Why Duende, if not for Joy?

Duende has been on my mind this week, as I find myself surrounded by Spanish things. There was, of course, the World Cup win. I'm participating in a cool blogcandy challenge on Floral Fantasies, where the blogmistress is cruising the Med and taking us along vicariously.
Today she's in Galicia, and I'm looking forward to following her down through Andalucia, birthplace of myself and, coincidentally, Federico García Lorca, the poet who brought the concept of duende into the international consciousness.
As creative concepts go, my favorite would have to be duende. It's an ancient Spanish word that has come to mean, roughly, "soul" as defined in American Blues and expressed in Jazz. Deep, deep Soul: the pain within the pleasure, the joy within the struggle. More here.
When I think of the perfect physical representation of duende I think of castanets, the hand-held percussion section of flamenco dance. Since it's not very likely that I'll get my chance to be a castanets carver journeyman, I decided to make a little book out of paper. For inspiration, I had Jean L. Connor, one of my favorite poets of all time. The last poem in her newest book, A Hinge of Joy (Passager Books, 2009), contains the fantastic line "Why castanets, if not for joy?" and I've had the idea for this book since the first time I read it. She never ceases to inspire me.
Here's a quick look at my final castanets book. It's actually a little smaller than actual castanets! I'm going to change the final design to be the correct size, but for now it sits happily in the palm of my hand.

I was able to concave the paper slightly by using an easy dry debossing technique. The book just didn't look right completely flat. Notice the ribbon choice; anything not Spanish red and gold didn't look right either!

My very own angel: Design Team Challenge #2

For our second design team challenge, Therese created angels for each of her team members. I about flipped when I saw mine: just from looking at my blog and website, she made just the most precious version of me that I could imagine.
Before I go on, let me just pause to tell you that you could have your own angel made by Therese! Contact her via her Etsy page and inquire about "Me Angels".
I suspect that I'll get a lot of use out of my angel, but for this project I decided to make a page layout. My husband and I make marshmallows, so my page is dedicated to all the fun that has brought us. Here's my first attempt:


Then I had a brainstorm: what if I used the wings to create a kind of notebook? I ended up making another, almost identical page. I wrote some "thoughtful" things, which you can see in this slideshow:

Personalize your own free digital slideshow

Thanks again to Therese for her inspiration, and for the excuse to make and color a whole bunch of paper marshmallows! The colors correspond to flavors we've created.
Be sure to check out Jeannie's page to read the whole story.

My supply list: Recollections card stock, Cricut Expression, Cricut markers, Sharpie markers, Pebbles Inc. chalks, Core'dinations card stock, Matte photo paper, heart brads, Zip-Dry glue.