels. The ribbon of “trust” wraps around the heart of the 4” angel.

I have photographed our new angels in the midst of photos of family and friends just the way I have these angels arranged at home. I am remembering the joy and love from the times and seasons of life and celebrating my loved ones!

Check out the new 4” Trust Angel on my website by clicking here.

It seems that the subject of love is never exhausted. Just when you think you’re getting closer to functioning in love, your understanding goes deeper and the challenge enlarges. Love is big and I believe that we are capable of growing in love as we practice and pursue it, then we can experience the Kingdom of God on earth because God is love!!!

I created this 3” Love Angel so I could learn more and more how to function in this highest form of human activity, “…and the greatest of these is love”.

Check out the new 3” Love Angel on my website by clicking here.