Love of Birds

THESE THINGS ARE OURS....
...for God creates within our soul a mystic sense of wonder....
that we may hear allegro tunes
among tall swaying cattails....

"These Things Are Ours" Gwen Frostic

I finally jumped in the car and went to town yesterday. The desire had been rumbling around in my mind all week, but with the gas prices, I was unwilling to travel without a list in my hand that exceeded the length of the car.

Yesterday was the suitable day to hit the road. Besides, I was hungry for a Fuji Apple Chicken salad and broccoli soup from Panerra, and it was almost lunchtime by the time that I left.

My first stop was the office section at Sam's Club to lay in a new supply of page protectors. While browsing through the books at the next aisle over, I found an interesting little volume called "The Backyard Birdsong Guide" which comes with its own little playing device so that you can see the picture of the bird and hear it's song when you scroll to the appropriate number. Hmmmm! I thought. That looks perfect. We have so many lovely birdsounds floating around our yard and I never know who's calling to whom. I wanted the book. I bought the book. I love the book. And I hope to learn about all my musical neighbors as I study it.

I also picked up two new journals at B&N put out by "Working Class Studio". On my book shelf I have a number of Gwen Frostic's beautifully rendered print press books of block prints and poetry that I savor. The journals from Working Class Studio remind me of her artwork. I can hardly wait to dip into the journals and start messing up the pages! For the past year I've had a "thing" for dandelions, which is why the large volume caught my eye. The cover design contains several conceptions of a stylized dandelion which, to me, are reminiscent of artwork by Ernst Haeckel.... Makes me want to do something with dandelion heads!

The cabbage bowl in this picture is one that I made years ago when I was experimenting with papier mache. The bowl is made with layered strips of newspaper, and is what I think of as being the traditional method of papier mache. However, I also played around with Celluclay. The article about Celluclay in this link tells how to dye the Celluclay, which would probably make it much more interesting to work with. I found it hard to use because no matter how hard I tried, it came out bumpy and required a lot of sanding if I wanted a smooth surface. I've wanted to get back into working with papier mache because I really like its inherent qualities of lightness while being quite tough. It worked well when I had a lot of mache projects started so that they were staggered in their steps to completion.