Blackbird of Happiness--finished

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Here are the last few images. The background is made from a piece of old upholstery sample covered with the leftover gauze from Molly's tooth removal (the dentist office gave us enough gauze so that she could bleed for the next few years and not run out). The branch, blackbird and black parts of the tail are made from various parts of a grapefruit bag. The wing and tail are made from a little red leather moccasin.

Blackbird of Happiness

I was looking at a mixed media/fiber arts website and saw a contest I wanted to enter because I wanted to win the free online class. You had to use trash/junk and you had to use a bird in your design. I used the obvious bird for Iowa in the summer--red winged blackbird. The entire project had to be done within the month of June. I mostly finished it the last night of June about 11:00. When I went to download the image to the contest site, I found that in order to be a member of the contest Flikr group, you had to have permission from the site administrator. I didn't have time to get permission, so I ended up not entering the contest.


I don't know how to rearrange pictures, and I obviously downloaded these backwards, but if you look from the bottom up you can see the trash I used--followed by one baby moccasin that we've lost the partner too--that was cut up to make the bird's wing and tail.

Then the next few pictures and of the background in progress.

Calliandra

I went to visit my cousin a few weeks ago. She is having a baby girl soon and is naming it after one of her favorite flowers. So, I thought a picture of the flower in question would be a good baby gift. I like how it turned out. Now I just need to do a framing job of some kind and send it off.

Peter and Mary

A few years ago I entered a fiber post card show in Arizona. The theme was a real or imagined trip to Arizona. Since I personally had no memories of Arizona, I did a picture of my mom roller skating in the 1950's in Mesa. I recently got an e-mail inviting me to enter again. Since the last show, I have been to Arizona--to my brother Peter's wedding. So, I did a portrait of Peter and Mary. It was hard going getting a good image because it is kind of light colored and very small. But, one of my memories of their wedding was walking around the Mesa temple and looking at the different types of cactus growing on the grounds. So, I gave Mary a cactus bouquet. I think she really had daisies, but I kind of like the cactus.

In the Curve of the Sand

I finished this piece too. I needed some words for it and opened up a poem by Tennyson. The line reads "And the rainbow lives in the curve of the sand." I think it is greatly improved by the line.

Flowers in My Garden--all done

You've seen this one before--in a more unfinished phase. I really like the green beads around the edge, I am not sure of the black beads on the flowers. They may get picked off and replaced by smaller french knots or something.

???

You will have to just wait and see what this becomes.

Flowers in my Garden

I needed an early spring this year, so I got out a picture of asters and sedum that I took in my yard last fall and embroidered it. It is still not done, as you can see. But it is, at least, bright.

A Wretched Cornfield

This is the third on my list of current, unfinished projects. I had it almost all done in golds and decided it was way too boring. So, I unpicked the whole thing and redid it in browns, oranges and magenta. I may have gone too far. It is still not done, but when I was working on it in the middle of January I just couldn't take any more winter, so I am thinking that sometime in July or August when I am craving cold, maybe it will be more appealing. And maybe it will just never turn out. We will see.

Piano Bag

A piano bag I made for my daughter Sandra for Christmas. It is to carry music in--not the piano. It is kind of heavy embroidery on corduroy. I meant it to be bachelor's buttons. My mom says it is chives.

At the Conference Center

Another of my corn field pictures was juried into the LDS Church Art Competition show. The opening reception ended up being the same week as spring break, so we went. This is not a great view of me or my picture, but at least you can see that we were really there. It will be on display at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City through the middle of October.

Framed

I had a bunch of things framed in January. Here is the corn field picture that I sold to my neighbor, Jon. I think the framing turned out rather nice.