Do Everything with Love ... (part 1)

This is the first of my art pieces inspired by reading Doreen Virtue's book, particularly her teaching that everything in life should be done with love. Even if someone is attacking you with criticism or judging you for instance, you can defend yourself and speak from love. I'm sure that it is not easy, but it is something that I aspire to!

Anyway, as I was driving around yesterday I had two ideas pop into my head for pieces I wanted to create around the theme of love. I remember when I was at university in Wales we discovered love spoons at the local markets - they were typically carved from wood, and given as a gift to a loved one. Once I gave one as a gift to a boy I was seeing, and when we broke up after only a matter of months, I was more annoyed that he didn't return the spoon! Well, I haven't really had cause to think of them for an age, but a friend I visited last week showed me her collection of antique teaspoons which had been sent by relatives in the UK, and one of them was a beautiful silver love spoon, with twisted handle and heart which I have tried to reproduce for my spoon.

It isn't exactly as I pictured it in my mind, it's a little more 'organic' than anticipated (for this read 'imperfect'), but on thinking about it, love isn't always perfect anyway is it? I had imagined painting a red heart on it, and embellishing with beads, but it didn't seem right after I'd fixed on my twisted wire. It's funny how your direction changes as you create - but that's part of the joy of creativity - it's forever evolving. The copper wire looked lost on the bare pine of the spoon, so I gave it a wash of violet acrylic paint mixed with a matt varnish. The swirls are worked in the metallic pens that I have, but the gold colour turned into a wishy washy yellow which I was not happy with at all until I'd highlighted it with another gold fine liner. Of course as the love spoon originated in Wales I felt a need to write the Welsh word for love - 'cariad'. Overall, it's completely different to my original idea, but with all it's imperfections I think it portrays the sentiments of love perfectly!

I'm going to use the other ideas still floating around in my head to produce some more love spoons. These particular spoons are the perfect shape and surface for painting on and embellishing, although my local supermarket may think I'm slightly mad when I take a basket full of them through the checkout!

Look out for part 2 tomorrow ...