All Things Birdy

Textile Bird by Michelle Bonds

My friend Michelle Bonds began her blog at about the same time I began All Things Quilty. Michelle is an amazing artist who specializes in recycling found objects like bottle caps and even toilet paper and paper towels into jewelry, postcards, quilts, and other objets d'art. Anyway, I loved Michelle's birds when she posted pictures of them on her blog. Much to my delight, I received a package in the mail this week containing my very own Bond-Birdy! She is made of a dyed fabric that has been stamped and painted. The wings are made from a map of North Carolina that has been painted and stitched. They gleam and glitter! Thank you, Michelle, for such a generous gift that truly brightened a rather bad day.

Hummingbird, Felt-tip markers, by Kyara, age 9

Bird #2 was created by one of my third grade students. She made it to illustrate a story she wrote about a hummingbird. Kyara traced the outline of a bird from a calendar picture, and then went wild on the plumage! I think her Mexican heritage is showing through in the bright colors and swirls. To me, it is reminiscent of a Mola. I would have to say her variety of bright colors may be because she loves my scented markers, and wanted to use as many "flavors" as possible. The kids in my classes often walk around with little colored dots on their noses from smelling the markers a little too closely!

Six baby bluebirds

Last bird's-eye view of the day is this brood of baby bluebirds that live in my front yard. I don't remember ever having six in the box at one time. I think they are about a week old now. When they first hatched, they looked like little fuzzy thumbs with beaks. Starting to look more like birdies now!