Thursday, March 27, 2014

Featured Artist and Blogger

I would like to feature and share the art work
of Marie of  Softearthart and Softearth's World.

www.softearthart.com - fairies for a child's birthday party


I discovered Marie's blog when I participated in the
Grow Your Blog event.  Her creations took my breath away!

Marie lives in New Zealand and makes wool felt art and
other mixed media beauties.
Her blog is a wonderful mix of sharing her Waldorf inspired wool felt art,
and living her life close to Mother Earth.

www.etsy.com/shop/softearthart

Waldorf Spring Mother with twins -  Needle felted in hand dyed New Zealand  wool -  Waldorf inspired art
Spring Mother and the babies

She says that she draws her inspiration from nature
and its beauty and this you can see in her work.


Wool Felting  - Mother Earth and the Babies  - Softearth

Mother Earth and the Babies

Marie creates a wonderland of beauty and love -

Mother and Child -  Needle felted wool art piece - Ideal for a New Mother - New Baby

Rose Red  - Beautiful Wool   Wall Hanging  -  Needle felted in  hand dyed New Zealand  wool

magical forests

Waldorf - Snowy owl -  Needle felted in New Zealand wool

fairy kings and maidens

Waldorf Green Wool  Maid -  Needle felted in hand dyed New Zealand  wool -  Waldorf inspired art

a place where I would like to live!

She has just shared a lovely tutorial on how to
make your own wool hearts

So pay her blog a visit at
http://www.softearthart and say hi!



Cloister of the Heart


with love, Hettienne

Monday, March 24, 2014

Mondays with Mary - 24 March

Mondays with Mary



a weekly blog post where the Mystery of Life is explored
as Divine;  where Love is the Muse
and her divine touch opens the heart and
brings breathtaking creatures forth!



Here, the Divine Mary, Mother of All,
creatrix, eternal nurturer, bringer of new life
and also witness to suffering and death, is my muse.

You may dip your quill into the glowing ink
and play along with your own musings or you
may ponder with me on the many stories
of Mary and her many names
through the length of time
and who is she today?
in our ordinary lives.

May these weekly posts bring some of the
lustre to your day that they bring to me
and my take on life!



"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
 by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare


I leave this post up for the week and
will announce the lucky winner of the week's
giveaway on the weekend - in time for the
next Mondays with Mary.

See below for this week's giveaway!


The Fourth Teaching
(extract from The teaching for one world : wisdom from Mother Mary by Gina Lake)

Accept Life as it is

It is impossible to love or feel at peace
unless you accept life as it is.
Non-acceptance closes the hart, which is the
doorway to love and peace.  There is no
other way but acceptance to open that door.
When you accept it, peace comes and
love flow once again.

This is a hard truth for the mind to swallow.
because the mind is designed to reject,
resist and desire something other
than the way life is.  This resistance is natural
and how you were built to respond to life.
Nevertheless, there is another way.

The mind's rejection of the way life is does
not have to be your internal experience - your experience of life.
There is another possibility.

Is the mind wise enough to know what is best for it?
Like a child, the mind does not know, but it thinks it knows.
Fortunately, you are inherently wise.
Something else within you knows the truth.
Look to that which is wise within you to determine
your stance toward life.  Your internal experience
is governed either by your or your mind.
Peace and love can be how you feel about life.
Find that which is within you that loves and is at
peace with life just as it is. 
That has always been awake and aware within you.

All the photographs were taken in my studio
with my new mannequin - and as you can see
I am ever so in love with it!!

This week's giveaway is a pouch of 
Mother Mary blessing seeds.
You can read more about them here

Please leave a comment if you sign up to participate



with love
Hettienne




Sunday, March 23, 2014

Winner of French Paper Doll!




............ so I put in numbers 1 to 4 in random.org




and the lucky number is 2

PritiLisa!!




Lisa, please send me your postal address and one
of these beautiful French paper doll tags will be shipped to you!!
yay!!!




I am still working on making more French paper doll tags.
They take much longer than what you would think!
so much detail!

Can you see the typewriter under her arm?
and all the lovely squishy ribbon and lace and the
cutest miniature pegs?
and the arms and legs can move!!



Look at all these tiny details!
real vintage buttons!
a tiny tiny embroidery scissors!
a tiny tiny reel of embroidery cotton in her hand


and she comes with a vintage clothing peg!




Such fun in child's play!

Tomorrow is Mondays with Mary, so please
visit and see what I am giving away - maybe you will be
tempted to play along!


with love
Hettienne


Sunday, March 16, 2014

Mondays with Mary and French Paper Doll GiveAway



Mondays with Mary

The Third Teaching
from Wisdom from Mother Mary by Gina Lake

Declare Your Deepest Desire

What do you really want?  This question is an
important one because the answer determines where your
energy, attention and resources go.  The answer
is therefore also likely to determine what
you will get.  Sometimes you are not even aware
of what you want, and other times that is all you
are aware of, and you suffer over it.

Following your desires provides you with
opportunities to taste what life has to offer,
and that is how it is meant to be.
So even your more superficial desires are not
a mistake;  they just are not what they pretend to be.
They are not actually important,
and they do not bring you the peace and happiness
you really want.



This is my third teaching.
Declare that you want peace and love.
Feel the depth and power of this desire
and let it fuel your will to give peace and love your attention.

Everyone's evolution eventually comes to this :
You realize that your deepest desire is for peace and love
and you declare this in your heart. 
Then life conspires to bring you exactly that.
You are love and peace.

These are some of the shrines I photographed during my trip
to Kildare, Ireland.  I was amazed to see a Mary statue 
in the middle of a traffic circle!

This week I am gifting one of these Parisian articulated paper dolls.
They are actually tags - you can clip them to a gift
or you can hang them in your studio or
on a mirror.


Be your own kind of Beautiful


or


Write your Story.

They both come with miniature wooden pegs and
a froth of hand dyed lace.








with love
 Hettienne




Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The House of the Heart



There are two kinds of intelligence.
One is like that acquired by a child at school,
from books and teachers, new ideas and memorization.
Your intelligence may become superior to others,
but retaining all that knowledge is a heavy load.
You who are occupied in searching for knowledge
are a preserving tablet,
but the preserved tablet is the one who has gone beyond all this.





For the other kind of intelligence is the gift of God:
its fountain is in the midst of the soul.
When the water of God-given knowledge gushes from the breast, 
it doesn’t become fetid or impure. 
And if its way to the outside is blocked, what harm is there? 
For it gushes continually from the house of the heart. 
The acquired intelligence is like the conduits 
which run into the house from the streets: 
If those pipes become blocked, the house is bereft of water. 
Seek the fountain from within yourself. 
[IV, 1960-68] Poems by Rumi 




Hand soldered wearable altar and shrine
The House of the Heart

Patina'ed to look old and worn



Vintage french holy card

Hand cast sterling silver sacred heart and hand charms

vintage connector of Our Lady of Lourdes

sterling silver dangle engraved with
artist's signature 


Aurora borealis crystals
rhinestones
vintage chain

Available on Her Grace by Devata on www.etsy.com
www.etsy.com/shop/devata


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

St Joseph

Mondays with Mary stays up 
Monday to Monday - you can go here
and here for the posts
or click on Mondays with Mary tab above.


I have been working on a few St Joseph shrines
the past few weeks.
I took an old holy card and created a lacy paper border
As you can see the frame has been distressed
and crackled to add to the vintage feel,


but also to act as a foil to the beautiful
lavender, blue and pink hues of this
beautiful St Joseph and Child statue!


On the back of the shrine I added an old
image of a holy card which I scanned and distressed
I covered the back of the shrine with pages
from a very old Bible


I used pearls everywhere to add to the
sensual feeling of the colours and lilies


Although these paper lillies are not
St Joseph's they are the exact same colour
as the lilies held in St Joseph's hand


I added a tiny rosary with a connector
with St Joseph lilies on the back!


I used vintage measuring tape and yard sticks
every where to bring in the carpenter aspect.

I sell very few of these shrines as I am working
on a Mystical Mary Tarot Deck.
It may seem like a strange combination, but
when I see the Saints and Holy Ones, I
also see the Great Stories of Humanity and the
archetypes as set out by Jung, Campbell
and others.

And here is one of my absolute favourites :

St Joseph the Good Father
Here you can see how I emphasizes the carpenter
and worker ethic of St Joseph.

I used many vintage wood pieces
and the shrine is standing on wooden feet.
I also used many miniature tools of the trade.


as well as a child's ABC blocks to
show how in touch this Holy Father
is with his Child and his level of devotion


PritiLisa sent me one of her old vintage
books a while ago.  This was a text book
for masonry workers.  I used the creed
of the masons as the background page in this
shrine.  The rest of the papers are from
old Bibles.

I like to layer in my shrines as I feel that
it all adds to the energy and feel of the
shrine and so increases its emotional
and spiritual value in our understanding.

I had collected these miniature tools and
tool case over the years and had been saving it
for the perfect piece of art - and here it is!





I hope these shrines inspire you almost as much
as they inspire me.  To me they just speak of
such incredible Divine Love for us and our
personal stories as they are echoed in these
Holy Stories.

love to you
Hettienne




Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Featured Artist and Blogger : Priti Lisa

http://www.pritistudio.com


Every day I find such brilliance, beauty and
creativity in blogland and I always wish
that I could share it with someone
right now!
I often forward the links to friends and family,
but at times I think they feel so overwhelmed
by my enthusiastic sharings that they do not
always open those links!

Somewhere on someone's blog
I found the idea to do a featured artist
and blogger feature right here -
and I created the prettiest badge
for you to display


the original image is from Vintage Made for You blogspot


My first artist and blogger that I am sharing with you
is PritiLisa of Pritistudio (www.pritistudio.com)

I have acquired quite a few of her pieces over the past few years

Lisa made this exquisite journal for me

Reserved Listing-Handmade Book- Art Journal


and I bought this tiny altered prayer book

RESERVED-------Altered Vintage Pocket/Prayer/Journal?Book

and this is my absolute favourite


Saint Icon...Holy Mary---RESERVED---

and this one

Lady of Guadalupe Shrine


Lisa blogs from the heart.
She shares her vulnerabilities and her strengths.
Just by reading her blog, you get to know her
and she becomes a part of your world.

Her art ranges from hand made tiles
and mixed media prayer boxes and shrines

Holy Mary Rosary Shrine-Prayer Altar
Holy Mary Rosary Shrine and Prayer Altar www.etsy.com/shop/pritistudio


to very unique art journals


to 

beautiful original acrylic paintings


Mary is one of her favourite subject matters




as is Frida

Frida Patron Saint of Artists


If you do not know PritiLisa, then please go
to www.pritistudio.com and
see for yourself.

and she has a beautiful shop on Etsy.com
at www.etsy.com/shop/pritistudio

Keep on writing and creating Lisa
and we will keep on visiting!!

love and blessings
Hettienne

p.s.  remember to grab the pretty badge for your blog!