Happy Hallowe'en!

How great to have some orange and black ribbon lying around! After an exhausting sprint to make my son's costume, I didn't have enough time for my own, so I just donned some black and stitched these beauties to my choker collar. Lovely. I was Halloweenie for Halloween!

Drie's Curtain Tie-Backs

My friend Drie and I made a trade this summer; a painting for a set of flowers that would "punctuate" her curtain tie-backs in her guest bedroom. I thought it would be a great application of the ribbon flowers (and I was a bit jealous that I hadn't thought of the idea!).

I decided to do one that was a portrait of her family; they have been through so much, yet keep such an optimistic and peaceful outlook. Drie is also a painter who paints really great abstract images of Nature and all of her faces, ranging from micro to macroscopic, from generous to cruel. So, I looked to a funky little rose bush in my garden, which, at any given time, seems to have flowers blooming, flowers fading, flowers dying, flowers turning to hips, and finally just hips. It is a great source to witness the growing and the dying happening so quietly and unassumedly, so, well, naturally. I found some great Hanah silk at Nancy's that was the color of my little rose bush, white with pink edges, as well as a ribbon that was the color of them once the bloom had died, and then one that resembled the the almost flourescent red of the rose hips.

It was a great learning experience because I was both making flowers to look real, then on top of that, making the same type of flower in its different stages. Also, since the tie-backs are two pieces, one for each side of the window, it lent itself to becoming a diptych. So, you can follow the process from the rose hip on the right-hand side, clockwise through both pieces, with the left -hand piece showing all beauty and sadness of the fleeting bloom, and then returning to the right-hand side, clockwise still, to the dying and the rebirth of the blooms. Perhaps the most distinct points of this dichotomy, shown in the right-hand tie-back, is the dead bloom yielding the rosehip directly. It is a remarkable and obvious story of the cycle of death and birth.

So, I believe that Drie really appreciated the subtle representation of the cycle, as did her husband, Kabran, an ND, on the merits of the science of the representation. I, too, learned a lot about my little rose bush just by observing the state of it. I felt like a Naturalist! Anyway, I really had a lot of fun making this piece, since I rarely get to make BIG things! Thanks, Drie!

Ferdinand Series

"Ferdinand's Valencia"
"Ferdinand's Mariposa"

"Ferdinand's Maria"

"Ferdinand's Madrid"

"Ferdinand's Isabella"

"Ferdinand's Contessa"

"Ferdinand's Carmela"

Well, I was having a "flower block" at the beginning of the season, and while I pearled over the deep, ruddy colors of Autumn over and over again, I could not find a vehicle for them. I needed to complete the deadline for the shop, but I just couldn't find that common thread. I was in a tangled and foggy state of mind (a frequent state of mind of one who suffers winters in the Great Northwest, but I was suffering it in the wrong season). Then, on one of those otherwise useless Sundays, my husband swept me off downtown to do a bit of bibliomancy (a lovely way to find the path out of the deep dark woods otherwise known as "mental block"). With the wind howling at our ears, and fresh smell of sea brine lacing the tall buildings of downtown Seattle, we ducked into a little shop but a block from Elliot Bay Book Store. A dense little shop of antique and specially collected books, I perused, though with little hope. The shop owner had just told me that books on historical costume were rare and very pricy. He had none, and I wasn't even likely to find one at the local behemouth down the street. Where, then, was I to find context for flowers worn on the person?

Well, then, I was lost, resigned to suffer the creative block with color and texture alone. As is always my literary preference, I wandered on over to the childrens' books to try to find something for my son.... On my last ounce of hope, I stumbled across an old icon, Robert Lawson's illustrated cover of "The Story of Ferdinand," by Munro Leaf. I thought that it would be a great read for my little boy, and while I indulged in the memories of those sublime illustrations, I met the page, "...And all the lovely ladies wore flowers in their hair."

Eureka!

There they were, those beautiful senoritas, peeking demurely over their fans, with dense clusters of flowers crowning their raven black hair. And, it was these flowers that became the hero of the story! It was because Ferdinand was so taken by the aroma of the countless flowers in the stadium worn by the fashionable maidens, that he passively sat there, the opposite of "Ferdinand the Fierce," enraging the Picadores, Banderilleros, and Matador by offering no show at all. All those lovely flowers saved the sweet bull's life!

And so, there was my vehicle. A successful bit of bibliomancy and a bowlful of rich ribbon, and I had my Series: "Ferdinand."

September Series

Amanda (below), the creator of the Mash Handmade store in Kansas City commissioned me to spruce up her Bride's Maid dress for a September wedding at a farm in Kansas. She wore a dress that was true navy in color, and her hair is a very pure-ish blonde color. She asked for something to jazz it up. Inspired, I created a series out of her idea and entitled it, "September," to commemorate the qualities of the transitional season. I let her choose the one she liked best, "September Dusk", and the rest are now on sale at her shop. Amanda wearing "September Dusk"

"September Dusk"

"September Frost"




"September Dawn"



"September Chokecherry"

Lambert-Redmond Wedding, Spring 2009

My dear friend Anna commissioned this set for her spring wedding.
Her maids wore a lovely cavalcade of flamingo, blush, carnation, wine, rose, strawberry, cranberry, and any other saucy pink you can deliciously visualize, all capped and accented with sophisticated bronze and dry minty green. Ooh what a feast for the eyes. Her beau and she are favorites of the clean and color-coordinated 40s and 50s, so the rigidity of the gros-grain's daisy fold held the luscious hanah silks and satins perfectly! And, the two-stepping mavens helped me create a function of these lovely wedding features that trump any real pinned-on corsage that I have ever met; they are dance-proof! Grab your partner and do-si-do!

Dawn of the Ribbon Flower...

That heaven permits, I have time to make these fancies! My husband is home, having been unjustifiably removed from work in these hard economic times, hence he is here to watch the babe, and I am free to stitch and twist and fold and squint....

I hearken the beauties of Empress Augusta, Queen Elizabeth, Victoria, and yes, even Mary, these ladies of emminence for whom time has a bit quelched, but for their costumed framework, and hence all ladies of feminine and fully-dressed tradition. To bedeck the dress is to bear tradition, but to decorate it is to punctuate the intent of being a woman in society, in season, and in play.

Or perhaps, I miss the masters of rococo, vomiting pretty and filigre on the walls, the drapes, the carpets, the furniture, the wigs, the frocks, the pianos, the paintings, and the mouse's door when they find it. Where have all the flowers gone? Do we miss the blooms of spring, the fruit of autumn, and the rose of winter? Do we know their ways anymore? Do we worship the moments of season's progress, know the weather in fields? Do we have to? Did we ever want to?

Here is a riddle for you, a vanity, a haiku; a flower in respite, one that won't die, one that suffers only the wrinkling from fingers that pet and primp and don. Here is a fleeting memory of emotions of happy days frozen in silk, velvet, and the spun and woven wares of forgotten looms, and forgotten purposes. Or for whatever reason, an exquisite flounce of an accessory to the way the light plays upon your skin, your hair, your eyes....it is this, the ribbon flower.

I make them custom for whatever you can imagine, with all the trappings of my own vision (without which you would not have chosen me, eh?). Some ready-made pieces are being sold at a great new brick and mortar shop in Kansas City, KS called Mash Handmade. An Etsy site, you ask? Well, someday, but I have yet to hold onto any inventory (a good problem to have, surely).

But please, ask questions and ask for commissions of camillesribbonflowers@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Camille