musings, mutterings, and creative muddle. . .





Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Nesting All The Way

Ahhhh. . . . Spring.  Sigh.  Wonderful!  Isn't Spring wonderful?

Warmer temperatures mean open windows which means I get to hear the birds chirping.  I LOVE that!  My office / studio is on the second floor of our home and the west window looks directly out into a mostrous walnut tree - it's almost like being in a treehouse!  I get to watch birds come and go and the squirrels chase each other around and around the massive trunk.  Maybe it's because of my name, but I have a real affinity to birds (not just robins, hehehe) and LOVE all the beautiful 'nature' stuff that goes with them. 

One of the embroidery designs that topped my 'gotta have' list when I first set up my embroidery machine was a 'nest.'  Second was cherries - but that's a whole other blog.  A couple weekends ago, I finally found THE design!  Unfortunately, I had not received my thread collection, so was rather limited on selection.  I actually think the nest came out really beautiful and have hopes that I can recreate it.  I might even add a robin on its edge:-)


And while that little 'thread' nest was stitching, I did some searching through my books and then on-line - "how to make a wire-wrapped nest."  The one book I have that talked about it took the nine steps and boiled it down to one:  "wrap wire around keeping your thumb in the center to maintain the nest shape."  Ummmm. . . .yeah.  Well.  Maybe I'm not bright enough to follow those complex instructions?  I hesitate to show you what I ended up with.  Oh well.  The hardest part was getting those darned beads to stay put.  Really.  What gives, oh master of instructions?  Gave up on this one.  The final product looks pretty sweet sitting on a shelf though.  Just don't move it.  The 'eggs' will fall out.

Attempt #2.  Found some really great instructions on the internet - START with the beads - wrap around the beads and. . . . .better.  Better.  But the wire I'm wanting to use is a 'tarnished' copper and, apparently, quite soft.  It scratches very easily - even with the rubber nosed tweezer-pliers.  Sigh.  Everything goes well until. . . .I need to really finalize the shape.  Maybe I'm just too darned picky for something like this?  I don't know.  Snip-snip-snip and bend-bend, twist-twist and I did end up with a nifty ring.  Not all was lost. . .
I will prevail!

And then this one just went out of control - I LOVE it!  Labrodorite, pearls, hematite - cool!  Big and chunky - nearly gothic in appearance.  Makes a statement - how fun is that?!?!  That's what happens when you dream big - ha.

And then this pretty little nesty-poo is on it's way to be part of a necklace with multiple strands.  One big pearl, tiny crystal droplet and pretty fluorite flower are just the beginning.  Be watching Etsy for the best ksyardbird nests!  Speaking of Etsy - I've been going earring wild.  You'll also want to check out all the new creations.  Remember - follow me, fan me, tweet me - get free shipping.  Nice!

Tomorrow:  nests I have around the house.
Have a chirpy kind of day ~

Robin Z

1 comment:

  1. LOL I LOVE coming up with my own instructions for things. If I wrote instructions, most of them would say, "Yo, just... frigging keep trying it until it works OK? Jeez." That is also probably why I don't write instructions.

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