My new obsession

I have become totally obsessed with Robert Tonner fashion dolls, and I've spent the last two days making my first outfit for this exquisite doll.  Though I've got a lot to learn, I'm happy with my first outfit, which is a hybrid of a McCall's pattern I bought at an Etsy shop and my own design. The skirt has ten layers of tulle (sp?) over a satin petticoat, and the bodice and skirt yoke are a gauzy material with silver sparkles over the same satin. The wrap around her hips is more tulle, twisted and knotted.

I'm hopelessly hooked.

Peggy

Day 110: Two Flamingos and Two Parakeets

I got home from Florida a couple of nights ago.  It's always so hard saying good-bye to my Mom and my Dad.  They are both almost ninety-three years old, and my heroes in life.  There were a lot of tears this time.
Last night Watson and I were invited to Ollie the dog's birthday party.  It was a fun thing to do when I was feeling very weepy. There was even a liver-flavored birthday cake (which I politely declined to sample).  Watson had a piece, and enjoyed it wholeheartedly.  I got to give Grace her present from Florida, which was a huge hit.  Everybody wanted one!
This afternoon, Janneke came over with some new origami paper, beautifully patterned, and we made these parakeets, and the paper box one of them is sitting on.  We're still stumped by the hummingbird; we keep getting to step 18, and can go no further.  I think we're going to have to find some Origami Master to show us how.  But we had a lot of fun, and since it's still cold and rainy here, all the dogs were happy to stay inside with us.
It's good to be home, but my heart is still in Florida, with Mom and Dad.

Peggy

Day 109: Sketchbook Birds

I did these two sketchbook pages last night while I was watching the news with my Dad.  I was sitting at the computer, and I did a Google Images search for "Birds", and picked two photos out of the literally hundreds of thousands available.  Before the internet, I spent most of my down time in libraries and bookstores, looking for reference photos.  Now, sadly, a good number of the libraries and bookstores are gone, and with them the chance of stumbling upon something really interesting--though totally irrelevent--that transports one to a whole new world.
Sigh
Peggy

Day 108: A Parrot at the Airport

Yesterday I spent the day in airports, travelling down to Florida to visit my folks.  Since there's a lot of hanging around at the airport, it's an ideal place to doodle.  This pen and ink drawing is based on a watercolor by an artist named Anna Heyward Taylor.  My friend Felicia, an alum of the University of South Carolina, gave me a newsletter announcing the publication of a book about this "South Carolina Artist and World Traveler."  Taylor lived from 1879 to 1956, and did paintings, drawings, woodblocks, and book cover design.  I tore this scrap from the newsletter, and it seemed appropriate that I do a sketch based on her art, as I headed south.
Peggy

Day 107: A Bird for my Mom

Today was Mother's Day, so naturally I had to make a bird for my Mom.  I'm going down to visit my parents this Thursday, so I'll bring it with me.
This pattern was from Carolyn Vosburg Hall's book, Sewing Tiny Toys, see the bat on Day 42 for another pattern from this book.  This little bird was a surprisingly complex and intricate design:  with darts, slots, and curves, and it took all day to make up.  Vosburg Hall is a very accomplished pattern-draftsman.  I was amazed to see how her very odd-shaped pattern pieces all came together to make a very charming little creature.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom!
Love,
Peggy

Day 106: Another Zentangle Bird

I haven't 'tangled' for a while (that's the verb to use when creating a Zentangle), so tonight I decided to make another bird with this technique.  The fun thing about Zentangles is that you never know quite how they will come out.  This bird seems to be wearing an Elizabethan ruffed collar and cap--quite unplanned. 
When I signed and dated my Zentangle, which you are always supposed to do, I noticed that today is 5/5/11.
Peggy

Day 105: A Kindle Bird

Quentin stopped by this noon with his Kindle, which he is loaning me for my upcoming trip to Florida to visit my parents.  I was sitting at the table tonight looking at it, and wishing I could just crawl into bed and read, but I hadn't made my bird for the day yet.  Suddenly I got the idea to make a bird patch for the Kindle cover.  Every Kindle needs a cover, and every cover needs a bird, right?
Now I can go to bed!
Peggy

Day 104: A Collaged and Layered Bird

For me to get to the point where I can work this haphazardly means that either I'm really, really tired, or that I've finally gotten to a place in the artistic process where I don't care how the piece comes out.  This bird, created from layers of cut and torn paper, glue, white acrylic paint, and brush  markers, is a real stretch for me.  With my background in illustration, I'm far more comfortable working with very controlled watercolor washes, over a tight pencil drawing, with all the 'bugs' already dealt with on scraps of trace, and certainly NOT on the final piece of art.  Getting my hands, my work table, and especially the art itself all messy and wet and sticky just isn't in my comfort zone as an artist.
But part of my reason for doing the 365 Bird Project is to get away from my tightly controlled environment, to get my fingernails dirty--literally--and to try new things.
Actually, once I got going with this, and had abandoned all hope of a satisfactory outcome, I started having fun.  It just took long time of neatly gluing down fiddly little pieces of paper before I finally rolled up my sleeves and just plunged in.
Now that I'm finished, I'm rather pleased with this little guy, and with myself!
I'll clean up the mess in the morning.
Peggy

Day 103: A Tiny Coin Purse

I am delighted to report that today I appeared on Noah Scalin's Make Something 365 Blog!  You may recall that Noah is the guy who started this whole thing, with his project of making a skull a day for a whole year.  You'll want to be sure to check out his blog, http://makesomething365.blogspot.com/ where you'll see folks from all over the world who are making all kinds of fantastic things, every day.  It is truly inspiring.
Noah himself has published a book, has appeared on  Martha Stewart, and is going around the country giving workshops.  He is a phenomenon!  My own fame hasn't spread quite so far, but I must say it was fun to see my work on Noah's site.
Today's bird, a tiny coin purse, is a pattern by Naomi Tabatha, from her book Felt Friends from Japan.  You can see two other little birds I made from her designs on my St. Patrick's Day post, March 17th.
Oh, and don't forget to check out Noah's blog.  My fifteen minutes of fame!
Peggy

Day 102: Love is in the Air

Royal Weddings, Springtime, the beginning of May, love is in the air! This little bird carries a heart in his beak to celebrate the season. The pattern comes from Elizabeth Ruffing    http://www.elizabethruffing.com/
who found a pattern on Martha Stewart's website, then adapted it for a charming little bird of her own. I was looking around the internet for inspiration, and found Elizabeth's bird in Google Images using the keywords "Bird Patterns for Sewing". What did we do before the internet?
Now I'm going to google: "Who paid for the Royal Wedding?" I'll let you know what I find out.
 

Peggy

Day One Hundred and One: Nest

Wrapping a coiled armature to create a vessel is an ancient technique, no doubt learned by our ancestors from observing birds' nests.  Here, Nesting Bird sits in a coiled and wrapped nest of fabric strips and threads, made far more randomly and hastily than any real bird would construct a nest of her own.
There's a sweet, homely, comfort about a nesting bird: a subject worthy of further exploration.
Peggy

Day One Hundred: A New Nesting Bird

Tonight's bird was much more successful, since I actually followed the directions--duh!

She's not quite finished, but I've got to get to bed, since I'll be waking up at 2AM to watch The Royal Wedding.

I woke up in the wee hours to watch Diana and Charles get married, so many years ago.  Such a sad ending to that fairy tale wedding.

I like to think that Prince William's mother is smiling down on him tonight, and his beautiful bride.

Peggy

Day Ninety-Nine: Oh Dear

Oh, dear.  Tonight I decided to make a darling little nesting bird from Agibail Patner Glassenberg's marvelous book The Artful Bird, only I thought I'd make some 'slight' alterations to the pattern, and use patchwork scraps for the fabrics.
Well, obviously I don't understand this thing about the gussets, those odd pieces that give a two-dimensional shape its third dimension, and my poor little bird has somehow completely lost his head, and is lopsided on his bottom half and keeps tipping over.  And, my studio is now a huge mess.
Clearly, it is time to go to bed, and start over in the morning.
Next time, maybe I'll follow the directions.
Good night, all.
Peggy

Day Ninety-Eight: A Dodo Bird

Today is John James Audubon's birthday. 
I drew this Reunion solitaire Dodo bird, Raphus solitarius to mark the event.  Unfortunately, this dodo bird, along with the other two known species, are all extinct.  They once lived on the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean, but these slow, clumsy, and flightless birds were unable to defend themselves against man, and by the eighteenth century, they were all gone.
Audubon never drew a dodo bird; he wasn't born until 1785, and by then these birds were extinct.  His masterwork, The Birds of North America, is generally considered to be one of the finest collections of natural history illustrations of all times.  I had the great good fortune of seeing the original watercolors at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston many years ago, and it is truly an amazing accomplishment.
But Audubon wasn't a very nice guy.  In order to accurately paint his birds, he shot dozens, often hundreds of a single species, and then would wire the dead birds into realistic poses.  It's true that before photography, drawing from a dead bird was the only way to be accurate, but his slaughter was excessive.
His obsession with publishing his masterpiece put his family into serious financial straits.  His wife, who bore him many children, was forced to work to support the family, while Audubon went off again on one of his lengthy trips to paint birds.
And he employed a number of other artists to paint foliage, flowers, insects, etc. in his paintings, but he never gave any of them any credit.
Still, his realistic paintings were a new and daring way to depict birds, and they have certainly withstood the test of time.  He remains a master of the genre.

Happy Birthday, Audubon.
Peggy

Day Ninety-Seven: A Rayon Mesh Origami Crane

Tonight's bird was one of the most challenging to date:  it is an origami crane made from a square of rayon mesh.  Who knew that such a thing was even possible?  I saw this package of origami paper down at McGuckin's today, and I just had to get it.  It's really not paper at all, but a very loosely woven netting material, that feels like fine window screening.  When I sat down to make the bird, it was like working blind.  Though I was familiar enough with the sequence of folds, my creases wouldn't hold.  Moreover, I was looking through every single layer of the folded piece, seeing all the layers at once:  a truly surreal experience for anyone who is familiar with the process of making origami.  It was as if I were looking inside and through the structure, as I was creating it!  It's hard to describe how odd this felt.
Aside from the technical difficulty of folding and creasing a material that felt more like wire than paper, it was impossible to see what I was doing.  I might have been better off if I had closed my eyes, and just made the folds from memory.
As you can see from my final result, I failed miserably with the points of the beak and the tail; the material was stretching and shredding as I worked.  But still, it is an amazing little bird.  I'll definitely have to practice this many times to improve my technique with this strange material.
Origami is an awe-inspiring art:  to take a piece of flat paper and make a three dimensional form with just folding--no cutting, no gluing, no clipping--is magical.  Now, with this transparent material, it's inner secrets are fully revealed!
Peggy

Day Ninety-Six: A Be-Ribboned Easter Bird

Today was Easter, so I thought I'd make a bird in bright Easter colors and add some ribbon plumage. I think she looks quite pretty in her Easter finery! Perhaps she and Eggbert will start a romance. Who knows?

Happy Easter, everyone!



Peggy

Day Ninety-Five: Eggbert

Eggbert, the egg shaped bird, is done, just in time for Easter.  He's sitting in some Easter grass in a tiny teacup, waiting for the Easter Bunny's annual visit.  In case you're wondering how big he is, he's not all that much bigger than a hen's egg.
I think this idea has a lot of potential, and it's one that I'd like to develop.  But for now, I'm just happy I finished him in time for Easter.
Happy Easter, everybody!  And may all your chocolate bunnies be solid, not hollow.
Peggy

Day Ninety-Four: Eggbert in Progress

Eggbert the egg-shaped bird is starting to get some personality.  I wish I had some Suncatcher eyes for him, but my latest order hasn't come in yet, so I'll make his eyes from felt.  He's also going to have a topknot, and more embroidery.  I really like this idea of an egg-shaped bird, and I want to make more of these.
Check back tomorrow night for (hopefully) the completed bird.
Peggy

Day Ninety-Three: An Egg, An Egg!

Rarely, if ever, does something work the first time around.  Such, however, was the case today.
You may recall my musings yesterday on how to create a three-dimensional egg shape out of flat pieces of felt, and, if achieved, if it would stand up or topple over.  I knew how to make a felt ball, out of eight 'orange wedges,' (remember those flat maps of the world that the teacher used to pull down over the blackboard?).  But a ball would roll, as all good balls should, and besides, it was round, not egg shaped.

But, starting with the standard 'orange wedge' shape for a ball, as shown here from my Modern Soft Toy Making Book, I adapted the wedge shape to what I thought might work, making the bottom half slightly wider than the top, for stability.  My pattern, on cream colored paper, is shown on top of the the patttern page of the book.  I didn't think I'd need eight pieces, since an egg is narrower than a sphere, so I cut out six, four in yellow, two in cream, and started sewing them together.
Much to my surprise, I only needed five pieces.  Does this mean the surface area of an egg is five-eighths the surface area of a similar sized sphere?  Isn't pi in there somewhere? What is pi, anyway? Well, never mind that, what's really astonishing is that I got exactly the shape I wanted on the first try! 
Now, this little blob may not look to exciting to anybody else, but as far as I'm concerned, it's pure genius.
Now I get the fun of tuning it into a bright little bird, with eyes and a beak, embroidery and beads, anything I want.  
Check out the blog tomorrow, when Eggbert will be revealed.
I am humbled by my own greatness.
Peggy