Oh yes, I love when inspiration strikes, and I love when the journey of the inspiration feels pure and good. For me inspiration comes about from an interaction with my children or the environment, or both! While we were in Australia Maya was climbing in a magnificent old tree each day. This tree had wonderful large flat leaves that I found very beautiful. The funny thing about these leaves though, was that some kind of bug was eating the leaves, and not one leaf on the tree was without holes in it. I spent a lot of time studying these holes in the leaves, and found myself spying on the children through the holes in the leaves. Weeks passed and we were back at home in America, Autumn had set in and I had been creatively working with leaves, making leaf crowns and the leaf cape. Then the idea struck, oh yes, I want to spy through these leaves too! So came the idea of the leaf peepers. I tried a variety of leaves, and love all of them. Some of the leaves are pressed and dried, some in the natural cycle of Autumn, some fresh and green.

The idea to paint the eyelashes came from a pair of Oeuf mittens. I had called in some clothes for a Papier Mache magazine editorial and I had a pair of the Oeuf eye mittens sitting on the studio floor. The mittens had cute eyelashes over the eyes and so one thing lead to another…and the leaf peepers got eyelashes.

I love to share my creative process with you, because I think it is really important in this day and age, to share the origin of a concept. Nothing is original, but I think how something comes to you matters, it makes an idea more interesting. I am very aware of when and how inspiration strikes and I make a point to present with the creative process. I like to think about where my ideas come form, It keeps it real and honest for me.

Leaf peepers would make great party favours at a little persons birthday! An environmentally sound party gift, that is creative and encourages make believe play. Easy to make too! The eyes were cut with an exacto blade, and I painted around the eyes and the eyelashes using glass bottle ink, which is so smooth, and just the right consistency for leaf painting. I am looking forward to exploring this concept more, leaf cuts have so much potential.