Dreaming of Colorful Gardens
The perennial garden we created in our last home
Often it's the idea of the project that's so luscious – I can spend hours pouring through books and photos that inspire and ignite my creative spirit – whether it's a painting, a piece of fiber art or yes... a new garden.
After a year of cutting back overgrown trees and shrubs, digging and clearing out perennial weeds, replacing the old septic system, installing a deer fence and irrigation systems, we've finally revealed the open canvas of our new garden in our new home. It's a blank slate, ready for the garden designs and colors swirling in my head... and I'm so excited!
I design gardens the same way I paint – by throwing ideas and colors, see where they land, then moving, changing, standing back to absorb the story that's waiting to be revealed. A bit of a hump becomes a hill, perhaps a dip is yearning to be a pond and an old path becomes the boundary for a new garden room. A pale peach peony wants to be surrounded by soft sorbet colors and coupled with a fountain becomes our Serenity Garden. The deep orange poppy gets moved into another garden room to dance with hot pink, dark red and bright chartreuse, just like the women in my paintings.
I've pulled out my color wheels (Eye For Color of course!), and the color palettes in Artful Color for Creative Projects to fill me with endless color possibilities for each of my new garden rooms (yes, there will be many!).
Most of this is still in my head – or in seed packets and tubers and bulbs under ground – but even so, my hands are in the dirt, and I'm tingling with anticipation for spring!
I hope you too are dreaming of color!
What colors are you dreaming of?
Are you also planning colorful projects in your head? Or have you already rolled back your sleeves and are joyfully diving in to the colors and textures that make your heart sing? Wherever you are in your creative process, here are some color inspirations that I hope will inspire you with an extra pop of color to make your compositions glow:
Soft subtle colors of lichen inspired this wintry painting 'Dancing In A Winter Wonderland':
A warm – but still soft – color palette lends itself to early spring colors. 'Flowering Plum'
Too cold to dig your hands in the dirt? Try Nuno Felting with my oh-so-colorful book: Artful Color In Nuno Felt
By the way...
Have you tried Nuno Felting?
If not, it's so rewarding (make a scarf in the morning and wear it that evening!) and I can show you how:
Artful Color In Nuno Felt is full of colorful inspiration, easy-to-follow instructions and plenty of projects you can start and finish in 1-day!
A Labor of Colorful Love
I adore the entire process of creating colorful, inspiration books for you and this was no exception! Artful Color in Nuno Felt came to life over a 3-year period while I:
designed new projects that start easy (at the beginning of the book) and slowly add complexity as you gain experience
took every single photo (even ones of my own hands!)
personally designed each page individually to provide luscious, colorful eye-candy from start to finish!
Not only is it an AWARD WINNING self-published book, but the responses from readers all over the world has been exhilarating, humbling and heart-warming. Hearing from you has made every, single minute of creating this so worth while!
Here are some of the lovely comments about Artful Color in Nuno Felt:
"I am blown away! More projects than any other nuno book, and such a colorful path through them all! The instructions are simple and direct and of course the photos are wonderful! So helpful to see the color wheel inspiration for each piece. Really beautiful book! " - Arlene in Alaska
"The book is better than I expected - so many ideas of colour, items to make and even “how-to” inspiration and many ideas even for experienced felters. I like how the colour wheel is included to show the colour selection used. Many very good quality photos, paper & binding make a lovely book." - Coral in New Zealand
"This is the go-to book for Nuno felting. Easy to understand directions and beautiful projects." - Cathleen in Pennsylvania