Wood Burned Wooden Spoons

With spoons this pretty the meal must taste better!

 Happy Friday!

I'm working on a whole bunch of things to restock my empty Etsy store. I'll let you know when...

Have you seen this technique of taking soft focus pictures through dirty mirrors? It's called Instagram! Haha. Just teasing all you crazy Instagrammers... you know who you are!

Another simpler version of my supremely popular afterthought, the henna owl. Have a great weekend!

Flying South

Flying South, original collage, 9"x12", 2009

Put a Bird On It

We just got home from a fun week in Indiana with Daniel's parents, and I spent yesterday rushing around doing all the things that make me want to go on vacation in the first place, and the very same things that make me not want to leave home ever again! The laundry, cleaning out the refrigerator, dentists appointments... 

Today we are switching gears, and I am working on the applique quilt I have been alternately dreaming of and dreading for Thacia. This is a drawing for it, and I adore it. Perceptions are so deeply influenced by ideals, and not just in sketch! When I am drawing I definitely exaggerate curves. This goldfinch is probably not flight worthy as drawn, but I think I'll leave it. 

Vintage Feather-Craft Folk Art Makeover

When were these Mexican feather craft pictures popular? They used to turn up every so often in estate auctions when I used to work for an auction company. This pair has been knocking around my house ever since they came to me from a great grandmother's estate. I liked the quirkiness of them, but not they weren't in the best condition. We revamped them this week to hang in the nursery, and here's how 

we did it:

 

Here are the originals in their carved cedar frames. I generally hold that it is recklessness in the first degree to paint over nice wood, (don't get me started about "distressing") but these needed a little jazzing up. Obviously they aren't a matched pair, were a bit dinged up, and pretty faded.

  

The first step was to cut them carefully out of the frames.

 

Then I pulled out the backing nails and cleaned the glass.

 

I carefully dusted off the pasteboard backing with a soft brush. 

 

The original condition doesn't look too bad in the photo, but the purple and blue were especially faded. I touched up all the colors with India ink and a medium bristle square acrylic brush. You can see in the after picture at the very top that I actually made this guy acid green instead of grey.

 

I could not be out there when my husband painted the frames, so there are no pictures, but you know how to use spray paint without my instruction!

We used Rustoleum spray paint in gold, a light dusting of copper, and a very very very light dust of aqua. I can't say I am all that thrilled with the color. If someone knows of a more mellow butterscotchy gold, please share! This gold looked like a high school prop to me at first. 

Then my husband reassembled the whole kit and caboodle. Done. Bright and cheerful for babies who like birds!

Sorry these aren't perfect photos. I am relaxing my standards to survival mode until further notice! 

Whoo's Too Cute?

Looking at henna designs for pregnancy on Pinterest must have gotten into my head, because when I sat down to sketch a little owl for a friend's baby shower this is what came out! It would be fun to do a small series of these wistful little animals. What would I do? Bunny, skunk, fawn? I can see them in little oval or square frames in a nursery.

Just Beat It

A pinata, that is!

This time of year parks and backyards are mobbed with children beating the stuffing out of their favorite cartoon characters at birthday parties. Even as a kid I wondered why Cinderella or Batman? Why not the wicked step mother or the Joker if we must decimate something for the candy contents?

This particular pinata stick was made at my mother's behest for family parties. It is just a dowel from the hardware store which I Dremmeled at the handle for a better grip. For some reason almost everything I make ends up having birds on it. If I like birds, why wring this one around the neck while using it to knock my hero senseless? Another mystery. I do not know.

I do know it looks cool, and it is a very fast project, because pine dowels burn about like balsa wood. This is a great beginner project!

Show Your Work

I used to hate it when I had to do that in school, because it means math! Having married an engineer I now realize math isn't so bad–- when you have someone else do it!
I am very behind on actually showing my creative work, so I am going to catch you up for the next few posts.




This needlepoint dove was languishing at Goodwill. I thought it a shame no one was loving it, but the fault lay principally with the frame. My plan all along was to turn it into a floor pillow, so I stripped off the frame, removed the glue as best I could, and framed it anew in crazy-quilted denim.

I signed up for Art House Co-ops Sketchbook Project. I asked for a random topic, and got "Revenge." Eighty pages of sketches starting with revenge? To quote Woody in Toy Story,

"This is the perfect time to panic!"

Beads on Birds

New motherhood doesn't leave me too much time for soul-searching or fancy creating. It does, however, create new needs like where to hang the baby's hoodie towel in our oh-so-tiny bathroom.

Hooks are the solution. It seems I have a bit of a bird fetish, which explains why I had the unusual experience of falling for something at Hobby Lobby. They have tiny holes through which I strung beads on wire. I tried not to be too orderly or serious about it and the results are good, not least because I needed places to hang towels! I was thinking this would make a great slumber-party craft. Of course, by the time I need to think up crafts for sleep-overs I'm going to need many more hooks!

P.S. Don't you love the sculptural quality of shadows on pale walls? Take time today to indulge in clean surfaces and shadows like some people indulge in chocolate...

Bird and Bell Baby Mobile

Bird Chime, 2009. Wire, recycled cloth, wood, bells, glass beads, faux pearls, plastic crystals.

I truly mean to be brave, but every once in a while the havoc of renovation is too much for me. This morning I beat a hasty retreat to the library pushing away a few tears of exhaustion and intense longing to go home, when home is precisely where this maelstrom centers!
Daniel and his dad are constructing walls, reassigning the purposes of rooms, and brainstorming excitedly. I discover in myself the conflicting desires that this all be done, but that the decisions be made more slowly. In a few days this intensity will be behind us, and thank goodness for that! I have been holing up with a good book and earplugs to block the problem solving rather than the drilling.
Meanwhile, I am thankful for my very understanding husband, this calm, neutral mobile I made for the baby, and the huge ladybug keeping me company on the arm of my chair.

Am I Ready?

I was singing softly as I watched the storm clouds that had flown south in the evening, head back north in the morning. It never rained. I suppose I was praying for rain– it is second-nature– when I heard the question "Are you ready?"
Quickly I knew it wasn't literal. The gutters are clear, the car windows rolled up. Yes, all is ready. I retreated to pray and contemplate the question.

Elijah came up; the story of when he called down the rain in 1 Kings 19. Really it's an odd little postscript to the story of God sending fire on Mount Carmel. The confrontation Elijah was created for happens on this day. After years of drought the people are desperate for answers. There is the showdown between the 850 prophets of Baal and Ashara, and Elijah. God sends fire from heaven. There is a revolution, the false prophets are killed. God sends rain. Elijah runs to Jezreel faster than Ahab can drive his chariot, ahead of the cleansing, life-giving rain. In the following days Elijah is depressed. I've always heard that it was for him, like the athletes in the Olympics who get the gold and then have nothing left to live for.

Turkey Vultures gliding on the leading edge of the storm winds

Maybe. I am wondering, though, if it wasn't that there was so much success and nothing to go on for, but that Elijah expected a completely different outcome. He prayed for years for the turning of the people's hearts, for righteous kingship, and for God to heal the land. Everything came down to that day, and the only change that happened was that the prophets of Baal were mobbed and then God sent rain. Hearts remained hard, Elijah remained a wanted man, and he lived the rest of his days still delivering unwanted messages. He had an idea of what rain would be: Not just how it would happen, but what the results would be, and how it would feel. I imagine that he hoped to lead a beautiful revival and restoration after that day. How often our definitions differ from God's.
Oh please prepare my heart for Your rain.

Coop de' Etat

I don't know who remembers this photo from Vogue maybe 6 years ago. The Duchess of Windsor is feeding her chickens. In evening dress. Fabulous.

Today's design lesson with my high school kids was on prints, and I cooked up a little print with this photo as the theme. I wanted something that clearly shows the inspiration and the repeat. Generally I am not so literal. It looks like something that would be printed on 60/40 cotton poly from Walmart. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole in the store, and I don't claim it is good, but I think it turned out funny so I thought I'd share it.

Nesting

This week we will move to our new house! Like the birds that have been using our mailbox, I am nesting. We picked up paint and a new bathroom sink this weekend!

The Perfect Shift Part 2

I completed the bride's maid shift for my sister's wedding. Her aesthetic is quirky and fantastical, so I made a dress to match.

With two layers of hand-dyed silk, it is somewhat reversible. The inner layer is a dappled red/red violet, and the outer layer is a flat dusty pink with tucks at the hem, machine embroidery, and cutwork.