The great blue heron is done! And Jim and Tommie got to go fishing, so
spring is off to a good start. I’ve been
working on my heron piece for several months, and it’s just so fun to have all
of the pieces finally come together. The
hanging willow branches seen in the foreground were made months ago. Each leaf is attached to the main branch by a
thin chartreuse vein. The technique I
used for this takes me back about fifteen years when I was first starting out
in fiber art.
I came across a spool of thin
wire wrapped with a thread of green that I thought was crazy—I would never do
anything like that! Still, I saved the
spool for a special use. Unfortunately,
the green was not quite right for my piece, so I had to wrap my own
material. I discovered it’s really not
that hard to make, it just looks crazy.
Spring is finally here and I’m feeling happy. The winter
hasn’t felt as horrible to me as many of my friends have said or posted. I think that’s because I spent so much time
in my art studio this year.
I don’t know
if it’s the broad spectrum lighting or the fact that I’ve been creating art
every day, but I just don’t feel as exhausted as in years past. Don’t get me wrong, I’m tickled to have
spring here, and I’m certainly celebrating with more spring pieces. That brings me to my current piece, which is
called ‘Harbingers of Spring’. It will feature
a cheerful Robin and several clumps of dandelions, traditional signs of the
season changing. Speaking of robins, I
can’t believe how many we have this year!
It just seems like a bumper crop.
It feels as if I’m avoiding more robins than squirrels when I’m driving these
days. Lately I’ve been working on the
individual dandelion leaves. I figure
that I need to have four to five leaves per clump and roughly three clumps, so
I have a few more to make. I struggled a
little with getting the proportions right when I needle felted the robin, but I’m
pleased with how it turned out.
I do still have a deadline looming for my exhibit called: “Migration:
where have you been and what have you seen?” I’m hoping to include my robin piece in that
show as part of fifteen new pieces in the big reveal. It will be fun to see them all together and have
closure on my migrating animals project.
The exhibition will hang at the BPP (Bloomington Playwrights Project)
into June, through their performances of “The Jedi Handbook” and “To Quiet the
Quiet”. Stop by and see a performance
and the fiber art!
My big project on Friday was retrieving Tommie from Oberlin. I set out at six a.m. with an espresso under clear
skies in Bloomington. It turned into a
harrowing drive through rain, falling slush, hail and white-out snow conditions
through western Indiana and Ohio. I persevered
and got my little pumpkin. It was nice
to meet up on campus with great aunt Marian and Uncle Paul and have lunch at Aladdinin Oberlin. By the way, they make
amazing pita pizzas. My favorite is the
Farm that is loaded with raw spring vegetables.
We got our hugs and hit the road again after a nice visit. The weather turned nicer, with blue skies and
puffy clouds all the way home. It’s
wonderful to have my family together again, even for a few days. And yes, Jim did get to go fishing with
Tommie. It wasn’t a great day, with high,
murky cold water. Still, they launched
the canoe and fished where they could and caught just a few crappies they
released. On the other hand, I suspect
that my heron didn’t catch many either.
And hooray, it was another pie week! It seems like the fruit gods dropped a huge
load of inexpensive blackberries on Bloomington this past week, so a nice
blackberry pie appeared. Yum. I have one slice remaining until the hourglass
timer gets flipped over and the sands reverse direction.
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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