Welcome All! I am so happy to have you come to visit!
We celebrate the abundance of a year of our work. Some of it was difficult, some of it a joy, but the dreams we had last year have produced the abundance upon which we will survive the winter ahead. Would you like to drink from a cup of abundance? Sip from the cup of your dreams?
This year, for my party with you, I drew upon some work I did about 30 years ago. This is a twisted column vase. I figured out how to make crochet spiral up to the Heavens! I like how it looks. Yes, I crocheted all of these pots for the party; I have had this long fascination with vessels. They are all about holding something precious. Also, they symbolize for me the sacredness of Women's Work.
I hadn't done any crocheting in a long time and it was good to have an excuse to do it again. I thought that I might send them out into the world. What do you think? Pass on a bit of the bounty.Oh! Who is that at the door?
Why, it is the Junque Couture girls from next door! Please come in! Meet my friends!
This is Shanna, who wishes you Glad Harvest. Her dress was embellished with buttons, keys and other fripperies from my junk drawer.
Please meet Franna, who, as her bird so boldly exclaims, is the voting fairy. She wants you to know that she heard on public radio that the polls only indicate the probable voting preferances of those of us who are registered to vote, while the choices of those who are actually, statistically, most likely to vote show a slightly different picture. This year's presidential election is therefore possibly in the feet of the "under 30, unmarried and non-white" crowd. This is what Shanna has to say to you: "Get your feets to the polls on the 4th of November!!!"
In case you are wondering, Franna's dress is made from cut paper snippetts left over from an ATC making foray. Her wings and the golden eagle coin on her stand are color photocopies of a bead ribbon and chocolate coin wrapper that I had - yeah, in my junk drawer. 
Here is Roxanna. Her dress is a luscious blend of paper cut snippetts, leftovers from the flag-string behind her and some sparkles from my junk drawer. Her wings and bird were found in my prototype book Your Artist Journal which is in redesign at the moment.
And finally meet Deeanna, who is another Voter/Woman of Power. Her Junque Couture includes color photocopies of ancient Chinese key reproductions, a glass heart, that bead ribbon again, an iron gear whatchamacallit and a copper colored foil candy wrapper.
Hey! May I give you a "party favorite"? (This term was coined by a 5 year old friend.) Well, I am so glad that you have stopped by, and the Junque Girls would love some company (politically fierce or not). Well, here you go: click on this image, download it to your computer and print it out. The instructions are there on the page.
Check out the wall paper: 
What IS that noise outside? Com'on. Let's go check it out ... What is that over there?
Oh! It is the Gnomies!
Hi Gnomies! How are you all this fine fall day?
Mamma Gnomie reports that they are all well. She wanted to know if their mining work had disturbed us. It really didn't, I just forgot that Autumn is the best time for them to gather their gold for the year. Young Gnomie showed us shere the King was:
He is offering us a tour. Shall we see what they have been up to?
Someone scouts from above, and, using ancient Gnomie methods, locates where to dig.
Look what Green Gnomie found!!
It is getting close to suppertime. I have a big feast laid out - will you all come back to my house and share it with me? Yes? Great! 
Oh! No! There are the squashes! I forgot to make the soup! - Hey, you all wouldn't mind if I got out my magic wand and kinda, well, made it that way, would you?
Oh, look what the Gnomies brought: over there on the left - some gold coins! How generous they are. You can see how much they love what they do:
And they loooove that Little Lad's popcorn! They get right into it!!
Now for dessert: I have made you some Great Wheel cookies. 
The Great Wheel is how the Old Ones in north-western Europe imagined the year and the turning of the seasons. Here, let me show you:
See how we move around the wheel? 
Well, the Wheel is moving into the time of slowing down, turning inward: indeed, we are moving into the time of dreaming. 
Birds are the symbol, especially at this time of year, of journeys, and, because they are inhabitants of the skies, of Heaven.
Thank you for your company. I have other gatherings over the course of the next month, so stay in touch. I also have gifts for random posters of comments to this blog post. I have lots! So do let me know that you stopped by. (Comments in person count too, for those of you close enough to do so!)
Sweet Dreams!
We have been making decorations. (I am a Geminii. I can use the royal "we" with myself.)
But I have been working on some particular embellishments!
See you Sunday morning, on the button!
And a peek at what I am working on this morning:
And who is wandering around in my felt collection??
Stay tuned... My party is scheduled for Sunday the 26th, along with the other 
Then I snipped a circle with tabs for the bottom
And used some shipping newsprint with gel medium as if I was putting papier mache over all:
Half way done:
I added some flowers cut from thick paper, for texture:
And colored tissue on top of that for some color:
These are not Chaska's instructions. Don't follow all this if you want to make what she did. This is just, well, my mind's eye says that this will be great, you just maybe don't know that yet.
And in keeping with my obsessive urges to use every scrap of paper on my desk (Earth Day, 1970, came at a particularly formative point in my life) these next two pages are filled with the artful (I hope) placement of some very tiny and pretty oddly shaped pieces of ... snipetts. One of them happened to be folded in half and so I just glued it down like that - then I realised that it was a little book! So I wrote in it and then started folding more and more papers and squeezed all of my thoughts behind these little doors. Among other things I was extolling the virtues of my children, which are legion, let me tell you. (As are the things that they need to learn.) But motherhood continues to be a deeply spiritual process for me and I am aghast most days at my childrens' ability to walk me right up the steps to the God/dess Of My Understanding. Where I remember to breathe. Where I weep.
God Bless The Children. 
And a close up of her lovely free motion machine stitching:
Another Grieving Angel. Their arms are embroidery floss wrapped sticks, and their hands are tassels of floss. For the soft touch I wanted, I think. I adore their faces. 
This doll stands a bit taller than the angels, about 20" tall. Her body is painted muslin but her face is just the cloth. Her heavily patched robe has been burned. Think metaphor here. These dolls were all made in the early 1990's. And that party had only just begun.
This doll is angry. Her hands, her means of expression, are all tied in knots. She has a headache. She is screaming.
I delight in the look of artists journals that are thick with collage and pockets with secret notes inside them, and have ribbons, lace, beads and charms dangling from their edges.
Well, it is ready for publication - just about. I would like to have a few people test it. My friend 
Please only respond if you have time to do this within a week - time is a bit of the essence: I have a projected publication date of October 1st (presentation at an important venue) and I would like time to work in any suggestions that you all may have. 
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