ArtBead Scene July Challenge 'Morning in the Garden at Vaucresson'

Morning in the Garden at Vaucresson by Edouard Vuillard 1923 reworked 1938..July's challenge for the Art Bead Scene blog..love these challenges..so much to learn..
" With its riot of flowers in the foreground, Morning in the Garden at Vaucresson hearkens back—as do many of Edouard Vuillard’s post-World War I paintings—to the Impressionist garden scenes of Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir. It depicts the country home and garden of Jos and Lucie Hessel, an art dealer and his wife with whom Vuillard shared a long friendship."
At first glance, I thought this painting was a tapestry ..with its myriad soft colors and seemingly boundless tiny flora all set in a place where I longed to be..I was once accused of being a hopeless romantic..this challenge I would go for heart and soul.

Once again I opted for a textile cuff..a distressed (by sun and sea) ocre green  velvet..ooh perfect ..so like the painting.. and with a distressed geometrical pattern. To my surprise the painting of this captivating jungle of a garden was actually, I discovered, a very orderly composition with distinct geometric lines.. the distressed creased lines in the velvet mimicking them.




And ..once again the main focal art bead from the wonderful stillpointworks..I think it is my all time favorite bead..fantastically organic and strangely beautiful.

I added a hand dyed velvet 'bail' ..it hangs on a vintage pin with vintage glass leaves 'pinned' to the cuff..easily removed to be worn as a pendant if wanted.

I couched and embroidered more velvet and wrinkled viscose fabric strips ..added about a billion beads..from labradorite to faceted pearls and much more..

Such a treat..going wild with all my favorite bead stash..so here it is.. Morning in the Garden.

Tea..and the Azores

 Where is the only place in Europe where tea is cultivated? 
Here in São Miguel..the Azores.

The Portuguese introduced tea to the Dutch, and through trade, the Dutch brought the tea to France, Holland and the Baltic countries.  In 1662, Catherine Braganza of Portugal married King Charles II and brought tea to the royal  court of England for the first time.
In 1750 the initial trials of tea occurred on the  island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. 


It was in September of 1874 two Chinese tea experts arrived from then Portuguese Macau and introduced the art of commercial tea cultivation to the island with the first tea being produced and sold in 1883 under the family compound of Gorreana.   

Gorreana's tea estate is the only remaining of the 14 original tea producing estates and has remained family owned and operated for 5 generations. Black and green teas are still produced using ancient techniques that have been passed down at Gorreana for over a century. 

 






 I find it delicate and fruity.. and just delightful iced with a spring of fresh mint..