Find your place at Spring Bird
What a joy it was to spend the day building animals at the Plaster Cloth Animal Workshop at Spring Bird’s Cottage. This workshop was part of the A Season To Make Workshop Series , which seeks to connect community with creativity and nature. We began by choosing an Animal Card …
Finding a feather on your path is a special gift, and for some, maybe even an omen. We can’t always find feathers easily, but we can make them!!! And, the feathers we make can be of any size and color. They can hang on their …
Some of my first sewing projects involved making small purses. (I love a good bag. So much to carry). Nowadays, I consider my textile endeavors to be devotional objects, especially when there is a lot of hand stitching, embroidery, and applique’ involved. I got inspired …
Wow! What a great start to the 2019 “A Season To Make” Workshop Series! We kicked off the series with learning to make Rug Hooked Pillows. Both days were realizations of my dream of creating opportunities to make in community and in nature, at the …
This quilt is just my favorite thing. Here’s why. I fell in love with Spring Bird even before I lived here. This place, this piece of land has made me more like me. If that makes sense, and having made all sorts of art throughout …
Well, I made some time recently to perch myself on top of my picnic table with knife in hand to peel back the bark on some sticks. If I couldn’t carve an intricate fish or bird figurine, maybe I could carve a snake. The idea …
We are in the 3rd year of cultivating our Forest Garden. A forest garden is an old method of agriculture based on the ecosystems of forests that utilizes fruit and nut trees, berry shrubs, and other perennial useful plants and fungi. The whole entity should …
Here’s a long story about this simple spread in my sketchbook. As you know, I write Woolgathering, a nature magazine about our connection to the seasons. Part of the mission of this magazine is to inspire awareness of the patterns and cycles in nature, which requires observation …
When Colored Squid Gallery owner, Joyce, reached out to me to lead a Sweaters for Sticks Workshop at her shop, I was initially confused. It was my assumption that the process of wrapping yarn around sticks seemed too basic and boring for anyone to be interested in …
As Spring seems more mythical than inevitable, I decided to focus on the indoor potential of making a shrine to green – to life! I even planted some old oat seeds in an empty tea tin to witness sprouting. (This is great to do with …
Like most sensible people, I like staring at beautiful balls of yarn in colorful combinations, but I don’t always want to invest myself and my time into long term projects like an afghan. So, why not wrap small bits of colorful yarn around sticks? This …
I’ve written about my fondness for Valentine’s Day before in this blog. For me, it’s not about the romantic love and teddy bears; however, I did read far too much into those conversation hearts that I received from grade school crushes. I just loved the …
These Stuffed Animal Pillows are my attempt to create huggable wildlife! I love have always loved stuffed animals and dolls –especially homemade ones. They are also huggable paintings since they are made from fabric printed with the image of my watercolor paintings. I also really enjoy observing …
Anyone who has harvested their own walnuts knows the power of their husks to dye. It’s impossible to come away with unstained hands no matter the pairs of gloves you wear. Last year, we dyed some cotton yarn. This year, we dyed some old cotton …
I had one previous experience dyeing with indigo, and it was truly magic because a textile dipped in an indigo bath will actually turn blue when exposed to oxygen. So, after pulling them from the dye bath, you sort of wash them in the air …