I've also always been fascinated by spiders. Yes, the humble arachnid, the elegant 8-legged creature that has many people screaming in terror at the very sight of it. I can remember sitting under the picnic table when we went camping, watching the daddy-long-legs whilst the parental types set up camp. Not that long ago I had a five-legged spider crawl across my computer screen. I couldn't help wondering what its story was. Probably one of epic struggle and survival. I didn't give it further grief.
Particularly interesting are the legends of the aborginal peoples of Turtle Island..aka North America. The Grandmother Spider figured in the very creation of world.. she brought fire to the people, she created the stars in the sky from the dew on her web, and more. One popular legend is that of the dreamcatcher. It is a web that allows the good dreams in, and keeps the bad ones out. I thought of this when trying to come up with a way to make the spider's web. In this web I made red beads of quilling paper. In the one below, I remembered some antique mother of pearl buttons... these are made of sea shell of course. I thought them appropriately glittery.
I created the backgrounds with acrylic paint on paper I thought suitable. The spiders are quilling paper of course, to create a couple of mixed media pieces that are the same, and yet not, and that I really like.And so, "She took a web she had spun, laced it with dew, threw it into the sky and the dew became the stars."
