I’ve been working on this series of little birds made out of parts of toys, broken jewelry, an old fur coat, and a few other scraps of things.
I’m working on a display for them next, and a name will come later as well, but they are fun little guys, so I tool photos of them individually before combining them into something bigger. They’re a work in progress.
Click on any of the images below to get a closer look.
Here’s the line up:
Bird A:
Bird B:
Bird C:
Bird D:
Bird E:
Shots in the snow at a less-complete stage:
And at the beginning stages when you could see what they’re made of:
They move in a sweet and wonderful way that, unfortunately, can’t really be part of the final display. While I was photographing them, I noticed the way the wind would catch them and make them bob. Here’s a sample with chirping birds in the background:
I’ve been working on some new art lately. I’m enjoying the array of materials on my table!
This piece of art doesn’t exist, even though it’s the most recent piece I’ve been working on. With it, I learned that when you’re making art out of found objects, you’d best do your research.
The centerpiece is a beautiful little nest that I found on the ground last fall. I created a mass of glitter and googly eyes to surround it. Someone remarked that the glittery circle was reminiscent of Ezekiel’s vision of a wheel covered in eyes, which I liked. The inspiration for the piece hadn’t been the Bible verse, but I decided to make a reference to the folk song “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel” by titling the piece “Way Up in the Middle of the Air”.
I was about to deliver the piece to a local exhibit when it occurred to me that perhaps birds’ nests are included in the same regulations that forbid anyone from possessing feathers or other parts of wild birds. I looked it up, and they do.
I should have done more research first. I disassembled the piece for now, but you may see it reinvented later–minus the nest.
I just about have this piece complete. It’s appeared in many previous posts as a work in progress. I took it outside today to see if there was enough breeze to turn the whirligig, but there wasn’t. Too bad.
It’s inspired by the story of the prodigal in Luke 15:11-32. There are two golden babies on it for the two brothers in the story. One spins endlessly from beneath the whirligig and the other is suspended from the mixer beater and gets yanked around as the whirligig spins. There’s a lot of excess and a lot of joy in finding the lost (as in: finding beauty in trash).
If you’re wondering what it’s made out of, the answer is a lot of stuff I found. The only thing I actually purchased for the piece was glitter. Other materials are: rusty bed springs, a coat hanger, pop/beer cans, twist ties, shower curtain rings, Mardi Gras babies, old beads, old jewelry, gold leaf (yes, it came to me second hand), cardboard, sewing machine bobbins, a beater I found in the street, half an ornament I found in the street, a ballerina cake decoration (OK, so I bought that years ago at a junk store with the intention of using it for art), an old needle case, odds and ends off some Christmas crackers, fabric leftover from something else, a star from a stuffed animal, a Barbie leg, and wire.
Working on a professional development grant this morning means plenty of thumbing through things on the internet to take a break from writing. My reward for finishing that last paragraph? Post something!
Here we have the art material that is now filtering itself all through my house. It’s hard to encrust wire with glitter and not make a mess.
Amy Rich 