Roots-Beneath the layers

Page 1. This page is joined to the back of the last page Lisa did. You can see all of Lisa's fantastic work in this book here. You really don't want to miss it! Her cover has the word 'Roots' and the next page said ' beneath the layers' so I made them part of a sentence by adding ' I see beauty.' Lisa's words are ofcourse the books theme. My first page is a collage of 2nd hand beads, my handmade beads, mutton cloth (thicker than cheese cloth) bits of cut up doily and threads. I still don't know what the red disc thing is! I hope what ever it was from still works without it!

Page 2. One of Lisa's pages features a vintage photo of her Grandmother. This page reflects the era I imagine she came from. A time when things were re-used and re-purposed and no-one thought anything of it because it was the way of life at the time.  Lisa also said her Grandmother didn't get to travel, now we can say she's been to New Zealand! I really love this page, it appeals to the romantic in me!

Page 3. This is stitched to the back of page 2. The white book (formerly the scroll) is able to be full removed from the page and then opened to reveal...a 2 and a half page fabric book! All the shades of brown have been made by dying the fabric with coffee, tea or onions skins. The string around the nest was dyed with real nest dye (sorry, it's a little hard to see that here.)

Page 4 reveals another removable book and that seriously cool rusted bottle cap. A nice little piece of Kiwiana! I have 4 caps sitting in cups on my window sill as I type and I am doing an intentional rust experiment using eco-friendly source. Watch this space if you want to know how that goes!

The book is removed to reveal a pocket and a quote and then opened to reveal another page. This page (as you may remember) was created in collaboration with a bird! I used the non-organic parts of a nest that the kids and I found. The nest was beautiful but when its layers were revealed the true makings of this nest were actually a sad reflection on the environment it was made in. It revealed that although we see rubbish a bird sees as good nest making materials...and I eventually came to see it as good collage making material!

I worked on quite a literal interpretation of Lisa's theme and now my part is done. Soon another artist will be having their turn and the journey will continue. Thanks for being part of chapter 2 with me!

True Bliss is...

I am so happy! Lots of precious bird's nest and nesty things have come into my life this week. I wonder if it is possible to actually be much more content? The first great bird thing to happen this week was the little, sweet nest my wonderful son found for me. I am not sure what sort of bird it is from but it is so delicate and small! I have seen one of these nests before that a teacher had found at the school. I really wanted it! but I was pleased that it would go into a class of young children so that they could learn about nests and hopefully grow to love birds as much as I do. That was about a month ago and everyday when I go past the spot it was found I think of that wonderful nest...so to have my own one?? Wowee! I was playing around with a photographic collage/still life idea and below is one of my attempts. I think this photo or one similar will end up as a collage image for real one of these days. Above: A wonderful nest, magnolia seed shells, Native Kowhai seed pods, small pinecones, moss on a stick. I actually have all these items on a bench near the kitchen so I can admire them:)
The second great bird thing to happen this week was the arrival of a parcel from a friend in Christchurch. She said she would send me some feathers...by some I thought she meant 10 or so...BUT what arrived was around 200!! No kidding! All sorts of duck and chicken feathers in wonderful colours. I photographed them of course and will post them later with the collage I did using a few of them. I was pretty happy by then, 2 great bird things in one week...but then guess what? Today while I was out taking photos of Tui's (and there were wax-eyes yesterday) and feeling really blissful. I found another nest! The Tui's put on the best show singing and chortling and flirting with each other (honestly, those boys sure know how to fluff a girl Tui's feathers....I was almost embarrassed!) and I was feeling super lucky to be allowed to watch. I wandered around for a bit and didn't notice the nest at first, the Tui's had my full attention but then something caught my eye....a thrush nest! And not just any ol nest but a nest with eggs!

My photography isn't wonderful ..but to be fair, not only were my hands shaking with excitement I was also perched (bad pun!) up the tree on skinny branches with my hair tangling in the twigs! I got such a buzz to see the nest. I'm sure that I can tweak them a bit when I get them printed and it will be all ok. I was going to see if I could take the nest home (usually I only collect fallen nests but this one seemed old at first) when I suddenly spotted 3 precious gems inside. Wow! At first I felt really bad.What if the mother bird didn't come back because of me? What if my fascination was going to come at a big cost to those not-yet-hatched birds? As I walked away half excited at my discovery and half filled with worry I said a quick prayer that this nest be blessed. I thought about it all morning but was so relieved to go back this avo and see the mother Thrush sitting in her nest. Wheeew! It was back to the excitement then!

What ever your bliss is, I hope that my happy vibes rub off onto you and your week is also filled with wonderful and inspiring things!