The Illustrated Forest at Calico Craft Parts

You all know about my love for the forest and autumn always is the time I love the forest most - it's as if an artist has covered a damp and soft canvas with all of his favourite tones and textures, the leaves explode in one final burst of colour before they begin to rot and fade away and all the little insects try to catch some warmth from the last shafts of sunlight before they start searching for a good place to hide and spend the winter in ... and you can almost smell it coming - but not yet.


I have already shared a forest themed project on the Calico Craft Parts blog two weeks ago - so, please, bear with me as I am sharing another today. I just can't stop making these. This one's totally different though - I promise! ;)

 It has all my favourite textures and techniques on it though...some good crackle, some hand painted insects, moths and butterflies and obviously mushrooms and - last but not least - dimension (as I have layered the Calico Craft Parts again to create a diorama like effect).

 On the Calico Craft Parts blog I have done a detailed write up about the painting process - and there are of course images as well. A lot of images to be precise (especially more close ups and ones of the finished project of course ;)

 I love wild bees and the fluffy orange bumble bees! They can be found in the meadows all around the Vienna Woods - but they have even found their way onto our balcony on the sixth floor and are nesting in my bug hotels!

I put these up two years ago when I discovered that one tried to nest in the top latching holes of our beach chair there and I accidentally destroyed the nest because I saw it too late. :(

 The story with me and mushrooms is: I hardly ever find any, but I always smell many...


But I love them, as they are a species on their own - not animal, not plant...and I love that they help the trees in the forest to communicate, building a forest-wide web below the earth (where the main part of a mushroom lives as what you see above the ground is just the fruiting body).
I love the many shapes they come in, some of which are really weird - but always breathtakingly beautiful. I love their adventurous names like Powdery Piggyback, The Pretender (reminds me of a TV series ages ago), The Humpback, Dewdrop Dapperling, Devil's Finger, Bug Sputnik or Vampires Bane.





And what wood would a forest be without mushrooms? No place for magic or fairy tales - that much's for sure!
And if you listen closely you can hear toads and salamanders crawl underneath the fallen leaves. You just have to stand still and be patient! What a wonderful thing to do - come to a halt and wait for magic to happen and enchant you!

Even the smallest moth carries the most beautiful wing canvasses with it! It's all in the detail - and forest life is all about the tiniest details. There's texture and patterns everywhere! There are not many other places I find as inspiring as the forest. Well, maybe this is because my grandma implanted in me the love for the forest and all the wonders you can find in it...to me it is the place where I feel happiest and most relaxed and good. And if I have managed to capture just the hint of all of that on my project, I am more than happy!

I hope to see you over at the Calico Craft Parts Blog!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia 

xxx