St. Gertrude of Nivelles -- the Patron Saint of Cats and People Who Love Them

I grew up in Southern Ohio as a white bread mainstream protestant.  For awhile my family lived next door to the Italian Catholic Sabatelli family.  I went to public grade school and the Sabetelli kids went to Catholic grade school.  I heard about Catechism and The Saints from the Sabatelli kids and I pretty much dismissed catechism as stupid and The Saints as fairy tales.

Over the years my religious beliefs changed quite a bit and I had one of what Dr. Phil refers to as "defining moments" in my life when I started studying in the Sufi Order and my teacher told me that "God didn't have to be anything that I ever thought he was."  That one sentence pretty much blew my mind and totally changed the way I viewed my own religious beliefs and the beliefs of others.  

In my adulthood, I traveled in Catholic Mexico quite a bit and lived in Puerto Vallarta for about three years where I was exposed to many more stories and beliefs about The Saints -- learning that they were indeed real people, not fairy tales, and that in order to become canonized as a saint, they had each performed at least three documented miracles.   Every town in Mexico has a Patron Saint.  Every occupation and trade has a patron saint.    Here's a quote from Wikipedia about Patron Saints:

"A Patron Saint . . . is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family or person. Catholics believe that patron saints, having already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges."

Now that I live in New Mexico, a very Catholic State, I continue to be exposed to the culture of Patron Saints and we even have Saints who are "popular" in the Southwest,  There are many artists in New Mexico whose work consists of making southwestern style saints. -- paintings, bultos, retablos, carvings, etc.

I first encountered St. Gertrude of Nivelles (who was a 7th Century abbess) on a greeting card designed by Barbara Barrett in Papers! -- the decorative paper store where I worked and taught classes for several years.  You can see Barbara's greeting card work at thekaleidoscopedesigns.com

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I decided that my second Altoid Tin Shrine would feature St. Gertrude.  St. Gertrude  of Nivelles (there are two - the other is Gertrude the Great)  is also the patron saint of the insane and gardeners, so maybe that also explains why I was immediately drawn to her.  Ha.

This shrine is constructed in the same style as my Virgin of Guadalupe Altoid Tin Shrine -- removing the lid from the box, etc.

St. Gertrude stands in her gold glittered nicho, holding a kitty, and two (button) kitties frolic on pebbles in front of her.  I covered a royal jelly glass container with blue glitter, and the container holds the whiskers of my beloved Houdini who had some amazing whiskers that I'd find around the house.  The whiskers lived in a glass spice jar until I made this little shrine -- a perfect spot for them. 

Here is my big boy Houdini, now in Kitty Heaven, in one of his favorite spots -- right in the middle of my work table.

Back to the shrine -- add some flowers, leaves, sequins, beads, metal corners and studs -- and there you have my Altoid tin shrine #2.

Shrine #3 is a second Virgin of Guadalupe shrine which I gifted before taking photos of it.  One of these days I'll have the opportunity to photo it and add it to the blog.

Watch for Shrine #4 to be added to my blog soon -- St. Catherine of Bologna, Patron Saint of Artists.

Sweet Potato Party Skirt

Here's OFFCenter's Call For Art for its most recent show:

“Re-Style/Free-Style"
Upcycled Wearable & Functional Art Forum
Clothing • Jewelry • Purses • Accessories & More
Exhibit and Sale displaying creative, upcycled wearable forms of art
Artists are invited to submit unique hair ornaments, aprons, purses, dresses, spring frocks, jewelry, accessories, clothing, spring fashions recreated from our free box or your favorite thrift store, yarn craft from yarn scraps, hand painted shoes, embroidered old jeans, let your upcycled imagination go wild.
Exhibit/Sale up through April 26th

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In my bag of tricks I had stashed seven sweet potato bags from Trader Joe's - knowing that some day I would use them in an art project -- but had no idea for what they would be used.  Great color.  Great texture.

When OFFCenter announced the Re-Style/Free-Style show, immediately my sweet potato bags came to mind.  So, I went to work:

On each bag I removed the bottom seam, then opened up each bag to create a rectangle by gently tearing one side of the mesh out from behind the label, sewed all seven bags side to side to create one giant circle, pleated the waistline, created a tie-back waistband from very wide leftover satin holiday ribbon, and at the hemline of the skirt added about 7 yards of yet more leftover holliday ribbon about 1" wide gathered into a decorative ruffle.

Here's the finished product -- it really brings a smile to my face -- I kind of hoped it wouldn't sell and I could retrieve it at the end of the show, but it indeed did sell.  So, I'm back to eating yet more sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's and collecting enough bags so I can create a Sweet Potato Party Skirt of my own!

Here's the skirt spread full circle.

And here's Houdini, checking out the skirt -- he immediately needs to investigate anything new.

And here's the skirt on a hanger ready to deliver to OffCenter.