While She Naps

nest of thread III

Thank you all for your incredible comments on my two year blog anniversary post! Roxanne drew a name out of our giant salad bowl and the winner of the book is Veronica! 

And now for nest of thread III

No actual nest in this one, but I think it conveys the idea of a nest in the making. 

The backdrop is a mini-quilt I made with scraps of fabric and paper.  It is so freeing to know that the quilt won't need to be washed so that it is okay to sew any sort of thing to it, including a big green "3" which I cut from the tag that hung from my Subaru after it was serviced at the dealership.  The "three trees" flashcard at the top is from this amazing set of vintage flashcards that I have, saved from the junk heap at one of the schools where I used to teach.

Birds in boxes.  I like this.  I'm thinking of taking a quick trip over to the liquor store for some wooden wine crates.  And my other goal this week is to check out a book on Joseph Cornell shadow boxes.  There is an excellent Cornell show up right not at the Peabody Essex Museum.  I'm hoping to get over there to see it some rainy weekend this summer. 

 
 

while she naps turns 2

This little blog of mine turns two this month.

For two years I have been sewing little creatures and taking pictures of them and writing about them and it has been (and still is!) terrific fun for me. All of you who read what I write here and who look at my work and comment  - you are all so vital to my creativity, my motivation, my productivity and my growth as an artist.  Thank you a million times! 

And now, for a little blog anniversary give-away...

A few weeks ago Penguin Books sent me an advanced copy of Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori.

This is an adorable Japanese craft book (you may recognize it?) that is being published for the first time in English. It goes on sale June 5 (although you can pre-order on Amazon).  Inside you will find patterns to make a monkey, a rabbit, a dog, a cat, a fish, a doll, etc. from socks and gloves. Like in most Japanese craft books, the photography is divine - simple and sleek with the pieces posed on natural, weathered wood.  The first half reads a bit like a story and the back has all of the patterns for the toys as well as for a dress, shirt,pants and hat to clothe them in.  The toys are easy to make, but sophisticated and cute. This book would be really fun for all skill levels and I even think Roxanne would enjoy it as a storybook.

So, in honor of two years of while she naps (cheers!), leave me a comment here, maybe tell me something interesting or maybe just say hello.  I will keep the comments open through the weekend, closing them Monday morning, and then I will draw a name at random and send you Sock and Glove.   You all are awesome.   

nest of thread II

I found two of these shadow box frames at a church rummage sale a few weeks ago for $1.50 and got really excited about making a shadow box with a sewn bird.  Here is "nest of thread II".

The frames are backless so for this one I made a small white-on-white quilt as the backdrop. 

The floor and the wings on both the mother and baby bird are made from pages of my old metro Boston road atlas sewn to muslin.  When we replaced our torn up atlases we threw the old ones out.  Charlie had already taken the garbage cans to the curb when he suddenly thought that maybe I'd like to keep some pages from the atlases for collages and he ran out in the rain and tore out a big bunch.  Gotta love that guy. 

The box already had two little hooks on the back for hanging so this one is all ready for a wall.

nest of thread

I spent some time this weekend thinking about perches for birds. 

This little flour sack bird is in the midst of constructing a nest of thread (actually she is made from a cloth sack that contained sugar cookie mix from William-Sonoma). I have so many beautiful wooden spools with thread still on them but the thread is often too weak to use in the machine. Using them here is perfect.

I'm also becoming increasingly interested in incorporating found objects (and found fabric) into my work.

We had a super weekend.  We went to Newton Open Studios and bought a beautiful painting on paper by Joceyln Chemel, a local painter and jewelry designer. This is our fourth piece of hers.   We also went to Art for the Garden again this year.  This is an outdoor exhibit of contemporary sculpture that a woman in Newton hosts in her incredible backyard. It is always an inspiring thing to see and as I start to make more sculpture myself I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for the pieces on exhibit.

The weather in Boston has turned warm and sunny again so we will be outside this afternoon watching the flowers grow.

 

crested bird (clothing tags)

I've been thinking a lot about unexpected fabric. You know, like random bits of fabric that come into our lives that we may not even think of as fabric. Flour sacks are an obvious favorite, but what else.  What about the tags in clothes, the ones with the size and the brand and the washing instructions?  Okay, let's see what can be done with those.

After rifling through my dresser and cutting about 50 tags out of all kinds of clothes and bras (now everyone will know I'm a 36B!) I made these three pieces of fabric.  They were first fused to a piece of cotton muslin with double-sided fusible web and then "quilted" on the machine using the walking foot.

Now that I have no instructions on how to properly wash any of my garments (good thing I didn't ever follow those instructions anyway) and it has been reaffirmed that I do shop at the Gap too much, I decided to cut it all up and make some bird feathers.

Boy, I think I'm a freak sometimes. 

There is a little interview with me at Underspray if you're interested in knowing more about how I work and what inspires me and the way I feel when people talk to me while brushing their teeth.

I'm taking a bit of a bird break now.  We'll see what else emerges.

 

ibis

I owe a big thank you to Pamela for suggesting that I might like to make an ibis.  She said she thought the long beak looked like it would be fun to make with fabric, and she was right.

At 18" tall this bird is one of my taller ones.

As you can tell, my brown floral tape arrived (gotta love eBay). And I used some Paperclay again, this time underneath the floral tape to create knees.  I really liked this technique. The knees dried super hard and were easy to wrap.

He is made from white linen, flour sack and red-orange and black muslin with lots of contrasting stitching in red.

 

This bird has toenails, like the raptor. 

Speaking of toenails, Charlie took the girls to the playground yesterday morning so that I could walk into town and get a pedicure.  So nice!  And today I woke up to two lovely presents - Roxanne make me a handprint in clay at school that she painted with gold "freckle" paint and although she claims she is hanging it up in HER room, I am actually going to hang it up in my room.  And Charlie and Stella got me an iPod.  Oh my.  I feel so high tech!  I am so excited to be able to listen to podcasts and This American Life in my studio now, far from the computer. 

We spent the morning in Framingham at the New England Wildflower Society and then went out to delicious dim sum brunch at Uncle Cheung's.  And the weather is just perfect today - cool and sunny.  I will be in the shady part of the garden this afternoon planting the mayapples and jack-in-the-pulpits we bought this morning. Happy Mother's Day to you and to your mom, too!

white crested bird

I did some sketching of crested birds and some more thinking about bird legs.

White crested bird. 

Her legs are wrapped with floral tape left over from wrapping the stems of the one hundred and forty five origami flowers I made for our wedding.  Hurray for floral tape!  I have a big roll of it in brown coming in the mail to me so subsequent birds will not have to be all white. I also used copper wire and in a little higher gauge. This wire is more malleable and therefore really easy to work with. 

In my mind while I was making this bird I was thinking about Camilla Taylor.  Do you think there is a resemblance?  I hope she is not offended by this. I do think she's rather lovely to look at.  If you like white birds, see these beautiful birds by Sandra Monat and Tamar Mogendorff and Lauri Faggioni.  Good stuff.

crow

Sketches of crows, some with open beaks.

And a bird with raised wings.

A crow, with an open beak and raised wings.

And a little bit of fluff around the head made from some synthetic horse hair-like stuff from Stephanie (check out her beautiful crow pillow!).  Speaking of Stephanies, see another Stephanie's beautiful crow here.

My crow's legs are a bit different from other birds I've made. I'm doing some experimenting with paperclay, trying to get a bird leg that is thinner and less bulky than I've been able to achieve by wrapping fabric strips around the wire.  I'm reading this doll making book and though I rarely make actual dolls, it is so excellent!  It's like taking a class on soft sculpture which is so perfect for me because I am not able to leave the house to take a class right now. 

raptor

Picture of a hawk from my folk art book.

Sketch.

Raptor (made in part from a Guinness bar towel I found at a church rummage sale last weekend).

Back detail. This is the first bird with a turned head. And toenails.

I was a bit waylaid in finishing this guy because I had to send out the pink and blue kangaroos today.

Making these sculptures has been so incredibly freeing.  To not have to worry about how much time each one takes me.  To not feel like every pattern has to be replicable. It is really wonderful.