I will watch your eggs!

It is always a surprise to see who it is that comes out of the clay, I never go for the elf cute look but that is who emerged. So what to do with this fresh face? I made the hair look like feathers and thought to keep the colors in earth tones. The base is the top of a piano stool, the nest sits on a tree made from a spindle with branches from old type writer arms.

I rusted the nest in the bathroom so I could dunk it in water every time I washed my hands. It had help with some vinegar and salt, Norm thought it was a bit stinky to have in there. What we do for art.

I think a sweet song is being sung to the eggs.

The little eggs came from a quail and are real. My next job is to make a paper cut with this sculpture as the vocal point.

Odds and Ends

I was playing with my camera still trying to get the feeling for what it can do or should I say what I can't do.

An old stack, I love the worn corners, most of these books are over 100 years old.

The dice belonged to my grandparents they are old bakelite, maybe from the 30s.

Just a fun composition, and a study of values. I like how the gold on the pages show up but the wood blocks are too dark. The old shoe form is to make a woman's high heel. The nest has a lining of Winnie's hair, it dropped out of a fir tree last winter, I felt so lucky to find it..... yes I know her hair she leaves it for all of us.

Here are some very old woodland Indian moccasins and a choker from a different tribe, the bead work is unbelievable.

On my last post I took a picture of part of a old truck this is a card I made using it as the base.

And at last I finished this paper cut I started at Menucha at the end of May. It is now hanging at the main Multnomah Co Library gift shop with my other paper cuts for a show and sale.
I took a knitting class last night and hopefully in a week or so I will be able to show you how I did.

Working on Art, Art gone Bad and Nature

I worked in the studio almost all week doing the mundane... making cards, framing prints, packaging and all the necessary chores... and very little fun creating. We all have to do it and rarely blog about it for good reason. I did work on this body form all day Friday.It has very colorful resin paper wings with a metal and paper body. I painted a scene on the torso that turned out hideous, yes that happens. So no picture and I will rework it later.

It stands 4' with a wing span of 4 1/2'. Saturday after working on the house we went for a drive near Albany. On the way, the Great Blue Heron was hunting for mice in a just-cut field.

And here is said mouse smack in the middle of the road. It looks like a rock but is a mouse.

He wanted to get to the other side, opposite of Mr. Heron. As I tried to hurry him along with my mono-pod, he jumped and bit at it. I made sure he made it just as a fast farm truck came barreling down on us.

Here is the art gone bad... this is the front of a house in Albany. Go ahead and click on it and check out the flag holding bear on the right and the deer on the left. A water fall comes of the roof and drops into a Koi pond.

The Koi are beautiful and around 20" long.

This sign was on an old truck across the street. I liked the color, it will make a nice back ground on a future piece of art.

We journeyed along out of town to this little pond. I wanted to look first before Norm and the dogs got out (bird watching).

As I saw this tree, I heard the loud slap of the beaver tail announcing my arrival.

He sat and watched us, moving now and then to let us know it's his home.

It was getting dark and time to go ....

The seed heads rustled in the breeze, a killdeer cried from the far side of the pond as dark unproductive clouds rolled past. A very nice day, I will get back to art as summer days wane, but for now nature will satiate me with its beauty.

Bracelets and Baby Birds

During the hot weather I made a few bracelets, I just love taking out the boxes of beads and fingering all the different colors. I feel like I'm looking into a pirates treasure chest. At the beach my mom and my cousin Barb spent hours sorting colors for me, now I'm a well organized pirate thanks to them.

All the beads are glass and come in a variety of sizes. This one is summer colors.

Amber's are so rich and blend into the nest. My favorite.

I'm ready for fall these beads look like juice red berry's.

And two red ones are ready for...... can't say it.

I learned a new style at the coast, flat very simple but also very very comfortable to wear.

And the lot of them.
LOOK WHAT I FOUND__________ I was talking on the phone with a friend and decided to look in the garden while talking for a Robins egg shell or a discarded snake skin some little gift from nature. I went to a shrub that I new a bird had nested in last year and saw a new nest, I went in to take a close look and to my surprise it was full.

They are not asleep but hoping that the monster will go away. Do click on the photo to enlarge, you can see the yellow fold on it's mouth. And my favorite is the wee bit of fluff on the top of their heads. Also look at the spider webs used to make her nest.

And in this one you can see the feathers just coming out of the quill. These are American Gold Finch babies. If you are not keen on birds stop reading here.

American Goldfinches breed later in the summer than most songbirds. Their breeding is timed to coincide with the peak abundance of thistle seed. They often nest in loose colonies. The nest is located in an upright fork of a shrub, tree, or occasionally a dense weed. The female builds a tightly woven, compact cup of plant fibers and spider webs and lines it with thistle-down. The female incubates 4 to 6 eggs for 12 to 14 days. The male brings her food while she incubates, and while she broods the young for the first few days after they hatch. After that, both parents bring food to the young. The young leave the nest after 12 to 17 days, but the parents continue to feed the young for a few weeks. American Goldfinches generally raise one or two broods each year.