Flying garden denizens

My neighbors in the Arizona desert

I just know you love all the trivia I've been writing so here is more for you. Arizona and Nevada, although neighboring "desert" states, have vastly different natural flora. This is mostly due to the much colder Nevada winters of the Mojave desert and the higher humidity and rainfall (yes, not a misprint) of the Sonoran desert. Saguaros, the massive cacti that thrive all over Arizona, would croak in a second in the Mojave due to the dryness and the frequent freezing in winters.

Now you know.

Despite some difference, we desert dwellers all have to withstand hot summers and enjoy mild winters. And we do share some similar plants and flying critters that are pictured below. The buzzing fly (nice detail!) was placed on the prickly branches of the Catclaw Acacia, a hardy and prolific bush that can grow the size of a tree. If you wonder why the name, try cutting one of its springy branches sometime and...well, you'll know!

Both deserts also enjoy hummingbirds, the jewels of the sky! and the hummingbirds enjoy the nectar of the Desert Willow. Really a Mojave native, this hardy plant enjoys the Sonoran climate as well and thrives wherever there is scant and deep water to be had in washes and dry riverbeds. This particular hummingbird was very nicely and deeply carved!

Wendy Willis - Phoenix, Arizona USA
http://www.wswillis.com
Love being a part of the Fantastic Garden. My piece was inspired by a heavier than usual in flux of flies in our area this spring...

Dana & Brenda Diller - Prescott Valley, Arizona USA
Since Arizona loves its hummingbirds, Brenda drew the design and Dana did the carving work. It was a collaboration that we hope will be continued.

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

A Garden Refuge, a Curlew, and a Tasmanian gift

Public Service Announcement!

Important Dates and Notes

Only six weeks to go to the deadline! August 31st is fast approaching.

Please send your image information as soon as you know what you are doing via this page:
http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com/p/2013-fantastic-garden.html

Three More Pieces of the Fantastic Puzzle

Kathleen (Kate) Willoughby - USA
pieces_of_time at hotmail.com
The garden has always been a refuge for me, gardening always had a way of making things 'right'.  When I lost a great deal of my mobility the garden taunted me.  This is the first image that I have carved in a very, very long time.  Who would know that returning to art via the garden would allow the light of art back into my life.  I chose the image of a walking bridge a metaphor for the long road to recovery.  It is rough, it is uneven in some places, some other places dark and vague.  But there is plenty of light - imperfect, some slips and some falls - but that is life, no?

Laura Castell Perez - Townsville AUSTRALIA
http://www.lauracastellart.com
"The bush stone curlew, an Australian bird often sheltering among bushes or tall grass during the day but very active at night wandering in groups producing wail-like sounds.It has been an honour to be part of this group! and be caught in the contagious enthusiasm of Maria!"

Linden Langdon - Hobart, Tasmania AUSTRALIA
http://www.lindenlangdon.com
Tasmania is an island south of Australia, though about 100 million years ago it was a tiny part of the massive Gondwana supercontinent. There is just one remnant flora species that forms a link between South America, New Zealand and Australia. Nothofagus gunnii is the only deciduous species native to Tasmania and creates a beautiful carpet of autumn colour in the highlands.

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Ruth Leaf's Contribution and a Mystery Solved

Ruth Leaf

I confess Ruth is my favorite all time printmaker. She is the author of the ageless Etching, Engraving and Other Intaglio Printmaking Techniques. I am pasting the link here. Unfortunately as I understand it, Ruth doesn't get royalties any longer! But her words are wise and the book is still the basis for many a printmaking course in Universities and Colleges.
She is also an incredible artist and relief printmaker and I am proud to own and display some of her prints. So why the plug? No reason, I just love Ruth and felt like telling the world!

Here is her contribution, nestled among the African Sumac mulched leaves and just below one of our favorite hardy "volunteers", the Mojave Globe Mallow. The Globe Mallow sprouts here and there all over the desert. Water it and it grows faster but also dies faster. Any bush, grass or tree that grows and thrives out here by itself earns my respect. The flowers are bright orange and the stems a delicate pale ash green.

Ruth Leaf - Venice California USA
http://ruthleaf.com

Mystery Solved

A while back I showed a mystery block carved by my other favorite printmaker David Bull. Dave churns away in his Seseragi Studio in Japan and now has accomplices to help him fill the world with woodblock prints. His wise words are best heard first hand through the amazing rich media book Your First Print,
http://mokuhankan.com/catalogue/0057.php

If you recall, his block was carved from a single delicate line and the critter hidden within was...well, hidden! Today I succumbed to temptation and decided to pull a print just to see what it would look like. I sure hope we can do it justice when printing the big blocks!

Here are the block to refresh your memories, and the print I pulled with an enlargement. The beastie revealed!!!

David Bull's block to refresh your memories

The printed beastie!

Larger view, look at it for a long time and you will enter
an alternate reality...ommmmmm

Important Dates and Notes

Only two months to go to the deadline! August 31st is fast approaching.

Please send your image information as soon as you know what you are doing via this page:

http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com/p/2013-fantastic-garden.html

Sprouts!

What's this I see? Little sprouts in our garden!

Dear participants, six wonderful blocks are here!
The garden begins to sprout with wonderful contributions from Robert Simola, Barbara Zietchick, Andrew Borloz, Sue Salsbury, Anne Van Oppen and David Bull.

Pictures coming right at you but first wanted to point out two updates:

1. The Participants List is now updated with the new arrivals, whether you have sent information for your design, and whether you have ordered a pre-paid Printed Book "Growing the Garden"
http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com/p/participant-list.html

2. To fill in your Artist Information, go to the Artist Info page:
http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com/p/2013-fantastic-garden.html

3. If you still want to pre-order a printed book Growing the Garden, just let me know and somehow, some way send the pre-paid amount of $18 to me, with your block, via PayPal to my email address.

Also, please point out any errors in either page regarding your info.

Keep them coming! YAAAAAAAAAAAA-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Blocks arriving, work continues

Blocks arriving!

Background carving begins

The garden welcomed three blocks already and two more are on the way. I have also heard that blocks have arrived at the farthest point from Las Vegas, all the way around the globe. I am very pleased with the mail system this time.

Once they get here, they need to rest right in their little boxes for just a bit. Las Vegas is very dry and this particular spring, one of our driest on record. When wood travels to humid places (which is just about anywhere compared to here!) it swells just a bit with the ambient moisture. After it returns, I leave it in the box, getting accustomed very slowly to the dry air. Once a couple of weeks have gone by, it is generally safe to open the little packages and peek inside.

Until then, you will just have to wait and see what everyone else is doing.

And that brings me to...

First skeleton block!

I had a couple of distractions like, er, LIFE and things! But I am now firmly planted in my studio and just finished one of the skeleton blocks. Basically, I remove the background leaving only the matrix for the wonderful images that everyone will bring. I have to strike a balance between a design that brings all the blocks together so they "make sense" and not put in so much detail that the overall design dominates the puzzle pieces.

Here it is, awaiting your pieces!

Print Information, don't forget!

Once you are sure of the design, remember we are writing a book! Well, okay, I am putting together a book but your words are needed to make it interesting, otherwise it's just me talking.

Please fill in the information for your print, exactly as you would like it to appear online and in the book Growing the Garden.

Here is the page to do that, right from this blog:

http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com/p/2013-fantastic-garden.html

On to block number two...

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Three up, two down

Ever been hiking and decide to go off trail for a bit? Then you see that hilltop and you have to see what's up there? Then you realize that the nice slope wasn't really all that nice at all and you are actually going up a 45+ degree shale covered mother of all slippery piles of loose gravel? Three steps up two steps down, three steps up four steps down, three steps up, slip, slide on your b--

Well, THAT is just about how my day went today. First thing in the morning we had a slight plumbing problem (need I say more?) which was thankfully-partially-functionally resolved by about noon. Sigh. Unfortunately by noon we are breaking heat records and it was already low nineties with the sun beating down, not a teensy breeze blowing. Why is this relevant?

Today was supposed to be my first chopping day! The blocks have been waiting eagerly, my trusty (a bit more on this coming up) saber saw fitted with new blades, new bit on the drill, maps ready, me ready...so I plowed ahead ignoring the heat and set up my work area in the semi-shade of the trees.

There it is, I had to find the foam support which had been stashed in the by now very hot garage and gather the rest of the tools required for the task.

Being a bit too hot to have the camera outside, I decided to snap a couple of quick pictures and perhaps shoot the upcoming video tomorrow when I begin anew in the cool of the early morning. If you have ever visited the Southwest and know about our dry heat then you know that the concept of a cool breeze does not exist here. When the temperature is hot, the air is hot and any breeze is hot and today the air ain't moving.

Foam insulation resting on pallet resting on hand-cart, perfect work table!

For reasons upcoming, I am resigned to explain what I was going to do and how. First, the working table is a 3 inch thick piece of insulation foam, resting on an old wooden pallet, which in turn rests on a convertible hand-cart that can either stand up or lie on all four wheels. Easy down, easy up, easy moving around, easy transport.
The foam insulation allows me to work without clamps. The block of wood just rests on the foam and the blade of the saber-saw goes right through the wood and right through the foam, allowing me to cut curves as tight as I dare without slipping or bouncing.
The pallet underneath just supports the foam insulation off the ground so I can work at the right height, for me anyways.

Next are the tools of the trade, a cordless saber-saw with two batteries so I can (allegedly) keep working, a cordless drill, a map of the block with puzzle-piece numbers pre-marked, permanent marker, dust mask and shade cap.

Marker, map, blades, and stupid saber-saw with stupid battery attached

As I cut each piece, I mark the back with an arrow indicating the top or sky of our garden, and the code number for the block so I can replace it once returned. The drill is fitted with a drill bit just slightly larger than the scroll-saw fine blade. When a piece of the puzzle is on the edge of the block, I simply cut it out. However when the piece is "land-locked" I drill a hole off to the edge of the piece, insert blade and cut. The drill bit holes are later disguised as empty spaces surrounding the puzzle piece.

Back to the hiking analogy. After digging out the foam insulation from the depths of the man-garage out back (three steps up), I had to dust it out and remove the black-widow spiders that had made neat little nests on it (two steps down). A good hosing and it was clean and ready to go; no spiders were harmed during this procedure although they are very clean spiders now. I gathered my tools, noting that I was so clever to have cordless tools so I did not need a power cord and could work in the shade of the trees, and prepared the camera (three steps up).
Then I slapped the rechargeable batteries onto the drill and saber-saw and...andddd....click click click...nothing happened (four steps down). Sigh. No problem, because I AM clever-er than my saber-saw and have a spare battery, still on the charger, showing green light, wait, blinking green light? How can that be! It should be charged by now?! Green? No? Maybe half-charged? Click click click...silence. My battery checker tells me it's dead, or as my friends from the Midwest like to say: "the batt'ry is ru'ned".

By now it is 2:30 PM and I'm frankly out of patience, out of energy and the temperature has climbed to a balmy 99.8 degrees, fortunately Fahrenheit, not Celsius if you are the glass-half-full kind of person. But this ol' gal ain't used to these temperatures so early in the year and is going inside under the fan. Then I'm going to have to take a trip to the home-supply store and splurge for a new battery and hope that the second one charges properly.
I gathered all the above back in the studio and listened to the birds for a while. Tomorrow will be another day.


Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com