My Shamrocks Nature Crochet Art Doily in Handmade Great Finds

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs

Shamrocks 3-Leaf Clovers with Yellow Flowers Nature Art Doily

I designed and crocheted the above Doily - I wanted to do something very specific - to do the popular Shamrock or 3-Leaf Clover Theme, but as they are in Nature.  I had a bunch of "Clover" or Shamrocks in the Garden out front - they had naturally spread and were making great ground cover I thought - especially as usually during the summer months, they had little Yellow Flowers all over them!!!

Most of us think of Shamrocks as 3-Leaf Clovers along with the more rare 4-Leaf Clover.

They are a symbol - mostly Irish and for St. Patrick's Day (I'm not Irish at all - just like some Irish culture).

BUT THEY ARE A REAL PLANT -- and I really like having them in my garden!!  Apparently, there were "... flowered CLOVERED plains ..." mentioned in early Irish literature - and I am not sure if it originally had anything to do with "St. Patrick" or any Saints, but beautiful Irish plains in Nature!!!

So I took crochet patterns for 3-Leaf Clovers and little multi-petal flowers -- and a design for a round crochet mat -- and put together this Crochet Art Doily!!!!

Here are photos of flowering clover from a front-yard garden I had ....

.... and a closeup of the center of my Handmade Thread Crochet 

 And .... On Fire For Handmade decided to include my Shamrock Nature Art Doily in it's "Kiss Me I'm Irish Great Finds" this week!  You can VOTE for it there if you like it!!!

Curating an Artfire Collection Inspired By My Well-Known Love of Forests and All That Lives Within

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on ARTFIRE

Inspired By Love of Forests and Their Wildlife - An Artfire Collection by RSS Designs In Fiber

It was August 2013 -- and I and many others in the world had been watching the Rim Fire in the Central Sierra Nevada - in the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park and the adjoining areas - and frightened and even loosing sleep over it, I was worried about All the Life in that Forest and the ramifications to it from the High Intensity Fire raging there.

I knew of people living in the area - actually in Twain Harte, CA - just northwest of the Rim Fire area - the people of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (known as CSERC ), run by John Buckley, who I had met at a Sierra Nevada Framework Forest Service Science Meeting on Old Growth forests.  On their Facebook Page -- and their website, I read first-hand accounts of the Rim Fire.

For me, this was a major event that was significant to me, though I didn't live there or anywhere near the Rim Fire.  But since early 1999 - and I got involved in environmental campaigns about the Sierra Nevada forests ( such as the Sierra Forest Legacy [formerly the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign in 1999] ) -- and I learned the Global significance of the Sierra Nevada Forests, part of the California Floristic Province, to Global Biodiversity, as discussed on the Conservation International website:  The World's 10 Most Threatened Forest Hotspots - which mentions the High Importance of the California Floristic Province Forests (which Includes the Sierra Nevada Forests, including the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park - and the Giant Sequoias) for Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Stabilization - I have been paying a lot of attention to many Events, as I can, in the Sierra Nevada Forests.

In other words, this Rim Fire affected a forest with importance to Global Biodiversity - therefore I see it as we should all be concerned in the Restoration after the fire!!!

So-o-o -- to express my Love of Forests and Their Wildlife and show how others express their such Love, I looked to my some of my friends who do Handmade and Fine Art -- and found various items they had made and were selling on Artfire on that theme -- and created the above Collection.

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It is now March of 2014 -- and the Artfire Collection, "Inspired By The Love of Forests and Their Wildlife", has over 1,000 views and a few items have sold (replaced by others I had previously chosen).

I love to see creations based on Nature -- and I totally enjoyed curating this Collection!!!

The Rim Fire is in the past, though some of us are following the Recovery Projects in the different areas of it, such as on the Stanislaus National Forest website and the CSERC website.

In the 402 square miles of the Stanislaus National Forest that the Rim Fire ravaged, I am hoping for recovery based on true Ecological Forest Restoration, like that defined by the Sierra Forest Legacy -- for the health of this Forest -- and for its contribution to Global Biodiversity.  Quote from the Dec. 08, 2013 Sierra Forest Legacy Newsletter:  

We take seriously the Forest Service's commitment to ecological restoration and will be challenging them to demonstrate that their salvage logging proposals are consistent with their commitment.

Note:  after a certain number of the Artfire listings in an Artfire Collection sell, the Artfire Collection "expires" -- and disappears from the Internet.  So, I would like to thank the Artfire Artisans who created the Handmade and Fine Art items I put in this Collection -- showing their Love of Forests and Their Wildlife -- and where you can fine such types of Handmade and Fine Art!!!

Conscience Art Studios

4everbeads

Walk In The Woods LLC

RSS Designs In Fiber

Uniquely Jen Quilt Creations

The Art of Amy-Elyse Neer

Jewelry Art By Dawn

Christie Cottage

Honey From The Bee

Berkshire Bowls

Blue Morning Expressions

Specialtivity