Visiting Ontario and friends

I arrived in Toronto very late Sunday night and my friends Angie and Marly picked me up Monday morning.  It's so lovely to see them again...

We spent the morning and a wonderful lunch time in Toronto and then headed out to meet another metal clay artist friend - Sue McNenly.

Sue and I often correspond by email, and read each others blogs etc - and find many interesting connections in our lives and often obscure links in what we are currently working on.  So much so, we have frequently come to the conclusion that we are twins, separated at birth!  As we'd never met, and I just happened to be in Ontario, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get together and also a chance to  introduce her to Angie and Marly, who live relatively close by.

We both share a love of whimsy and enjoy a little play on words in our work.  If you haven't seen her work - you must check out her blog and website.  She makes delightful framed vignettes - here are a couple - and like my pieces - the title is integral to the piece:

"She's come undone"

"Water Baby"

Seeing her work close up you really can appreciate the tiny details and scale of what she is doing - like the tiny tags in the back of the dresses and the shoe buttons... Just beautiful work.

We spent a few hours together laughing and chatting and also getting to see her new home and studio......and by the time we got in the car to leave, my face was aching from all the laughing we had been doing!

I'm so glad we got a chance to meet up and had such a great visit. Next time - she'll have to come to Wine Country in California and visit me - which I know will be such a chore for her and her husband .....

"Twisted Sisters"

Creativity sparks - ideas to inspire : The unusual

On the metal clay yahoo group this week, someone posted about an unusual thing that inspired them. That someone was Sue McNenly who lives in Canada and makes lovely boxes, amongst other things, that you can see here.

I asked her if it was OK to share her cute inspiration tale and she agreed, so here it is:

"Last year I went to Scottsdale and fell in love with a wall I saw in the
changing room of a store! I loved the wall so much that I took a picture
of it...I often do things like that. Anyway, I knew I would use it one
day, and last weekend I made a box using the wall as inspiration."

Here's a photo of the wall:


and here is her box inspired by the wall:

It's just beautiful Sue. I love it.

It's a great example of how the most unusual things can inspire us in life! Thanks for letting me share it. Anyone else have an odd inspiration that they've followed up on??