Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The Gourd In The Glass Jar


Pin It

Should I say "The gourd cloche"?
Or better yet "The gourd terrarium"?
No matter how hard I try, it seems impossible to come up with a good title for this post. Friends, this is the big reveal to yesterday's post and its burning question. How to decorate with a gourd that has pointy bumps on each end and doesn't want to stand upright?! It upsets my OCD... So my solution was to put it in a bowl full of gravel. Even better, I put the gravel in a big empty glass jar (recycled, of course - see it here full of paper-whites) and then I put the gourd on top of the gravel. It doesn't stand vertically, but it's enough for my design sensibility.



The gourd in the glass is now good enough to star in a pretty fall vignette. If you're not sure where to start in creating a vignette, click here to see my tutorial on how to make a balanced vignette following a few simple rules. As you can see in the first pic, I chose natural elements and neutral colors for the arrangement. We've got everything: wood (the desk, the blank Russian doll), glass (the jar), metal (the vintage can), wax (the candle), ceramics (the mushroom salt shaker). The whole thing forms an "A" shape, for instant eye attraction. The whole thing is sitting pretty on the desk. So I created a vignette inside a vignette!



Talking about personal history, almost every single item in this pic has a special meaning to me, so I love it even more:
- Let's start with the desk: my dad bought it for me when I was 9 and I've had it ever since.
- The round brown sign was written freehand by my sweet Ana from Uituka, who is a master of typography. Don't ask me what is says, because we wanted to say "Division of labor" but in the end she came up with this untranslatable joke in Romanian.
- The blank Russian dolls are a birthday gift from my friend July. I've wanted a blank set for ages and even found some good deals on Amazon, but now I can't to paint them!
- The succulent is a gift from Sigrid's mom, from the most beautiful autumn garden I have ever seen "live".
- I stole the vintage tin can from my grandma, it was a tobacco box from the 1930s.
- And I saved the best for last: in the last pic you can see my cat Anais hidden inside the desk box. She does that to protect my cards and illustration from fading, right?



18 comments:

  1. Love the gourd in the glass. And I totally didn't see the kitty in the desk until you pointed her out, hehe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nobody ever sees the kitty, but she sees everyone, ha ha! Thanks for the lovely comment :)

      Delete
  2. I like your vignette inside the vignette, and a great way to use your loopy gourd!
    Anais the art lover, she's a cutie :-)
    aleka

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, I was thinking along the lines of "a movie within a movie" :)) My cat Anais says "Come visit us again, dear Aleka!"

      Delete
  3. It's pretty! And the kitty is the perfect finishing touch. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. what a great solution, it turned out great! and i love your desk and the typography sign is amazing - she is so talented!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Christine - it was cloudy outside so the photos don't do justice to the beauty of the typography...

      Delete
  5. Great decoration you have made! Like the gourd in the glass jar! Happy colors. Lovely with greens and reds together! :) Cosy with things which have a history! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa, I knew you would appreciate the green and red combination! As I was writing this post, I realized that I think green is not really a color, but more and more I consider green to be a neutral color.

      Delete
  6. so wonderful idea and lovely to see all your fall crafts and halloween decor, hope you're having a great time:-) Enjoy the evening

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mette, it's wonderful to have you visit, thank you so much!

      Delete
  7. Hi meeha I like your vignette inside the vignette, so wonderfull idea

    ReplyDelete
  8. Only you could make such a lovely vignette inside a vignette! I love that you have sign that is indecipherable! Your gourd in the glass is perfectly imperfect...especially if it doesn't upset your OCD.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just for you, Dannni, I'll try to translate the joke. "Division" sounds like "Di-vision" and in Romanian "Vision" sounds like "den" or "lair". So the absurd sign says "Di-lair of labor" and I laugh every time :))))) so silly :))))))

      Delete
  9. It's fantastic! I love the simplicity of it - the more simple it is, the more beautiful it is :) You are amazing!

    Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Stephanie, I'm a big fan of "Less is more" and I'm a minimalist in my heart (or so I think!). I feel inspired to make more vignettes using just a single gourd :)

      Delete
  10. I love the idea and I adore your post title that reminded me of Bones episodes and what's more fitted for Halloween than bones?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha ha, I love Bones so much, even if my boyfriend says it's nerdy! Which episode, the one with the talking teenage head?

      Delete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...