The Owl and the Pocket Watch

When I’m having a creative block, one thing that gets me moving is a deadline. An art group I’m in issued a challenge: create a design using a pocket watch. Deadline: one month. Scouring the house turned up no less than three pocket watches! I chose the oldest, a broken one that I bought at a garage sale with the intent to take it apart to use in my mixed media artwork. Here’s the base photo:

I took out the background and drew on the watch to make it a little less clean-looking.

Since my favorite thing to do is design fabric, I used elements of the cutout image to make some kaleidoscope designs, which often produce great fabrics. Here’s one:

That was okay, but I wasn’t satisfied. I decided to switch gears (no pun intended) to make a blended collage. What image would work with the watch face? I have a folder on my computer of what I consider to be my best photos, and when I opened it, look who jumped out at me:

Now we’re talking! I was very happy with a few of the different blended images I came up with. I liked this one best:

I printed variations of the collage onto heat transfer paper and decorated a wooden box, but will leave photos of that for another day.

Have you used the pressure of a deadline to make yourself get to work? I’d love to hear how that went and what you created.

Great Blue Heron visits the garden

A creek runs behind our house. During drought years it trickles, but recent rains have brought torrents of water rushing through the channel. We think a Great Blue Heron (GBH) that visited us the other day may have flown to us by following the creek, which goes underground for a bit just past our property.  We also have a small garden pond with some fish, and it could be that the heron had heard tell of tasty treats in a pair of backyard ponds – our next door neighbors also have one. And yes, some of the fancy koi that we had in past years were eaten by marauding herons and egrets, so now we stick to less costly goldfish and mosquito fish. George saw the GBH circling above the garden. Although George was sitting quite still, perhaps the heron spotted him and decided not to try for the pond. I was inside the house, and after grabbing my camera I quickly scanned and saw that it had landed on our neighbor’s roof.

It strode across and perched at the highest point to survey the possibilities.

Patiently looked in all directions.

Gave me a final shot at its gorgeous profile.

And finally turned and flew away over the rooftops, perhaps to find a garden pond without a guardian.

Mad hens

No, this isn’t about the character of any of the chickens that we know and love. Going through my vintage postcards, I noticed that some of the little chicks in the Easter cards look kinda angry. Here’s one:

Maybe it’s not mad, just peeping? These two look sweet:

Here’s one made in France. I think this little guy looks pretty peeved, maybe it’s just a bit of Gallic attitude:

Funny, I took French in high school and college but can’t remember the word for “angry.”  Online translators tell me it’s “être en colère.”

The top card is postmarked 1912 and the second one 1915. They’re both addressed to “Miss Ada May Rhodes” and they’re from her “Aunties.” The cost of the stamps? A penny.

Evolon and Transfer Artist Paper

I’ve had a swatch of Evolon laying on my worktable for months, but hadn’t worked up the courage to do anything with it. Evolon is a microfiber fabric made by the company that makes Lutradur. Like Lutradur, it has a lot of industrial and practical uses, but artists and crafters have seized on both of these products to use for our own nefarious purposes. Evolon isn’t readily available in the US yet. I found one online source, Meinke Toy, but alas, the owner is giving up the business. Hopefully she’ll decide to find a buyer rather than completely close the store down. As she describes it, “Evolon is a nonwoven microfiber material made of nylon and polyester. You can paint, dye, print and heat distress Evolon. It will not fray when cut with a scissors and can also be cut using a soldering iron. It excels as a base for stitch, by hand or machine and works well layered with sheer elements above it.” It comes in Soft, which feels a bit like chamois, and Regular, which feels like a leather-like paper. I love the feeling of both of them.

Anyway, finally having a free minute to do a small project, I decided to try out the Evolon. I printed one of my favorite photographs of a hovering hummingbird onto Transfer Artist Paper (TAP), my favorite heat transfer paper. This is the photo:

Whenever I print on TAP I make sure to fill up the whole page so I don’t waste any of it (it’s not cheap), so I added a row of one of my new kaleidoscopes, which I made from my photo of a black and white feather. After I kaleidoscoped the image using Kaleider, I played with the colors for a psychedelic effect. This is a single tile of the kaleidoscope:

It’s best to use TAP soon after printing it — if you can’t, put it back into the sealable plastic bag that it comes in. I headed right down to my studio and ironed the hummingbird onto the Evolon. I set the iron for the polyester setting, but didn’t hold it on the surface for too long. The transfer worked great, going on really smoothly except for a few bits here and there, which added an uneven effect that I like. Then I cut up pieces of the kaleidoscope and ironed it around the edges as a frame. I ironed the Evolon to a piece of stabilizer for a backing, and sewed around the edges. Finally, I stitched on a hen’s feather. This is the piece:

Not sure yet how I’m going to mount or hang it. I’m just enjoying having it here to look at and feel. Really love the smooth, leather-like texture of the Evolon.

I know I didn’t take full advantage of Evolon’s special properties, I just wanted to see how it took the TAP. Next experiment, I’ll coat it with Digital Ground or inkAid and print directly onto it. Now, that’s REALLY my idea of fun!

Hummingbirds in the trees

Growing up back east I don’t recall ever seeing a hummingbird. I’m amazed that to see these flying treasures now, all I have to do is go out to our garden or up on our deck. This female Anna’s hummingbird was perched on a tree in our yard.

As part of making our garden into a wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), we provide food, water and cover for local and migrating animals. George’s garden includes many flowers for nectar, and he is always replenishing the sugar-water feeders for the hummingbirds.  He also avoids using pesticides, because that could harm or kill the birds.  Here’s an article by NWF about feeding hummingbirds.  The sugar-water is a supplement to their diet of insects and nectar.  This article goes into more detail, and has good advice about the important issue of keeping your feeders clean.

This is a male Anna’s – the brilliant color of his head and neck shines with iridescence when it catches the light.

This is another male Anna’s.  You see how different the color of his feathers appears, this hummer shines with a more magenta hue.

Hummingbirds are among the limited species of birds that can hover.

When awake, they are almost constantly in motion. I had to quickly shoot the photos of them perching on the tree, because they don’t land for long. Here’s a shot of two of them, one about to land on a branch, and another zooming by above.

I caught a shot of this young hummer with his beak open.

Do you know what kinds of hummingbirds visit or live in your area? I’m lucky to have George, who has studied this extensively, to tell me who’s who.  He said that at this time of year we’re getting only the Anna’s hummingbirds, and that they stay with us year-round.  Does your garden have nectar flowers or other plants to attract and feed hummingbirds?  Do you have hummingbird feeders to supplement their diet?