My snail succulent themed wedding

September 18, 2017November 18, 2017 | davinabehinjones

At the end of January 2017, I married my biggest cheerleader, Nick. He is the love of my life. He’s also my favorite art subject.

This was the most fun I’d ever had making a portrait! It doesn’t quite capture his magic, but even just that tiny bit there in the pastel strokes makes me gaze and gaze at it… Attempting to capture him is the labor of love I am going to relish for the rest of my life! Expect to see more of this guy around here. ^_^

I knew our wedding would be unique. We chose snails and succulents as our theme and it was even more otherworldly than I could have imagined! My family and friends helped tremendously to pull off the most beautifully breath-taking wedding I’ve ever seen. Shout out to my incredibly talented and dear friend, Valkyrie Johnson, who made the gorgeous bouquets and boutonnieres.

Valkyrie_Bouquets — *Photo by Pamela Palma*

All my wonderful bridesmaids helped make colorful paper snails for table decorations. Both my mother and my mother-in-law made cakes. My mother also made my dress, which was so perfectly “me” it’s hard to believe it wasn’t done with fairy magic.

Nick’s music, the first song he ever wrote for me, accompanied me down the aisle. Absolute magic. You can listen to the song by clicking on the title here: A Golden Spiral.

Not only was our wedding beautiful, it was unique and just a bit quirky. The perfect blend of elegance and oddity.

I made personalized snonkeys to go on the scrumptious purple cake my mother baked and which my friend, Priscilla, decorated with modeling chocolate succulents (she’s amazing! She seriously should consider a profession in cake decorating).

NickinaSnonkeys1 — *Straights’ Snonkey Cake Topper*, 2017

I made the invitations myself and had them printed at moo.com as postcards (I highly recommend their printing services). I loved using postcards because I could make a full drawing on the back in addition to the smaller images on the front next to the invitation text.

I drew each image with crayons, scanned them, then made up the designs in Photoshop.

SnailSucculentWedInvit_Designs_web — *Snail and Succulent Wedding Invitations*, Crayola crayons 2017

Here’s a closeup where you can see that funny crayon texture:

SucculentSnail_Invitation_detail — *Snail and Succulent Wedding Invitations – Detail*

And I was able to print a custom sticker at moo.com that sealed the envelopes!

SucculentShell_sticker_web — *Snail Succulent Sticker*, Crayola crayons 2017

After the wedding, I made thank you postcards to continue the theme. Again, I used crayons and had them printed at moo.com

SnailSucculent_ThankYous_web — *Snail and Succulent Thank You* postcards, Crayola crayons 2017

I would like to again thank everyone who helped make our wedding so beautiful. It was a perfect day and I cherish the memories that flood back every time I think of it. Thank you!

And a thank you to anyone reading this. I am so grateful to share all these wonderful things with you! My art is the joy of my life and using it to celebrate the day I united with the man I love is truly blissful.

Tapir mother and calf

September 12, 2017November 18, 2017 | davinabehinjones

A while back I was commissioned to make another mother and calf Malayan tapir pair. I love making these. The majestic shape of the mother is hard to capture in my felting somehow… I think it might be the unusual tapir face and how it flows into the neck and shoulders. The patterns on the baby are definitely a challenge too, but one I delight in taking on!

2MotherCalfTapir 2BabyTapir copy 2MotherCalfTapir_2 2MotherCalfTapir_3 2MotherCalfTapir_4 2MotherCalfTapir_5 TapirMom2_Feet

I love these animals. The long mobile nose is the cutest! Have you ever heard a tapir chirp? This is what it sounds like. Did you know they have three toes on their back feet, but four on the front feet? There are a couple different varieties of tapirs, including the Mountain Tapir, which has long fur — such a fuzzy guy! One of my goals in life is to needle felt all species of tapir.

Green and Pink Snonkey

September 4, 2017November 18, 2017 | davinabehinjones

Here is the latest snonkey! A custom request, green with pink face, chest, and palms. This little guy is going to live in Portugal.

The previous snonkey was also a requested custom color. A teal one:

TealSnonkey_web — *Teal Snonkey*, needle felted wool 2017

….Check back soon for updates on the needle felted anteater I’m working on.

Tamandua is a genus of anteaters

August 28, 2017November 18, 2017 | davinabehinjones

I love anteaters. I love their long snouts and their impressive claws and their strange color patterns — that bright stripe along the shoulder of the giant anteater! Amazing! Every anteater is fascinating in its own way, but the tamandua anteaters are especially dear to my heart because of that long semi-prehensile tail. There are two anteaters in the tamandua genus, the northern and the southern tamandua. The northern tamandua has a distinctive V-neck color pattern, almost like they’re wearing sweater vests, while the southern tamandua is much lighter in coloring and some just have a hint of the V pattern.

If you want to be charmed by these wonderful animals, just watch this adorable video: https://youtu.be/2TNp9EyBmcc

Have you ever wondered how an anteater’s front feet differ from their back feet? What their grooming routine is like? How much they sleep? What their poo looks like? You can find the answers (with pictures!) at Tamandua World.

Have you guessed the subject of my next project? Yup, I’m working on needle felting an anteater… It’s not like a real tamandua (yet discovered anyway!) but it’s very much inspired by the northern tamandua. I’m embellishing my anteater by felting elaborate patterns into the fur in fantastical colors.

Here are some in-progress photos.