More Patience Than A Saint

Last weekend I went to Port Townsend on a crazy fun roadtrip with some friends. A few of us made a quick side trip to an Estate Sale just before we were heading back home. Oh...my...goodness. The sale was in a dilapidated old building that had been a junk / antique resale shop. Apparently only a FRACTION of the owner's goods were in the retail space downstairs; we were told there were 9 more rooms of stuff on the upper floors.

As we happily (and dustily) excavated through the piles, I came across this odd little framed Asian carving on a painted background. It appears to be carved out of some sort of light wood...and the detail is not to be believed. Can you even imagine how much time it would have taken to create just a fraction of this work? This section, with the little building (a temple?) is less than 3" square. I would love to know more about this type of art.

There's even a tiny person in the boat!

There are loose bits of wood (or maybe cork) floating about inside the glass, the frame is loose and dented and the blue fabric surrounding on the mat looks exquisitely delicate. And I love it just the way it is. I'm going to hang it on one of my newly painted robin's egg blue walls and I think the crisp new paint will be the perfect contrast to its lovely fragile beauty.