my baby sister who is an artist (of course she's no longer a baby but to me she's still my baby sister https://365project.org/summerfield/365/2011-11-14 ) sent this little frame to me through a friend who just came back from a visit in the old country.
believe it or not, she made the entire frame by herself - the flowers made from paper quills that she herself painstakingly cut, as well as the little flowers. then she printed the "invictus" poem which she knows is one of my favourites, set the flowers and poem on a vintage type giftwrap, fashioned a little frame from heaven-knows-what complete with a little hook at the back, and then covered it in thick plastic. all made by hand. i won't even be surprised if she also made that giftwrap paper, as i've sent her last year some kind of distressed ink i think it was called. the woman could make anything out of nothing, i swear to you.
she used to make bookmarks with those little paper quills and sold them, to augment her budget while she was sending her children to school. she was a single mom who earned a living as tutor to japanese and korean students. yet she still found time, and she still does, teaching arts to her neighbourhood kids. she also bakes cakes and cookies on order, does flower arrangements for weddings and other occasions.
she's the only one in the family to have gone straight to university to take the course she wanted to take - no detours to secretarial school, unlike me and my two other siblings. my boss in my first job had given her reference to one of the charitable foundations we dealt with and she was given full scholarship to take up fine arts. she paints in charcoal, pencil, watercolour and oil.
if i only had a fraction of her skills and talent, i'd probably be famous by now, rich even! or not!
-o0o-
over at five plus two, the theme is mixed media, so the arrival of this little frame made my task to produce a self-portrait in mixed media rather easy. check it out here https://365project.org/fiveplustwo/365/2018-04-11
That kind of work takes not only talent which is very evident in your family and yes you do have a fraction of her skills but in other areas, but it also takes a tremendous amount of patience. What a loving gift for your sister and doubly nice since it makes a perfect photo for you too.
