Mixed Media Girls

Hello All and Happy Wednesday!
I have spent the last two weeks catching up from being away. Hence, no art from me since before my Paris trip! I have missing my room and my "stuff".
Today I did get to put the finishing touches on something I have been working on a little here and there.

I found these two ladies in a box filled with other old photos at an antique shop. They seemed to belong together, and I really love how they look, so I brought them home with me. I began to wonder about who they were and what their lives were like. Thinking about this I began to work on a canvas to express what I was imagining.

Lydia and Mable had two different lives.

(The photo makes the pieces look a bit pink, which they are not, also, I have set the canvases on a book since the lace hangs down below the bottom a bit)

Lydia was very lucky indeed to be hired by a family to care for their children. She was appreciative of her opportunity and her ability to take the burden off her parents to care for her. She was even able to send a little money home each month.
But she missed them dearly! So each week when a letter arrived from home she would cherish the few moments of freedom she had to sit in her little attic room, drink her tea and read her letter as slowly as possible. She treasured her letters from home and kept them in a cigar box under her bed. In between letters she would pull that box out at night and read them again when she was particularity homesick. They gave her great comfort and helped her to manage until she could see her family again one day.

Here is where she is counting the days she has been away from home

Mable (below) was always thinking about fashion.
Her family may have been struggling to make ends meet, but that didn't stop her from laying in bed at night dreaming about ribbons and silk flowers, satin and beads! She spent all her spare time drawing her favorite fashion accessory and pouring over the leftover magazines her mother brought home from the wealthy family she cooked for.
But Mable wasn't content with dreaming for long. No, she had a plan. And she worked her plan, year by year until she owned her very own chapellerie ......... hat shop! And even though she was successful she still lay in bed at night dreaming of ribbons and silk flowers, satin.......

I made some hat pins with vintage pearls and rhinestone rondelles.

On the sides she has written out a list of what materials she will be needing to order

I made these two pieces on 5x5 canvases using a 100 year old hat shop receipt and a 100 year old letter written in French.

Thank you so much for coming by to look. Today I think I will start working with beads again and see what I can come up with.
Hugs,
Terri