Nora's Guest Book

This morning my friend and neighbor Nora called and asked me to create a quilted notebook for use as a guest book at Villa Santa Cruz, her seaside villa here in Salt River.

Fortunately, my day was already going to be spent in the studio. So, I put aside my latest incarnation of Marlena the mermaid and began work on her project.

I knew exactly what kind of cover I would make. It'd be a water scene with a poem about the sea. The poem is an excerpt that I found online. On the label I gave credit to the author. Here's how it turned out:



And this is the front of it when the book is closed:



This is my second cover in this theme. It's a fun project and I'd like to make more to sell. The quandary at the moment is how much to charge for it in the general market. It takes a good 3 hours to construct.

Summer Travels and the Muse

This past July our travels took us to my native Colombia. We enjoyed a family reunion at Villa Clara, my sister's farm near Ibague.



I was captivated by the magnificent beauty of the Andes Mountains surrounding us.



In August we returned to one of our favorite playgrounds on this beautiful planet. We chartered a boat out of St. Thomas and made the rounds through the British Virgin Islands.



While some of us snorkeled the pristine waters, our crew mates Brooke and John preferred diving for deeper treasures. Here they brought up a gorgeous starfish for a quick visit to the surface.



Being on water for seven days recharged my creative batteries. I sat on the boat admiring the beauty and I got to imagining a mermaid named Marlena. I could see her amid the coral, playing hide and seek with the schools of angelfish and blue tang. She came home with me and followed me right into the studio. She's here for an extended stay.



You can click on Marlena or any of the photos for a close-up view.