Nest Series: Krishnamurti Nest

 

Krishnamurti Nest

Next up in the nest series is the Krishnamurti Nest, inspired by a number of week-long retreats I've had the great good fortune to attend at the Krishnamurti Foundation of America down in Ojai, California. Situated on the site where K himself lived and taught, the setting of orange groves, pepper trees, and abundant wildlife is surrounded by the Topatopa Mountains. One pepper tree in particular, the tree under which K experienced a transformative spiritual rebirth, (backstory here), warrants special attention and a loving pat or two on its trunk.

This nest is partially made from one of the booklets offered as part of the superbly facilitated dialogue sessions run by Richard Waxberg and Deborah Kerner. The nest has been built to house an abundance of pink peppercorns and leaves from the property where K used to live.

Materials: booklet pages

Materials: pink peppercorns and leaves

Each nest in this series has required reinventing construction techniques based on the unique materials being used. In this case, thin wire was wrapped in strips of paper and used as a framework. More paper, cut into strips, was braided and then woven in and out of the infrastructure.

Nest building in progress

Nest building

The final nest is light, airy, and almost as magical as sitting on the back lawn during a K dialogue, listening to the birds and the rustle of trees and realizing, I am all of this.

The nest

Nest Series: The Seaweed Nest

 

The Seaweed Nest

The winter of 2025 seems to be a time for huddling down and nesting, and here we have number three in the Nest Series.  This organic creation was inspired by a rain walk on the shores of Lake Merritt, Oakland during one of the many atmospheric rivers that hit the Bay Area coast in the past few months. A king tide had created a surge that threw mounds of seaweed and shells onto the lake path. I collected a bunch, took it all home, and created this.

King tide seaweed

Really cool seaweed

I've worked with seaweed before (check past Seaweed Projects), and knew the trick was not to try to stitch or otherwise fasten the raw material together, but to mold it into the desired shape and keep tweaking the molding process as it dried.

Molding the seaweed

Tweaking the mold as it dries

One of the challenges in this nest series is to decide what to house in a particular nest. In this case the decision was relatively easy. I opted for a combination of seashells tossed up by the tide and a few choice pieces from my collection of sea beans. If you have walked the shores of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, or East Africa, you have encountered sea beans — seed pods that drop into waterways or shorelines and are carried away by the tides to travel to distant shores. For those curious to learn more, "What the Heck is a Sea Bean?" is an entertaining post with a sea bean identification guide.

The nest

A clutch of shells and sea beans

On to the next nest!

Trump-o'-Rama: The Second Coming

 

Smashed Trump Cascarone

In preparation for this inauguration day, January 19, 2025, I have rounded up past work to create this Trump-o'-Rama full of fun-packed activities, fashion, and more to help you rage against the night.

Trump Cascarones

Click here for link.

This how-to comes complete with instructions and downloadable pdf to enable you to create these unique, confetti-filled egg shells for your funereal festivities. Go ahead, smash a Trump and feel bitterly better.  

Smash a Trump

Dialogue Pin for Troubled Times: Not My President

Click here for link.

These were a hot item the first time around, and the idea is to engage in dialogue with strangers about what is going on — even if their political beliefs differ from your own. I find it is helpful to carry a few extra pins with me so that when someone asks me about mine and we have a conversation, I am able to offer them one to carry on the dialogue with others. 

The "not my president" pin

Make Your Own Orange Man Voodoo Doll

Click here for link.

Don't miss this opportunity to create your own ugly little voodoo doll and stick it with pins. Two different varieties! This post offers a complete how-to with instructions and downloadable pdf. Come on, you know you want to.

Trump voodoo doll

Alternate voodoo doll

All the Rage: Voices Against Trump

Click here for link.

From the All the Rage fashion line, an upcycled shirt embroidered with quotes about Trump (none of them positive). Time to forage through thrift stores, wield your needles, and start stitching your own protest fashions.

The Voices Against Trump shirt

Bleeding Heart Liberal Pin

Click here for link.

Now is the perfect opportunity to break out your political jewelry and wear it with style. But first you have to make it. You will find easy, detailed instructions on how to create your own Bleeding Heart Liberal pins in this post.

Bleeding Heart Liberal pin

All the Rage: Trump Thaumatrope

Click here for link.

Here is a nifty little toy you can make in a few minutes and better yet, it comes on a postcard you can mail out to everyone you know. Give it a whirl. This post includes a downloadable pdf so you can launch your own toy business in a matter of minutes.

The Trump Thaumatrope - lock him up with the twirl of a string

All the Rage: Snowflake Shirt

Click here for link.

Yeah, you have feelings, you care about others, you believe in fairness and justice and civility. Admit it, you are a snowflake. Turn an intended insult into a badge of honor. Once again, you will need to wield your embroidery needles for the cause (think Betsy Ross). This simple black linen sleeveless top has been transformed into a bold and yet stylishly subtle walking billboard.

Shirt front

Closeup of front

Shirt back

All the Rage: Political Fashion

Click here for link.

This upcycled thrift store shirt is embellished with the seven words highlighted in a memo and follow-up meeting at the Centers for Disease Control under the last Trump regime, advising staff members not to use these words in any official documents prepared for the budget. Laurel and Hardy images are interspersed for comic relief. Again, the idea is to take your beliefs or ideas on the current state of affairs, transform them into fashion, and take it to the streets. Simple how-to instructions included.

Nasty Little Women's Wear: An Evolving Textile Piece

Click here for link.

This interactive piece was done for a gallery show. Participants could write their reactions to Trump's first term on scraps of cloth and safety-pin them to this hand-stitched dress for a 5-year-old child. The bodice of the dress is embellished with embroidered lines of the word, "not."

Nasty little women's wear

Going Forward 

Now, as we find ourselves on the brink of what many think may be the end of democracy, a new Dark Ages, or the collapse of civilization, we each need to follow our conscience and do what we can. In my case that means art, needlework, and installation pieces. What does it mean for you?

The Daffodil Nest

 

In November of 2024 I began making a series of nests. Why nests? Perhaps it was due to the darkening skies, shorter days and colder weather. Maybe it was a way to indulge my love of playing with unlikely materials and figuring out how to put stuff together. Or maybe it all started with a bargain bunch of daffodils from Trader Joe's. Who knows? I've learned not to question these urges.

This is not the first nest I've created. The first was called Weaving a Metaphor, and that nest, created to hold a wounded ceramic bird, was composed of eco-dyed cloth, native grass roots, broken jewelry bits, and scraps of coffee-dyed paper notes. I thought it was a one-and-done, but the nesting itch continues.

The woven metaphor nest

The nest that kicked off this current series was spawned during the Easter season when Trader Joe's sells lovely little bunches of hopeful daffodils at ridiculously low prices.

The birth of a compulsion

I vaguely remembered seeing posts by a charming young woman living in rural England who forages the forest for plants, including daffodils, and proceeds to make string and baskets from it all. I thought, hmmm..., and hung my Trader Joe's bundles up to dry.

Drying daffs

Having absolutely no idea what I was doing, I launched into making I-know-not-what by boiling the dried daffodil flowers in hopes of producing a dye. Which worked, sort of. A bunch of linen strips added to the daffodil dye bath resulted in a pale shade that an optimist might call "pale daffodil".

Daffodil-dyed linen strips

By now I'd decided to make a nest, largely because it is hard to be judgmental about a nest. You feel whoever made it, whether creature high or low, put in their best effort. I knew I'd need something to weave together with the daffodil stems, and the daffodil-dyed strips were one solution. Adding a dried ivy vine I happened to have on hand was another.

Soaking daffodil steps and dried ivy vine

The next step was to relax my chattering brain, work through my fingers, and build a nest. Note the aesthetic decision to leave the daffodil bulb heads arching out from the top of the nest. That seems to point to a meaning none of us will ever know.

Weaving the daffodil nest in a water glass

And the end result is the daffodil nest, the first in a series of four unless I can't stop myself.

The daffodil nest (with mamey seed inside)

Holiday Onion Kits

The original Holiday Onion: December 2020

I created my first Holiday Onion in the beginning of the Covid pandemic, and it charmed my heart enough that I have decorated an onion every year since. (You can find my original Holiday Onion post here.) This year I decided to spread the joy by distributing Holiday Onion Kits. Most folks got a flat mailer, complete with instructions and decorations, and had to supply their own onion. A few recipients who live close enough to allow an easy hand-off got the full kit complete with onion.

"Maybe the best package I have ever received." - Cici, age 13 

The feedback has been enthusiastic and included requests to copy the materials and use the idea. I have always believed ideas are free, so I've decided to make it easier for Holiday Onion enthusiasts and post the how-to with links to PDFs of all graphics and copy. Enjoy!

Materials:

• Paper lunch bags

• Tissue paper for wrapping onion

• Decorations (Google "decorative paper fasteners" on Amazon for a range of options)

• Onions (Either make a complete kit and include onion, or mail kit and have recipient supply the onion)

The Gift Bag

Front of Bag (click to enlarge)

For printable PDF for front of bag, click here.

Back of Bag (click to enlarge)

For back of bag printable PDF click here.

The Ornaments

Ornament Packet

Ornament packet unwrapped reveals instructions

The ornaments

For a printable PDF of the ornament wrapper, click here.

click to enlarge

The ornaments are decorative paper fasteners. I just happened to have a bunch in my overflowing maker stash when Covid hit. I have discovered since that if you google "decorative paper fasteners" on Amazon you will have a variety of options to choose from. As shown here, you'll need about  13 - 15 ornaments per packet, depending on size of ornaments.

Mailing the Holiday Onion

Since it would be downright stupid (barring exceptional circumstances) to mail an onion, for mail recipients I created a mailing packet, sans onion, that slides into a mailing envelope. The recipients then supply the onion at their end. To help them comprehend what is going on, I have created an added "What the Hell is This?" sheet.

The mail version

For a printable PDF of the "What the Hell" insert, click here. 

click to enlarge

The End Goal

My dream is that, a century or two from now, people across the nation and the world will be decorating holiday onions each year without an entirely clear understanding as to why. The might have some vague idea that the tradition grew out of the great Covid pandemic of 2020-21, and that it has something to do with making do, being grateful, and the healing nature of tears. 

To this end, encourage your recipients to save their onion ornaments each year. I keep mine inside of an old caviar jar.

Ornament storage