I have always loved birds and used their images in my work. I never thought much about the symbolism or meaning of using bird images. They were just pretty shapes and colors like flowers which I used in designing quilts. But then the soft sculpted birds appeared after a teaching trip to the Yellow Bird quilt shop. (Yellow Bird is closed now, but the shop was one of the Better Homes & Garden’s top 10 quilt shops.)
Every morning, on the way to the shop’ we would hit a bird. By the third day, we were really wondering what was going on for us to kill so many birds in a short time. There were too many for it to be a coincidence. My hostess is a very wise and intuitive woman and when I wondered about the significance of these incidents, she had an insight the last day of my visit. My birds are a symbol for spirituality.
I have been conscious of the spiritual meaning of birds ever since.
Well, this year the theme for our Art Girl’s 2013 Holiday Open House was Birds. I made a wire tree full of individual birds which were inspired by Julia Bordeman’s paper birds from last year)
These birds are from the Flock Of Wrens pattern. (another story of the inspiration in a different post…)
Garlands of birds already hang all over the shop. These blackbirds are created from a new collection of black and yellow fabric.
I commissioned stained glass birds to hang in the north window. I made more fabric wrens in bright fabrics to hang in the front window. I hund a string of bird lights in the class room.
Last fall, on a birthday visit to see Mom in Kansas, I collected a bunch of 1950’s era ceramic birds. I scattered them all over the shop. This pink and gray planter is filled with cuts of the latest Art Gallery fabric collection.
A yellow bird planter was turned into a pincushion. The scrap of silk from dollmaking was a perfect match for this piece.
Evergreen stems were nestled in and around the ceramic birds. This Victorian display features retro tins, old pearl buttons and a fabric wallet by Ursula.
An orange bird roosts among a collection of fabric pumpkin pincushions. (Pattern available…)
More birds displaying stilletos and point turners…
It may not be a coincidence that my kitchens always have a rooster theme. Here is a rooster created from the new batiks that I designed for Clothworks.
Now I am doing roosters using antique quilt blocks for the background.