Meditation Gardens Archives - Buttons&Beads&Quilts!

Archive for Meditation Gardens

I am pleased that the New Year has just begun, and my first contemporary beaded art quilt, “Garden for a Sky Warrior” is completed. Of course I was working on it in 2012, but here it is, the first completed for the new year. This series of Meditation Art Quilts are some of my new visionary art series, in which I tap into a person’s energy field and “see” the image that is perfect for that person to use to meditate and play energetically. On the page found at the above link are the Gaia commands or mantras that you can use to safely “borrow” that person’s energy field and play in their garden, too. It’s nice to have friends to play with!

Having just come back from the desert in southern California, I am struck at how well I was able to suggest the night sky I this piece. Here on the east coast of the USA, there is so much light pollution, that I often forget just how many stars there really are in the sky until I’m away from cities like I was out in the desert. There seemed to be an endless pool of stars to dive into if you just looked upwards, and I feel that I did a good job of portraying that in this art quilt.

The garden in this piece ended up being inhabited by small. short grasses and ferns, for after all, the key part of the composition, I felt, was the sky. While most of the fabric leaves that were part of the original composition ended up being covered with beads, the tall grass like motifs that show up the best in this view are actually pieces I cut from antique ribbon. Years ago, I bought all there was to be had in a ribbon store that was going out of business of a 1.5″ ( 3.5 cm) wide, green taffeta ribbon that had small picots on the edges. Those loops are great places to tuck beads, which give an iridescent glow to the “grasses” which was exactly what I was looking for in this “other worldly” garden.

Here’s a close-up view of the portal that opens into the garden. (If you go to the page that is linked at the beginning of the article, and scroll to the end, you can get the commands and instructions on how to come through the portal.) As I spoke about in the last posting on this piece, the tie-dye circle behind the portal ended up becoming totally covered by beads (It’s hard for me to leave surfaces un-beaded!) Around the portal, you can see some of the metal feathers that I added. They were cut from a necklace I found in a craft store, and gave the perfect shamanic look to this piece. Besides, feathers have a special meaning to the man whose energy that I borrowed to create this art quilt. In this view, you can also see more of the countless iridescent blue beads that I used to suggest constellations and galaxies in this night sky I tried to simulate.

I’m having great, good fun with this series, and people have responded more to these quilts than perhaps any of the others that I have done. I’d like to think that it’s their response to the energy fields that are actually a part of each piece, as in the past I haven’t added that aspect to my work. Always before, the piece I was working on, I would bond and merge with it as we worked together to complete it. These new pieces have the added benefit of drawing on the energy of The Grid, The Matrix, The Stream of Universal Consciousness (pick a phrase), and that’s why I think that people are responding more.

What aspects of your own medium do you feel that you get the most responses? Is it what you want to be known for, or if not, why not?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!… and PLEASE tell like minded souls about this blog! The more readers and contributors, the more I write.

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.hearthealing.net and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies), and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: A Garden for a Sky Warrior / Tags: art based on an energy field, art quilt blogs, art quilts, beaded art quilts, contemporary art quilts, embellished art quilts, Nancy Smeltzer, visionary art

“A Garden for a Sky Warrior” Progresses

December 13, 2012 / Nancy Smeltzer / No comments

Work in progress of a Meditation Art quilt, "A Garden for a Sky Warrior" Nancy Smeltzer, MFA

Last week, I posted about auditioning fabrics for this contemporary, beaded art quilt, “A Garden for a Sky Warrior”. Visionary art can be so much fun to do, because I tap into a person’s energy field and “see” where would be the perfect place for this person to meditate and energetically play. The man who was the inspiration for this piece was in the military this lifetime, but in past lifetimes, I see him as more of a Jedi Knight. In my vision, he traveled across galaxies to fight for Universal Good, swashbuckling from one adventure to the next and defending those who needed it.

One time, he explained how he had learned in the service to sight by the stars, so I know that that’s why the grid pattern and crossed bands appear in this piece. We had a discussion once about how the South Sea Islanders had lashed sticks to sight through at night. I once got to see one of these early navigational maps that a friend’s mother had gotten when she lived in Guam. I also saw some when I visited the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway. Thor Heyerdahl used these stick maps to sail across oceans in reed boats. I imagine that my friend whose energy field that I used for this piece had his own navigational system to use when his equipment would go down when he was out in the galaxies.

The area behind the portal was the tie dye circle that I talked about last week. It had a multitude of rays coming out from it, and beading it with lavender, blue, and gold beads was quite fun. I wanted to suggest perhaps a super nova that the Sky Warrior was escaping as he came through the gold portal window into the garden. Another possibility for that elaborate view is perhaps that it’s his individual energy signature that he used to propel him through the portal. In this concept, he would use his own electromagnetic field to quickly move from one galaxy to another through his personal worm hole. Surrounding the window are three brass colored, star shaped, metal stampings that I had picked up somewhere in the distant past. They were one of those purchases that I didn’t know exactly how they would be used, but that I HAD to have them.

The actual garden in this art quilt is more like a marsh. I have a large number of Iris pseudocorus , a yellow iris that lives in shallow water and damp ground after which the fleur-de-lis is patterned. That 3 petaled design of French royalty is also sometimes used in a compass rose to indicate directions on a map, and this links this piece to not only a garden but a sky map for my friend’s energy. In the dark blue sky, you can also see some of the web-like patterning that was on the original fabric. I enhanced it with light blue seed beads to give a twinkle to this night sky.

Maps, the night sky, gardens, travel, and lots of adventures are some of the things that I know about my friend’s interests, so it’s not surprising that they would show up energetically in this piece. My take is that we each have a unique colorful field of energy around us, and can’t help ourselves when it comes to creating our personal spaces. MY gift is that I can tap into that field and see the perfect place for that person to p;ay and meditate. I’m grateful that my friend let me “borrow” his energy for this piece.

If you were going to make a drawing or map of your energy field. what motifs and designs would you choose that are already a part of your life? Given that as an artist, you have full “artistic license”, what elements would you like to include in a map of your energy?

Category: A Garden for a Sky Warrior / Tags: art quilt blogs, art quilts, art work based on an energy field, beaded art quilts, contemporary art quilts, Nancy Smeltzer, visionary art

“A Garden for a Sky Warrior” – Auditioning Fabrics

December 6, 2012 / Nancy Smeltzer / 4 comments

When auditioning fabrics to choose from when creating an art quilt, I start with a large pile of pieces to consider. My fabric is my paint that I’m going to use, and since I revel in the use of color, I like to have lots of possibilities. This new Meditation Garden piece that I’m working on is called “A Garden for a Sky Warrior”. The man whose energy that I tapped into for its image, I’ve seen as fighting for the greater good across the galaxies many lifetimes, so of course, I had lots of celestial theme fabrics in my stack. The problem with blue and purple is that they’re probably the hardest colors to get true color accuracy when photographing. This photo shown is from the web site where I bought the piece and is actually much lighter in color than the actual fabric that arrived. There were also a lot more purple dots on the fabric than what show up here in the photo, but I didn’t feel that those would pose a problem, as I could always cover them up with beads. This was one of the first fabrics to be chosen and was actually used in the piece.

This next fabric I bought because I knew that I wanted to have the illusion of a sky map in the piece. The photo is pretty accurate with regard to the actual color of the piece. I originally thought that the fabric shown above would be the base fabric, but this one on the left ended up as the main material. Given that the at work is only 16″ x 20″ ( 40.5 cm x 50.5 cm), each swatch of fabric has to work harder to have the composition work than when I have a larger area and lots of room in which to spread out fabrics and embellishments.

The tie dye center of the circle on this batik fabric I thought looked like a big star or could be made into a super nova when I bought it on-line. The motifs are spaced pretty far apart, and so in a yard of fabric, I only got five motifs which came out to about $1.50 US for each motif. They were also too big to use in quantity on such a small scale art quilt, but one was the perfect circle to put behind the portal entrance. The circle ended up being extensively beaded, and detailed shots will appear in future postings about this piece of art. The rest of the fabric is a beautiful hazy design, but while I’ll save it for something, nothing immediately comes to mind, as there are none of the distinct delineations between colors that I like to use to keep one area separate from another when I’m doing extensive beading.

Finally, this last piece of fabric that was ordered specifically for my concept of what this piece was going to look like ended up not being used at all. The circles I thought would be a great way to show a concentration of stars in part of the night sky in the scene, but they were really too small to use any but the smallest size 15 seed beads. While I love the details you can get with those itty, bitty beads, the needles that will go easily through the 3 layers of a quilt sandwich, are too large to go through the beads. While I have found some hand sewing needles, John James milner needles from England, it often takes too many pokes with my fingers and strain on my aging eyes to get the stiff quilting thread that I like to go through the eye. I’m sure that I will use this fabric on something else.

For me, when beginning an art quilt, I pull out way more than I know that I’ll actually use, as I like to have choices…. LOTS of choices! After all, as I said, my fabrics and embellishments are my paints, and while I don’t like to the mess of creating my own fabrics, I do like playing with commerical ones. I probably have several lifetimes worth of fabric in my tiny studio, yet I still get seduced by just one more addition to my stash. The trouble is that I rarely discipline myself to just one new acquisition.

How do you go about choosing what will appear in your art work. Is there a particular type of supply materials that you just can’t resist when you’re on-line or in a store. Now that I’m not married, I can purchase with wild abandon and admit to my weaknesses, so we’re all wondering what’s yours?

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: A Garden for a Sky Warrior / Tags: art quilt blogs, art quilts, art work based on an energy field, contemporary art quilts, Nancy Smeltzer, visionary art

“Milly’s Garden” – Meditation Art Quilt Completed

November 29, 2012 / Nancy Smeltzer / No comments

Tapping into a person’s energy field is not a usual way to see the image for creating an art quilt, but that’s exactly what I do for this series of “Meditation Art Quilts”. They’re designed to be the perfect place for that person to view, use as a meditation focus, and energetically play in. Such is the case of this latest piece, “Milly’s Garden”, a small art quilt, (16″ x 20″ or 41.5cm x 50 cm, without the frame.) The central portal is the entrance and exit to the garden, and if you go to the page on this blog that tells about them, there are the phrases to help you access any of the images that I’ve created so far. (Feel free to access the energy in any of the images that appeal to you; all can share!)

I was especially pleased with the bands of translucent. pale green ribbon that lead from the central portal. In this full pic, they are the bands with horizontal, pale green seed beads. Dark green lilies frame the central portal, and the edges of the tops of the flowers suggest green clouds. (This piece is for my Mother and her favorite color is green.)

This detail shot shows the edges of one of those green lilies and how I used seed beads to emphasize the shape of the flower. Tiny, cream colored pearls were shown along the outer edge of satin stitch that was commercially done on the fabric. I sewed dark olive beads vertically upwards from the base of the flower to suggest veins. To the right of the flower is some of the blue and gold metallic lace that was sewn around the central gold portal to also suggest clouds. It takes quite a bit of hand quilting to get lace with motifs as spread out as this to lie flat, so I used some metallic blue seed beads to add on to the lace and to weigh it down. There are two glass buttons from Czechoslovakia that I’ve written about in a previous blog. There’s a green one on the lower left edge, and black and gold one in the bottom middle in this photo. People always respond to these glass buttons, and reach out to touch them as they are so unusual. I always try to include some in each art quilt that I make because of the response that they elicit.

This detail shot, from the upper left of the portal, shows some of the extensive beading that I do. On the far right is a detail of the translucent, pale green ribbon that I mentioned above with it’s alternating horizontal rows of pale green seed beads. The yellow plumeria flower in the far, bottom left is a motif cut from fabric. It measures about 4″ x 4″ ( 10 cm x 10 cm) and is completely covered with seed beads. That intensive an amount of beading takes about 1 hour to complete 1 sq. in. (2.5 sq cm). In the middle of this shot are some pale green flowers where I left some of the fabric showing for future art historians. You can also see how I repeated lots of circles to help tie the composition together. The buttons are circular, there are some flat gold metal wreaths in the very top middle edge, and to the far left are some of those dyed shell circles that I stitched down with 6 strands of a darker shade of green in embroidery floss. By repeating shapes and colors, I can use a diverse amount of materials, and in my opinion, have them work as a balanced composition.

Creating these meditation gardens is great, good fun for me, as I feel that I am giving an image to something that the person is about, their own personal energy field. I already have some people interested in having me do one for them, so I hope that you get called to have one made for you. Please pass this blog on to like minded souls, whom you think would like to have a piece made for them. I’d love to create one for you, as we all need a personal space in which to mediate and reflect. What better place than a personal garden based on yourself in which to revel?

How do you go about making choices as to what appears in your art work? Which sorts of elements call to you the most when you’re designing in your own medium?

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: Milly's Garden / Tags: art created by tapping into energy fields, art quilt blogs. quilts embellished with buttons and beads, art quilts, Nancy Smeltzer, visionary art

“Milly’s Garden” – a Meditation Garden Art Quilt

November 19, 2012 / Nancy Smeltzer / No comments

This photo shows the beginning of another one of my Meditation Garden series of art quilts. It was designed as a present for my mother. Her favorite color is green, so I lavished lots of different subtle shades of that color throughout the composition. The central orb motif that I’ve used for the other pieces in this series, has an aqua border, so I backed that area with a metallic gold and turquoise lace. There are some pale teal lace feathers on either side of the central portal or window that allows access to all of the parts of this garden. There are three golden yellow plumerias that make a triangle on the edges of the composition. In the upper left and bottom middle of the photo are some green, dyed shell circles that I’ve used in a lot of my pieces, as the central hole balances out the solid nature of the round buttons that I use. This piece, as you see it in this photo, is very early on in the construction, so there still a number of pins in place, holding down areas of fabric to keep them flat. I try to do most of the initial stitching in the middle of the piece, and work my way out to the edges. The pins can then be undone and repositioned as needed to allow for the piece to stretch or shrink as needed as more and more sewing and beading takes place.

I have spoken in the past about how when I’m working on an art quilt, I slip into the Creative Free Flow or The Zone and the piece and I are one with each other. This State of Being is even more true with these Meditation Garden pieces, as I am tapping into the person’s energy field to create a unique visual image for that person in which to play and meditate. However, when I was looking around for fabrics with large flowers before actually starting this piece for my mother, these were some of the fabrics and buttons I bought. I love the morning glories and the two toned yellow and magenta button in the middle is actually made out of pressed sawdust. (I love the idea of recycling materials.) The lavender flower motif on the left I also thought would be perfect for this piece, None of these colors or materials ended up in the final piece. As I was cutting out the fabrics, which is what I always start with first, I was “told” what was needed, and none of these became part of this piece. (I do have a future commission in the works for which the morning glories will be perfect!)

Being an artist, no matter what medium you use, involves making changes. Some people would call them compromises, but I prefer to see them as the piece telling me how it wants to look. For me, I learned a long time ago, to quit fighting with the materials at hand and let them tell me how they want to be arranged. When I do that surrender, that’s when I get my best pieces.

Have you ever started out on a piece of art work and have it turn out to be completely different than from how you had originally thought it would be? How did you feel about the “changes” that were made. Do you see those adjustments as a natural evolution from how the piece was originally supposed to be in the first place?

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Category: Milly's Garden / Tags: art created by tapping into energy fields, art quilt blogs, art quilts, art quilts embellished with buttons and beads, Nancy Smeltzer, visionary art

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Buttons&Beads&Quilts!

Archive for Meditation Gardens

“Garden for a Sky Warrior” completed

“A Garden for a Sky Warrior” Progresses

“A Garden for a Sky Warrior” – Auditioning Fabrics

“Milly’s Garden” – Meditation Art Quilt Completed

“Milly’s Garden” – a Meditation Garden Art Quilt

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