Green/Greener, 2 new birds and a sand sculpture.

It's time for a green/greener post! This time my focus is on natural dying which I'm currently exploring (again!) So far my own personal experience is limited to Marigold, Tea, Coffee, red cabbage, onions skins and Fennel. I've also had 2 attempts at making Kowhai flower dye and a nest dye with poor results....this is definitely a learning process! I'm keen to learn though and as I said it my last post I think I stumbled upon a good way of setting the dye on paper- with an iron!

Moss and Lichen. Mclarens Falls.

The first artist I am going to put the spot light on is India Flint. Am I the last person on the eco-dying planet to discover India Flint's blog? lol. For anyone who hasn't visited her blog yet here it is. If your anything like me you will wish you had gotten there sooner! The first link will take you directly to a Eucalyptus dye recipe and this link will take you to her book and others of interest. My wishlist gets bigger!

Eucalyptus bark and feather. Some of the things that made it home with me after our camping trip!

I found a link to this fabulous article on India Flint's bundling/ printing /dying method on a site called Turkey Red Journal which is a publication dedicated to natural dying. Be prepared to want to run out and gather leaves after reading the article!

For John: Close up of a frond from a NZ Native Tree Fern, the Ponga.

Eco dye captures my attention because its in tune with my way of thinking. It's not perfect but it is 'greener.' The foot print of a fennel plant growing over my fence is a whole lot smaller than that of the coffee that has been shipped (and goodness knows what else!) from a million miles away. Right now I am trying to find a more natural alternative too coffee that will give me the same colour. I found this plant/colour guide on a site called Pioneer Thinking. Handy to have! As you can see there are plenty of alternatives to using coffee...and if you live in my part of the globe it's not long until Autumn...and that means walnuts! I know just the tree to harvest from too. If your interested in making your own walnut dye here's a page you might like.

I haven't tried it myself yet and I would be interested in reading about walnut dye experiences if anyone has a link to share! This link will take you to a site with the most gorgeous photography of this ladies natural dye projects. Some eye candy for the eco dyer's out there!

Last but not least, check out this collaborative project that Jasmine of Nature's Whispers is taking part in. How can you not want to go and see a project called Wrapt Trees?

Meet Dollar and Dime! (Dime is the bigger bird with his beak open.) We adopted these teeeeny, tiny sparrows today. I only took this one photo so I didn't disturb them or let them get cold. They're so very tiny and have hardly any feathers and their eyes arn't open yet. They are using a heat pack and polyprop to keep warm. Being small dosn't change the amount of noise they make when it's feed time, which at this stage is every 30mins...please wish us luck that we have a great result for this little foster babies too!

Speaking of birds, it IS feed time so I quickly post a rare pic of me and my kids at out local beach. It was published in a local newspaper last weekend.

We came third place equal in a local family sand scultpure competition! Ours was a giant "We HEART NZ"

Winning was a nice way to end a great day!

3 things...and a MERRY CHRISTMAS to you ALL!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have your coffee or mulled wine at your side. This post is a little on the long side but as I have finally found time to sit down and post I am making the most of it and do a '3 things' posting.

Title: Bent not broken.

1CE # 2 2011

 Fragile series. Society is a nest #2.

Thing one is COLLAGE! Above is my 2nd collage for next years ICE exhibition. I really have to use Jan and Feb next year to focus on completing these works in time! So much pulpy fun this year and a terrible year health wise for my son haven't helped but I'm still confident all will be well in the end. This collage is titled ' Bent not broken' and is a tribute to foster families who take children from unsuitable homes and make them a part of their own families.Some of these children are damaged by their beginnings in life but thankfully there is hope and love waiting for them. The collage is intentionally crooked btw!

 Below is a sneak peak of number 3... not stitched yet or mounted so there's a little bit to do before I can claim it finished. I recieved that beautiful green paper in a swap. Lucky me!

The photo below shows a sneak peak of the collage I've done for Seth's artist call out...I can't show the complete collage just yet but I can say that I chose to reveal something about myself.  It was quite a theraputic piece to create even if it did touch on a sensitive subject for me. Art is great therapy!

Thing 2 is...a bird update ofcourse!

'Little bird' as she is now known has made herself at home here! We don't know what 'c' she was as they were triplets. All four birds were released and 3 were quite happy to fly off and do their own 'birdie thing' except for this one.She flew off and was found half an hour later sitting quite happily on the handle bars of DH's motorbike. We took her back to the release spot and she took about half an hour to decide to fly off again...and 2 hours later she was back! She literally hopped along the ground and made her way up my son's leg before using us as a series of stepping stones to get back to her cage!

She's a cheeky little thing as you can see! We are trying to keep her 'wildness' and don't feed her (other than what is usually put out for all the birds) and we've had to teach her she is an outside bird! For the first few days she kept coming inside and I've even had her follow me into the bathroom!

It's not unusual to find her sitting on the window sill watching us (and making a mess!)

It is a privilege to have this bird choose to stay and I'm delighted to see her when she arrives back from her flights away. I know one day she will go and start her own brood but until then we will enjoy the unique bird/human friendship that has formed. My son is doing a woodwork course next year and guess what all the kids are making? A bird house AND a bird feeder! Purely a coincidence! Honest:)

A kiwiana themed christmas tree at a local tree display. (Pavalova, a kiwi, sheep, all blacks, paua...)

Thing 3 is CHRISTMAS!

Chocolate and strawberry trifle...one of the good things about a summer time christmas!

Time is ticking! The kids are very excitedly counting down the days until Christmas day and I know I'm in for a early wake up call on the 25th! We're hosting Christmas tea at our place this year and have family coming to stay and my son has a birthday on the 27th so things are getting very busy here. They no doubt are for all of you too and I sincerely wish you all a very merry Christmas, safe travels and love in abundance.

Buon Natale!

An unexpected absence!

It's great to be back in the land of blog again:) I upgraded my computer to a new, faster computer and promptly used up my broadband allowence! Doh! For the first few days I felt a little lost but then the down time became creative time so it was a mixed blessing of sorts. I've completed ICE #2 and #3 in the last few nights as well as my offering for Seth's book.I can't show much of that (obviously) but I will post pics of the ICE collages soon. I've also recieved my 12 days of Christmas matchboxes and the Collage box from Lawendula's exchange since my last posting.

My birds are still here and thriving! I think 2 or 3 will be released back into the wild tomorrow which will be a bittersweet moment for us! The black one is still a bit young to go with the others but here's how he looks now...

 Below is how he looked the day we bought him home...

Sorry for the lack of art pics...I'm still getting the new toy sorted:)

Many thanks to those of you who dropped by and left me a comment while I was Awol! I'm aiming to visit you all soon:)

3 Things....

Time for another miscellaneous post!
Thing 1 are the birds we are fostering...check these babies out!

The triplets. Charlotte, Clover and Coco. I have no idea which one is which but my girls reckon they can tell the difference!

Awwww....

This is Chipmunk. He's the only He and from a different nest. This photo was taken they day we bought him home and I was really worried about him. He doesn't have all his feathers (as you can see) and was so tiny and tired. I say was because now he's nearly as big as the girls were when we got them and he's perching and fluttering about. He eats the most too, I am amazed at how much he can eat! He doesn't even need this nest (woolly hat) now and the girls have all accepted him as one of them. YAY!

Awwww....again! A sleeping bird is just too cute!

Thing two is my studio shot for Seth Apter's studioscapes post. I don't have a studio as such, I have 1 area for the bulk of my storage and this area here which is in the family lounge. It's a place to keep the stuff I use often and it works as a kind of inspiration station. There's received art, my art and some of my kids art, a few nests and boxes with beads etc. I do most of my art in the lounge so it works well to have this there, another reason it works is because I can't hang things on walls where I live so I need a place to prop things up! You can see the other studios featured on Seth's blog.

Thing 3 is the paper (mostly) items that I recieved from my swap partner in Lawendula's paper swap. Thanks Eliza! I've also recieved word that the collage box #1 is on it's way to me as I type..
I havn't done any art this week but ideas are brewing so watch this space:)

The BIG 4-0-0

This post is my 400th blog post! I took a little tour back through some old photos and my archives and rediscovered my first collages made in 2007...

I don't actually remember this collage! I do remember the Aotearoa image and the old stamps though. I wonder where this ended up!

This one I remember, it took hours to do but I was so happy with it. This was the collage that got my 'into' collage. I never knew how great collage was until I did this one. I've no idea what happened to this one either.

This one was sent was a post card and one of the first pieces of mail art I did.

Last but not least...I remember that this one was never finished and I ended up throwing it into the recycling bin.  I'm not sure why I thought it wasn't finished though!

My style of collage has definately changed over the years but the joy of completing a piece that's really worked is the same. The feeling I got from finding the perfect image to blend in/fit around another image was like a drug back then. I spent hours obsessively pouring through magazines looking for it then very carefully cutting it out to make it fit. While it's no less addictive my collage now is so different. It is much more minimal, I don't feel obliged to cover every blank space and I hardly ever use an image that I didn't create. Oh, and quite often the paper is stitched now instead of glued! Another thing that I have noticed that has changed is they way I trawl op-shops. No longer do I get magazines, these days it's all about fabric and threads. The shift in image choice means I have to make it (obviously!) instead of find it and recycle it...but the shift to making my own image also lead to making my own papers, or at least dying them.

I wonder what it will look like in another 400 posts?

Thanks to everyone who has joined me along the way, I've enjoyed having you here and getting to know you and your art too:) A special thanks to a certain blogger who has been here for nearly all 400!

Bird Update:

Bye bye Bonsai! Bonsai  (I've since confirmed was a maleThrush) had a happy ending and was successfully released back to the wild yesterday. He progressed very quickly from the tinned cat food to worms which he found in the hay  (after I supplied them! lol) and before I knew it he flew! Such an amazing feeling to see a bird take it's first ever flight. I'm sure I was the proudest 'mama bird' ever! Be well Bonsai!

When I returned the borrowed cage today I ended up bringing 4 more wee ones home! Charlotte, Clover and Coco are Thrush triplets and Chipmunk is a male Thrush who needed a home to go too. I have fingers and toes crossed we can beat the odds and pull another happy ending our of the box!

Ash and Ang

I'm officially a Bird Mama! I recently put my name down to foster baby birds in need of a little TLC until they are released back into the wild again. We finally picked up our first pair of birds yesterday, some thrush fledglings we named Ash and Ang.

Ash (on the left) and Ang (as in the Avatar!)

Unfortunately Ash passed on today after only 24hours with us. I'm not sure why, I guess that is just the way of nature. He had been attacked by a cat before coming to us and had bruising so maybe that was just too much for the little bird. Ang seems strong and eagerly eats the cat food I give him. I say "him" but I'm not sure if Ash and Ang are he's or she's! I hope to have Ang here for another 3 or 4 weeks until he's grown tail feathers and can find his own food. Right now he's being hand fed every 2-2.5 hours and requires a bedding change at each feed. I never knew they pooped so much! lol.

This beautiful red wire was rescued from a 1970's vacuum cleaner by my son. As he likes pulling electrical things apart we asked the second-hand shop if we could have any old electric things that they received that didn't work. They are more than happy to get rid of their 'junk' and my son's happy to salvage what he can! I am of course, very happy to receive gifts such as this! I am not sure if it is technically copper wire, unless there is such thing as red-copper wire but it's beautiful stuff. Very easy to use (watch this space!) and it just winds off the metal like wool. No muscle required!

At the start of the year I set myself an art goal to make plaster of paris bird eggs...and here they are! They are still in the raw stage here, I need to sand the eggs and then decide if I will make whole eggs or half eggs with a flat side for gluing. I'm thinking of collaging them with tissue paper or sewing pattern paper, this is still very much a work in progress!

Last but not least...I received word that Kim's book has reached Debrina's safe and sound! YAY!. It's always a worry when we set such precious things loose in the postal system and I think we all breathe a collective sigh of relief when another book makes it safely to it's destination!