BirdBrain Designs

Archives for March 2012

end of march update

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The first chair seat in the series is all but done and I am very happy with the results. The next one will reverse the colours so it will have a dark background and also will be more fanciful. I am working up to designing the wedding rug with its three houses and winding paths, and of course birds.

I have begun to update the shop and have added the fuchsia bag, the first one I have made this year. It’s a nice one–check out by clicking the shop button on the top left. I was thrilled with the results of the draw and sale–the few bags that were left have gone to good homes.

The blogisversary draw was won by Elizabeth. kittycafe.typepad.com, and she chose the small black shoulder bag featured in this post. It will be in the mail to her shortly. Thanks again to everyone for your participation.

I’ve given myself a deadline for whipping Fireworks–two weeks today. There I said it! It is so much more fun to hook on a new project, but I need to get it off my list and on the floor!  So hold me to my promise!

Happy Blogiversary Birdbrain!

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Thank you all for writing to me to help me celebrate my blog anniversary. You exceeded all my expectations! And I loved reading all your comments. I usually get one or two comments–but this time there were 45 lovely notes to read.

My husband chose the winning number–and it is Elizabeth!  Now, I don’t know Elizabeth, but I have been reading her blog this morning since her name was chosen and I like it very much and look forward to talking to her. I will share the blog and let you know what she chooses once I have been in touch.

Enjoy this lovely day. I’ll be back tomorrow with more information and an update on my chair seat.

xine

the series

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I decided to make a few chairs seats to work out the ideas for my next rug. The rug is to celebrate my younger son, Owen’s marriage to Carissa. I would like the rug to centre on three houses, fantasy versions of her former home, our home and their new home together, with paths connecting them. So this is the first chair seat–photographing it helps to point out the weaknesses and errors–the door needs to come to the bottom of the sill for example. I am experimenting with the colours for the border–it’s a small surface to have such pronounced colours–so I think I will hook some more background before I decide.

The whipping on Fireworks has been at a standstill for a bit. At this point the two short sides are almost done. But I have a couple of hooking dates this week, so that too should more forward. I’ll post a little later this week with an update on both projects.  And, the anniversary draw is on Wednesday!! There is still time to add your comment to the March 15th post.

away a few days

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I’ve been away for a few days. I can’t help but enjoy this summer-like weather, while remaining deeply disturbed by climate change. Such a schizophrenic response–basking in the sun and yet knowing it’s all wrong. This photo was taken at the Detour Cafe in Dundas Ontario, one of my favourite spots to have a latté and draw the world outside.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the anniversary posts. I love to hear from you. It is hard to believe I have been here for a year–this blog has opened so many new windows and doors. We will see what another year brings!  Remember, the draw will take place on March 28.

I will be working on the on-line store on the weekend. So please check back next week to see what I have come up with.  In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend.

xine

still time…the sale and draw continue

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A BIG thank you to  everyone for your wonderful comments! We have broken all previous records for visits to the site. This is so exciting–and you have until March 28 to comment–either to this post or to the March 15th post. All names will go into the draw.

Owen, my great advisor and supporter, is working on an on-line shop and a sprucing up the blog. So be on the look-out for that. In the meantime, here are a few other pieces for purchase or choice for the draw.  If you are interested in any of these bags or pouches, please contact me at xine@birdbraindesigns.ca and I will be happy to give you all the details.

anniversary sale and give-away

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As of March 28, the blog at Birdbrain Designs will be one year old. To celebrate, I have decided to have a sale and a give-away. My remaining leather bags and pouches are all on sale. And on March 28, I will draw from all the comments over the next two weeks and the winner can have their choice of a bag or pouch.

Here is a selection of the bags available. Please leave a comment on this post for the draw and email me at xine@birdbraindesigns if you are interested in a sale bag.

I will also have bags and pouches on sale this Saturday at City Revival in Picton from 2pm-4pm. Please drop in if you have the chance.

birds and rugs

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This rug is in our front hall. I found it one day years ago in a local antique shop. It has two central figures, who in themselves are pretty interesting, but what intrigued me most were the borders. Birds of every colour line up around the edge, and a few extra are thrown in the centre, including one eating from the woman’s hand. Whoever designed this rug loves the bird motif as much as I do. This rug makes me smile every time I pass–sometimes I see something new I had never noticed before. Old rugs have so much to teach us.

 

think spring

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I found a magenta skirt in a thrift shop some time ago. I knew it would make a great spring bag, such a bright, cheery colour. And here it is, lined with beautiful cotton from France, which, if you look carefully, tells you that summer is coming. The strap is long enough to wear across the body, but can be knotted to make it shorter. The bag is 13″ wide, 10.5″ tall, 3.5″ across the base, with a magnetic closure, four inside pockets and a front zip pocket for your keys.

where my head has been

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I’ve been reading some of my favourite sketching blogs about how and why one keeps a sketching journal. Liz Steel started me off with her reprise of her talk Adventures with my Sketchbook. From there I went to Laura Frankstone’s thoughtful comments about her own sketchbook journey. Next I read her interview here.  And then somehow, with all the clicking, I got to this lovely sketching blog. I’ve been a journal keeper all my life, but in 2009 Danny Gregory’s Creative Licence propelled me into the world of sketching and I’ve been filling watercolour journals (generally badly) ever since. His latest blog entry is an eloquent argument for drawing as a portal for all creativity. I’m putting an excerpt here, but I encourage you to read the whole thing.

When you draw something you see it in a new way. A good drawing is a fresh perspective on an object you may have seen a thousand times before: a building, a body, a bowl of fruit, your breakfast dishes. But by paying deliberate and careful attention to every nook and cranny, you flood your mind and your page with new information about what you are seeing — the texture of a banana skin, the way light hits a brick, how the knee connects to the shin bone, the exact curve of a cup handle. You are suspending the critical function of your pre-frontal cortex, refusing to decide whether there’s importance to each individual line and aspect; you just record them all. This information isn’t actually that important to you beyond the act of drawing, you don’t need to retain the visual data about that banana skin, it may have no further utility to you. But it is expanding your awareness of the world around you, strengthening for observation muscles — it has as much purpose as lifting the same weight over and over at the gym.

When your mind’s eye is open and your screens and filters are down, you get more and more useful information, and that information and experience are the raw fodder for creativity. Forming associations between apparently disparate things to create a new idea is what creativity is all about. And the more open your mind is, the more you are open to experiencing things are interesting but may not have immediate and obvious relevance to your current endeavors. By exposing yourself to art, to novelty, to new ideas, facts and experiments, you stretch your mind so that it is pliable and elastic, so that it doesn’t seize up when you have to move in a new direction. Your reservoirs of references are loaded and you have oodles of bits and bobs to build new ideas with.

So, as I am finishing my last rug and dreaming up the next, I am also trying to capture the world around me . I have come to love and value the process even as I try to stop judging and ease into a style that feels loose and natural.

 

progress…

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I am finished hooking Fireworks. The photo here was earlier today–now the small empty spot contains the number 12, there but not obvious, just for the record. It’s surprising how quickly we forget these things. I dyed the wool for the whipping today, a black/brown combo so that it will just look like another dark row on the outside. The rug is about 24 feet around the outside edge. Jennifer tells me that each foot of whipping takes one hour to complete! I will time my first foot and let you know. People often ask me how long it took to hook Fireworks–and truly, I prefer not to know. I do know that I have been at it, on and off, for almost two years, including dyeing the wool, drawing the pattern and hooking, hooking.
I also did some screenprinting today. I plan to make a denim tote with black leather bottom and handles. The dark prints below are for the inside pocket. While I was at it, I made a repeat of The Bird with Attitude. This is my favourite of all my bird images. However, I am soon to be working again with my favourite collaborator (so happy!)–so I’ll be drawing some new birds for the spring.  Check out the link to see Melanie’s wonderful watercolour album art!Tomorrow I hope to put my new house design on a chair seat–and begin hooking something more manageable. Lugging around Fireworks at the end was a little cumbersome!