Feng Shui – Summerhouse Art

We’re lucky to have this little greenhouse attached just off the back of our bedroom. Unheated, it is only really useful in the summer. But in the summer a lot of my houseplants go for a little vacation here. At first I thought that all that light would be good but soon discovered that it was actually too much of a good thing. It faces west and the hot afternoon sun was too strong for the jades and even the cacti.

Little Buddha shrine under the Christmas Cactus

Being garage “sailors”, we soon collected the perfect foil for the sun and made my plants very very happy. Bamboo blinds cover the windows and on the ceiling we have stapled a collection of rattan beach mats, most found at sales and some for only a couple of dollars in Chinatown.

When I move the plants out to the greenhouse, suddenly the rest of the house seems to somehow feel bigger and lighter. In the greenhouse they are all packed in together. Gazing out of the bedroom, it seems like we have our own private jungle.

The only problem is that plants left in here tend to get huge. The jade hardly fits through a doorway anymore.

The ever growing Jade plant in the shaded corner of the greenhouse

Then there is the added problem of what to do with Jade plant prunings.

Jade plant cuttings waiting for new homes

Well, you can’t just throw them out can you? Well, I don’t seem to be able to. I pot them up so there’s always a bunch of new little jade plants coming up in the summer. Luckily I’ve managed to give a few away. I tell people, to entice them, that in Feng Shui jades are “money plants” and they must have some to attract money into their homes. Seems to work. Hey, everything needs a little “marketing”.

Just a preview of December's big show — Just a preview of December’s big show

As for the Christmas Cactus, well, as you can see it loves the space, popping out a few blooms for my benefit. It’ll really go crazy just before Christmas. The spider plant, which usually resides in the studio, also vacationed in the greenhouse. It has grown abundantly and I wonder how it’ll fit back in the studio again.

But the nights are growing colder and soon my little jungle will have to move back into the house. Somehow I’ll have to squeeze them through the doorways and into corners all over the house. Then the house will feel like a jungle. But through the colder, grayer days of winter that’ll be kind of nice too.

I like to dabble in all sorts of things, like to shake up my thinking a bit. Feng Shui was one of those interests that I took up for a time and I even incorporated some of its ideas into my home here and there. For instance the far corner of the greenhouse, the “wealth corner”, is full of Jade plants, or money plants. There are other little touches throughout the house too. And I admit that keeping the Chi flowing is a good reason to tidy up. But for an old hippie like me, there are just too many rules to Feng Shui, so I just picked up a few that I liked.

When I found the Foo Dog or Lion at a flea market, I knew I just had to do another Oriental Shrine pique assiette mosaic and I wanted to incorporate a bit of Feng Shui too. I’d already done a small shrine incorporating a couple of Blue Willow porcelain saucers, some chopstick rests, a little Buddha and a stork figurine. Pique Assiette mosaics, by the way, are a type of mosaic quite different from the usual mosaic made with tesserae, because of the use of the dishes and ornaments.

I’d been trying to cut a round mirror when it just cracked on its own in this wonderful semi-moon shape. Well, something like that cannot be wasted! The shape of that mirror dictated the shape of the shrine and created the shoulders to put the little chopstick rests on. Everything just flowed together.

Where did I get almost all of these wonderful ingredients for the shrine? Well, here in Victoria, we have the most wonderful Chinatown ever. I love shopping in Chinatown, especially in a hidden little alley called Fan Tan Alley which is just too much fun to prowl.

Fan Tan Alley entrance from Pandora Street, Victoria BC, photo summerhouseart.com — The mystery entrance to Fan Tan Alley from Pandora Street

Fan Tan Alley, Victoria BC, photo summerhouseart.com — Character shops in the alley

Now, with the find of the Foo dog, again things that I needed just seemed to fall into my lap. The background was made from some really good, antique Blue Willow dishes, given to me by an antique dealer friend of Eric’s. They were chipped and perfect for breaking. And break they did, like butter! So easy to cut and shape.

More chopstick rests and another little Buddha were found on a trip to Chinatown. Any excuse to go there will do, after all. Other oriental saucers were found in Value Village and before I knew it, the piece was ready to start.

But this time I wanted to incorporate some Chi into the design. Chi is a flow of energy in Feng Shui . For that I wanted a water flow, so I created a little “golden river” for the fish to swim in, that led to the serene Buddha. The Foo Dog or Lion was at the gate to protect the Buddha and would keep the “Blue Willow garden” tranquil.

And so Feng Shui, with a nod to tranquility, Chi, and the garden became a design element in this little shrine.