BTW: Nesting

"Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings."

~Victor Hugo


The birds are staking out their claim on my front porch for nests.

I came downstairs the other day and came face-to-face with a pigeon of some sort checking out the options.

Our front door is all glass... from the front door to the side lights to the transom window. Sometimes it feels like I am living in a fishbowl.

But in spring it is more like an aviary, like the kind that they have at the assisted living facility. A big glass enclosure with dozens of tiny birds flitting about, perching on little branches.

We will wake up one morning and come down the stairs to find the beginnings of a nest and someone sitting in it. I always feel a bit voyeuristic when I see this. They fly away. My husband removes the twigs before they can complete it. (This is the only staircase in our house, and while it would be cool to watch the nests this close, we disrupt them every time we walked by. I don't want to be the adoptive momma to a bunch of baby birds. Plus it makes a huge mess. So please don't hate me!). Then the process repeats itself. Until one day I discovered that if I hung old CDs in the window they wouldn't like the spinning and color and noise. There are plenty of trees and bushes and other structures around. It is just not the best place to feather a nest in my glass front door. So what if my neighbors think I am crazy for a few weeks? ;-)

{New crackle components from Earthenwood Studio}



When Melanie of Earthenwood Studio sent me my last Design Team packet I admit that I set it down and forgot about it. And then I saw what some others were doing and I thought that I never received. Luckily for me, Miss Melanie is kind and generous and helped me realize that I had April's package tucked away with March. Needless to say, I am a bit behind. But with the sort of April that I just had, I hope that you will all forgive me!

Melanie sent use a few of her new crackle glaze components and I just love them. The set she sent me has a sort of soft pink creaminess to it (but I see that she offers other glaze choices). The crackles are such a delightful texture. And the shapes are great too. The little egg and the connector will have to wait for another day, because I had my eye on that egg shaped donut from the moment I laid eyes on them.

So my Bead Table Wednesday is more of a finished project since I didn't think to take a shot as I was working. Finishing something feels good!

I had a vision that there needed to be a nest in that hole. I suppose it would have been easier for me to just use it as a toggle, but I like to challenge myself...especially if it is really late at night and I have been sitting on a baseball field in cold and wind for a double header for 4 hours. (That is when my urge to challenge myself really kicks in ;-)

I made the messy nest with galvanized steel wire and an egg shaped mother of pearl bead from a defunct vintage necklace I picked up from an flea market shop.

I dug through my stash and found this sweet little bird tile from Marie at MoreSkyeJewels.Etsy.com but there were holes at the corners. Hmmm... I found the perfect Vintaj filigree to wrap it in, but the wholes were either visible or not lined up at all with the natural holes in the filigree. What to do? I got out my trusty screw punch and poked a few more holes in the filigree (one needs to be enlarged a bit but for now it works fine).




Then it was just a matter of bringing it all together. I found some turquoise nuggets, more mother of pearl vintage egg beads. I added some wood rondelles to call to mind the branch of a tree. But then the color I wasn't seeing was the soft pink of the Earthenwoods component. So I added three little mauve colored pearls that add a lustrous sheen to the piece.

I used a combination of Vintaj elements, like the leaf and the rings and the filigree, I punched holes in the branch to make it a connector, and I also used galvanized steel wire to cage the beads and add a different patina to the metals. I wanted this to be a longer necklace so I found this great textured cable chain from AD Adornments (I seem to recall that I bought the last of the roll that she had at Bead & Button), and I found a sweet little gunmetal magnetic flower clasp to complete the look.

I call this Remember You Have Wings.

Please go and visit Miss Melanie's blog to see what she is up to (it is always something innovative and fun), and also check out the other members of the Earthenwood Design Team.

Andrew Thornton
Gaea Cannaday
Denise Yezbak Moore
Erin Siegel
Heather Powers
Lorelei Eurto
Lori Anderson
Jean Yates
Marie Dodd

What is on your bead table or work table today?