Most everyone who knows me knows that I love birds. Joe says it's because I have a bird beak for a nose. I'll take that. I do!
Often, when I don't know what I feel like sewing my hands go to bird making. You can see several Ann Wood birds that I've made in the Misc. page on this blog.
I make other types of birds, too. One that I've been fooling with for a few years now is a bird broach. I've gathered a little flock.
Here they are, all flocked together on the railing of bunkhouse deck, enjoying this ancient red rose in all her glory. We inherited this rose, I know not the name.
My little broaches, well, they're not so little, are really satisfying to make. I pull out the bin full of hundreds of fabric scraps and start painting with cloth.
They are very rough, I don't like to work in an exacting way, nor am I able to so that works out. I use pearl cotton, embroidery thread and regular sewing thread. The base is cardboard. I tape wire to the legs for stability.
These little guys are a joy to make because each piece of cloth is a reminder of a project I worked on. The cloth could be old silk scarves, cashmere, vintage kimono fabric, pieces of garments I made or remade from RTW.
I glue a piece of cashmere onto the back, cut it just a smidge bigger than the cardboard. I attach a pin back to the cashmere before glueing.
Then I sew the small pieces that make up the bird to that along the edges. I finish with the stitching.
And I make a big, glorious mess doing it!
Tweet!
Here is a post from Colossal, a wonderful online newsletter that I subscribe to, showing latte birds. So delightful.
