raw materials

Every day while walking the pups I find things. Beautifully colored leaves, gnarly twigs, mosses, bark, flower petals and seed pods.


I'm never quite sure what I'll do with them, although sometimes I'll just see something and get a fully formed picture of some finished piece in my head, just by picking the object up and holding it in my hand. Mostly, I just bring interesting stuff back to the studio and play with it awhile, creating different little vignettes and arrangements until sparks fly.


Lately, I've started to think the universe is trying to tell me something, because every day - EVERY DAY - I've been finding these beautiful, shiny black crow feathers. No matter where we walk, they're waiting for me somewhere along our route. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with them yet, but at this point I think I almost have enough to make an entire crow!


Got any ideas?

new fairy couture

Some new fairy dresses I'm working on for the fall collection...

this one was inspired by a dress worn by Claudette Colbert

in a 1930s movie I can't remember the name of.

Fittingly, it's for a Parisian garden fairy named Claudette.

The bodice is composed of guinea fowl feathers and down,

with cap sleeves and brooch of poppy pods, and a slim, pencil skirt of paper birch.

Here's a frothy, floaty, sensual dress with a skirt and top of hibiscus flowers, trimmed with gladiola petals and tiny blossoms. It was commissioned by Sofia, a flower fairy from Tuscany.

They'll both be available for purchase in the Camp Cactus etsy shop on Tuesday.

those cwazy wabbits!

Here's another wascally wabbit I caught flying through the garden yesterday. He'll be in the Camp Cactus etsy shop later today.