Orchids in the Winter

I've tended an orchid collection for around 8 or 9 years now, and as a long time gardener, this species of plant has the best, the very best, record for very lovely and welcomed flowers in the dead of winter.  Ironically, Pantone named "Radiant Orchid" as the 2014 "Color of the Year."  Lovers of shades of purple and fuchsia should be well served this year, when it comes to fashion and decor.....and I've always loved purple (I painted my room purple when I was old enough that Mom let ME choose, in grade school!) and using this color, in all its glorious shades and variations, has always suited me just fine.

So it's the dead of winter here, and one rather interesting discovery I've found about my new place is this:

 Yes, that's a skylight.  In fact, it's the skylight that I depend on for my photography here in my new set up.  And I've learned it's not actually very reliable when it snows too much, something that's been a simple fact of life here this winter.  I'm very happy when the snow melts...I wait it out when it's really dark up there (more on that at a later time...like how a plant collection that's also dependent on the skylight is faring up there....)

 Yes, it's been a long winter.  I wish I could send some of our precipitation to my friends in California....

 My orchids have their own little humidity area, tented shelving and trays of rocks and water, except when I bring them out to do their blooming.  They are in one of the brightest north windows here, at the patio door.

In fact, the orchids, in winter, enjoy this view!!  Except today, I think the snow is at least a foot deeper than in the photo here.

But the orchids seem happy enough to be blooming for me, and the show is just beginning for Winter, 2014!

It's my experience in growing orchids, that the flowers actually come in a pretty wide range of colors, besides purple.  But yes, there are plenty of variations on the pinky-purple, fuchsia, purply pink range, such as is close to the Pantone color....

So, naturally, I'm happy to oblige.  I have a fairly big collection of pearls and other gems in this color range so as my adventures with wire proceed....

...it's as good an excuse as any to use it!

If you'd like a closer look at this series, visit my studio here.  If you'd like to examine any of the pieces I'm including here, click on the image to go to their page in my Etsy studio.

Hope you are all finding ways and means to keep warm and happy this winter!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Taking the Wire a Little Further.....

As a working artist, I would explain my process as some mystical (tortured?!) fusion between a basic concept (idea or direction) and using the chosen materials.  Both sides of this equation tend to pull apart as often as they pull together.  So my current work with wire and mixed materials is a good example of this process.

On one hand, I started with the wire and a specific "need" in mind for a finished form...but this original impetus was abandoned as the wire itself, as a material, took its' own lead. 

As I began to see what might be possible, I began to see how I could gain more control and get the metal to conform more to what I'd like.  So while it's still give and take, there are two possibilities that are worth examining.  One is where the materials gain the upper hand and really do dictate the outcomes, sometimes pieces emerge that are nicely surprising.  The other is when I insist on getting to a certain outcome--sometimes it takes a few tries, but this is where persistence pays.

On another topic, the weather is a major current issue up here in the Midwest this winter, and in particular this week where we are below zero, again.  In my new place, I have a strange phenomena where what SHOULD be one of the warmest areas of this place....has skylights overhead!  So when temperatures are so far below freezing, all that heated air that floats up to the second floor is negated by the interior air that is cooled up in the skylights, is heavier, so floats downward, and so right now, it's kind of chilly up there.  Which explains the cats, all tangled together on their cat chair (which is under the skylight) doing what they must to keep warm. 

Thanks for stopping in and wherever you are, do keep warm!