Singing Birds, It’s as Easy as 1, 2, 3….Yeah Right!

I get used to finishing or almost finishing a creation every day.  When I don’t finish something, I start to feel antsy and ready to move on to something else.  I spent a very frustrating week trying to make a singing bird.  When the little guys above are finally finished and painted, I’ll tell you whether it was worth it.

A while back a friend of mind said to me after seeing my Stellar Jay bird, “Let’s see a Meadowlark”.   We did some bird watching a couple years ago through Oregon, Nevada and Northern California.  We took some wonderful photos of Meadowlarks.  Generally if you photograph a Meadowlark standing still, they’re singing.  Getting a singing bird in fabric was a challenge I just couldn’t resist for long.

The fabric birds I’ve created are pretty small, only 4″ or 5″ long.  I use scraps of osnaburg that I acquired from the estate of a woman who sewed a lot.  I start by drawing a pattern, cutting the pieces out, and sewing them. I leave some seams open so that I can add bits and pieces of cloth to give my bird a little more shape.  

As per my usual creative process, I cut out 3 birds and their wings.  For my singing bird, I left the beak open.  On the first bird, I ripped out the beak 4 or 5 times before finally getting something adequate.  I thought the beak was a little big, but I have something in mind for her.   On my second bird, I tried something new, it was disasterous.  My husband said she looked like a dinasaur.   Her first beak was huge!   I ripped it out and gave her a smaller second beak.   By the time I finished the third beak, I was done in one try.

I’ve done a tiny bit more sculpting on the birds.  I’m still trying to decide if I feel up to working on them today.  I’m taking measure of my frustration level. 

I often doubt the outcome on my projects until the very last minute.  I mostly work with recycled materials which means that I work in a variety of mediums.  Constantly changing materials and methods is very challenging for me.  Generally, I’ve found that if I hang in there, eventually I’ll end up with something I truely love.