The Sun! The Sun!

The sun has finally made a command performance and oh! how grateful I am for it too! These were a series of photos taken yesterday of our favorite local friends.

These two eagles. A yearling on the left and a full fledged on the right sat in these tree tops waiting for dinner time. They left as soon as the car headed towards their "table" area. Actually there were many others in the vicinity - along with a large murder of crows!

Above is a closer view of the beauty on the right .

Another eagle waits patiently for the chow line

This guy waited in the tree and then took off when he sensed that food was close
by- what a beautiful, amazing sight!

Our little sweet faced "Blackie".
He's become more gray as the year has progressed
but still retains this sweet, almost wistful look.
All of the fox in the area are shedding their thick winter coats (so are the cats for that matter!) and sometimes you can find large clumps of their fur in the bushes...

Something To Caw ABout

I had a "to do" list this past weekend and I surprised no one more than myself when I actually managed to finish the list! One of the things I had wanted to was to add more pages in the new journal that I started. I have a new journal partner now whose name is Judy. The journal swap program is from the Yahoo Group Blissfully Art Journaling. Once you are paired with a partner you swap your journals out once a month for a year. I knew that a journal page or two a month for a year was something that I could commit to. I am really looking forward to seeing the results! I know I will learn a lot and, although Kim (BAJ's list mom) could not have known it when she paried us, Judy & I actuallly share many common experiences. Very interesting! We will be sending off our journals to each other next week & so I have wanted to do some introductory pages about myself. I'll finish the pages up this coming weekend in time to get the "little black book" sent off in the post early next week. Of course no introduction of myself would be complete without a page that honors my love of Corvids (crows & ravens).

I found a new technique that I wanted to try in a book I have been browsing through about Book Binding. I used a candle to drop wax "droplets" onto paper, applying paint coats in between. The wax becomes a resist. I really liked the effect that I got but, as with anything, I need some practice. I also think that soy candles might be easier to remove than the old candle that I had on hand - that had been languishing in a drawer awaiting the next power outage. I think the technique - which could not be any simpler really - bears some further experimentation. Of course this technique is now making me think about seeing what encaustics is all about. There is always something new to try isn't there?

What In The Heck Have I Been Doing All This Time?!

"Cerebration is the enemy of originality in art."
Martin Ritt

These 3 eagles (can you find all three?)
is what greeted me when I stepped outside this morning

Rather then my Sunday chapter notes for The Artist's Way I thought that I would try to answer my own question: What have I been doing? Where have I been? (The next chapter update for the Artist's Way will return tomorrow.)

There are times when I feel as though I have accomplished nothing. When painful days run together I get so darn frustrated because I just wnat to be painting,drawing, knitting, quilting, - all of the things that bring joy to my life. Thankfully, when I stop for a minute & think about it I realize that I have, in fact, been producing - just not as fast as I generally like to!

Here is a peek at my desk - all of the accouterments of art are there - just waiting for me to sit down and play!

I love fingerless gloves. I wear them all of the time - generally indoors and outdoors in the Winter because my hands get so cold. For Christmas last year I made about a dozen pairs of a simple pattern - and it is one of the few things that I have gifted people with that everyone seemed to enjoy using. That always makes me feel good to get feed back! I found this pattern on Knitty and fell in love with it. It is called "Fetching" and is designed and graciously shared by Cheryl Niamuth from Vancouver, BC - just across the road from me. I love this pattern and my first pair was made from Jo Sharp worsted in 'Lichen' - Oh! Do I love this yarn. I want more and more of it! I just started a pair in Lion Brand WoolEase in 'Lemon Grass'. Thus far I think it will work well. I am on the look-out for a pair of fingerless gloves in a more lacey pattern now.

This is the pair of socks I am working on using Conjoined Creations Flat Feet yarn with their 'Ladder Socks' pattern. The pre knitted pieces are really wonderful to work with. Much tidier than working with skeins of yarn. I like the pattern - just a bit of added texture than the sock pattern I usually use. I am hooked on the pre knitted pieces too. KnitPicks has aome preknitted sock blanks and a started set of dyes that is on my list of must purchase items. I am waiting for another thing from them to get something else back into stock and then I can give dyeing my own blanks a try!

Next up is one of the several silk pen rolls I have been making. This one is for a wonderful lady who sold me a pen that I had been lusting for at a more than very fair price. It is a Pelikan M400 honey tortoise & it has become my most favorite pen. It's nice to lust for a pen and then, when you actually get it, it performs as well as you hoped it would. Oh so beautiful & Oh so smooth. I cannot believe that I have found a pen that eclipses the love I have for my Bexley. I wanted to make this for her as a heartfelt thank you for selling me the pen at such a low price. I will be shipping it off to it's new Austrailian home on Wednesday.

The inside of the roll is Dupioni silk and the outside is from vintage kimono silks from AH!Kimono.

Sunday's Crowing

I just couldn't help myself! I had to try my hand at carving a crow today. I am fairly happy with the way he came out too. There will be others to follow I think. The bottom photo is the tag I designed for the "Epley Series". I sure am having fun! Anyone who says that getting older is bad - must surely need compelling hobbies to focus on ! The more I learn - the more I want to learn!

Corvid Eplus - Ready To Go To His New Home

Y'all must be getting tired of all my crow ravings - but I am quite excited that this one is done!
Since he is a commissioned piece I wanted him to be as perfect as I could make it. I tried some new techniques - which might not always be a good thing to do on a piece that is commissioned - but, thankfully, it all turned out just as I had hoped. I made the beak out of polymer clay, used a better sized eye & created a new method of finishing & stiffening that has worked very well. The legs are the most difficult part of the process - and I decided that they needed some sort of stabilization. These legs are made for woodcarvers, and as such are intended to be set in wood. I need to cut off part of the metal - and then finish them with paint and texture. I fashioned the stabilizing pads from polymer as well. Much better than the original. I made a leg band for him and will include a "care & feeding" card. I sure have fun making these ! Thanks for looking - and I promise I will not post more crow photos for awhile.

Eplet 248

I spent last weekend working on another crow . We he is finished he will be sent directly to his new home. I took some photos of part of the process - so much of the process, after this point, is about layering, finessing, shaping & stiffening. I still have some hours of work to complete, but he is well on his way to being a crow with personality

Here is the namesake Epley overseeing the creation of a would be nest mate. I use a small part of a stocking and fill it loosely with some wool fleece and then tie off parts to get a very rough approximation of where I want the neck, body and tail to be.

Epley continues to inspect the formative process.
Here are the feet & the beak ready for insertion. I realized after making the last one bird that I needed to stabilize the feet. These feet are designed for woodworkers - to be set in wood. I tried to create a stabilizing "platform" while retaining as much of the 'claw feeling' as I could. The beak is an improvement that i like - though I may have to adjust the size up in the future.

In this photo I have started to layer some roving in - beginning the many layered forming process.

The initial stage of forming. Now it will be a matter adding layers of wool, shaping the layers,inserting the legs and beak and then adding the multiple layers of light stiffener - to both give him a bit of dust repellency and, more importantly, to add stability to the fibers. I'll post the final stages soon. He goes to his new home next week,

The Weekend of Not

It's the weekend of not because I decided to "not" this weekend. I felt like I needed some down time - with no pressure to accomplish anything that I did not feel "caw-led" to work on. Maybe not the best choice right now since my commitment list is long & some deadlines loom. I trust that the commitment list will all fall into place more easily however since I have elected to "not".

Early in the year one of the promises that I made to myself was to teach myself more about block carving. I have never really done any carving (other than two small pieces some months ago) & I wanted to try my hand at some more. As with most things, I think it's matter of practice in order to learn! I admire Elin Waterston and have been enjoying her blog where she has been showing her completed carvings - at the rate of one a day since the beginning of the year. So today I decided that I wanted to try my hand at carving a crow - and I am happy with the results. Happy enough that I hope to do some more of them while I tarry this weekend in 'not land'. I most definitely have birds on the mind lately!

Ravens in The Window.....

.....of the Anne Martin McCool Gallery in Anacortes, Washington that is. These fabulous creations are made by artist Teri Silva. Crows & ravens are some of my favorite birds. Despite their sometimes noisy behavior I am amazeed at their intelligence and determination. I would have dearly loved to have been able to get one of these birds - but I had to leave them on their perches - cool shoes, accessories and all. What wonderful, whimsical work !

The fellow above sported an anemone and a fine top knot - and look at those shoes !
This one's a feather head - and must be a saddle show afficianado !
Here we have ravens showing off their sandals and Texas red boots (complete with gold tips!)
This pithy looking fellow shows off his bunny slippers ..... and there was even more of these wonders in the gallery !