Alright, I give in...

I've been sewing more and more feathers - these are bigger ones to hang around my cage in the degree show - and I keep forgetting to photograph them but here are some I prepared earlier (I feel like I'm on Blue Peter lol)

And I've been shouted at for being mean and not showing you Azadi so here's a little preview...

:) I'm not spoiling the surprise by showing you the whole thing

Here's a pretty sunset to cheer you up...

#feathers #bird #cage #sunset #myna bird

So much pain...

I've still not stopped sewing but it keeps going a bit disasterously. I got very excited after I'd made my wings on the weekend so I decided to sew my bird together (I've decided to call him Azadi - it means 'Freedom' in Hindi or thats what google translate said, I hope it doesn't mean 'shoe' or anything) and managed it after breaking my new sewing machine, fixing it, and going through 3 needles. But the beak moved when I was sewing - they're sneaky like that - so it looks like a cartoon bird that's walked into a window which wasn't really the look I was going for.
I spent the last 2 days sewing my cage together and it's still not quite finished. It's just being awkward really - the wire keeps breaking needles (I've gone through about 10 the last 2 days) and it wont fit to sew in a circle and the base is too small so everything's got to be re arranged. It wouldn't be too bad but because of how it's been made a lot has to be hand sewn and I've folded the fabric so it doesn't fray then folded it again to sew into a bar so every piece is 4 layers which is great fun when I'm sewing folded bits which are about 16 layers of fabric. I gave up about 5 hours ago and still haven't got all the feeling back in my thumb.
I did have come cookie dough icecream to cheer me up when I got in so I think tomorrow's gonna be a good day. Everything will get finished cos there are only a few more little bits to do so it can get photographed for the degree show catalogue on Thursday. Oh god I hand in in just over a week!

#myna bird #cage #hand sewing #icecream #deadline

Wings...

I've spent the whole weekend locked away in my room in my own little nest trying to finish sewing my wings together:

 hours and hours and quite a few stabs to the fingers later my wings have been sewn together! I do still need to sew the wings to the body and the body together and give it legs and make the cage but I'm celebrating this step anyway. Celebration cake anyone :)

#sewing #wings #embroidery #celebration cake #myna bird

Hoorah!

I've finally sewn all my feathers!

Now all I need to do is do a little bit of seeding on his chest/back and sew him together! It's a bit exciting

 

#sewing #myna bird #feathers

The end is (sort of) in sight...

I've been sewing and sewing and sewing my feathers and dont really seem to be getting much further which is quite frustrating. I have to keep telling myself that it's the embroidery taking so long and once I've done the base colour there's all the highlight/shade to do which takes longer but after a few hours sewing (where you have started to smell something a bit funny which I can only assume is the machine overheating...) and you look no further on it's a bit disheartening. Oh well, I've gone 1 wing all done and am sort of, almost, nearly half way through the other one...

I have had to find ways of entertaining myself so the slowness this is progressing doesn't make me eat too much chocolate and I thought I'd share my smiles for today - this was as I looked out of my window when I was writing this and the 2 seagulls looked like they were stood on the edge of the window (I think the funny smell the sewing machine was giving off has gone to my brain a little bit...)

 And this was just a pretty sky - look how blue it is!

#feathers #myna bird #sewing #machine embroidery #seagulls #sunset

Feathers Galore...

I know, I've been very bad over easter and not done as much work as I should have on my studio modules. In my defense I spent a week on work experience with Poppy Treffry down in Cornwall which was loads of fun, everything in my house if beautifully folded now lol. I did really enjoy it and it did help everyone was slightly mad (but all the best people are) and lovely. I also had a sneaky holiday but I think my skin reflected the sunlight cos you can't tell. I did keep trying to do work after but there as a deadline for one of my lectures that got in the way but now that's all handed in and celebratory cake has been had I can concentrate on my bird. I should really name him or her, any suggestions?
I have done some work for it the last few days, I've drawn a couple of feathers and I've drawn out all the pieces for my bird but I regred doing that now cos there are a lot and it's a bit daunting...

#poppy treffry #work experience #drawing #feathers #myna bird

Myna Bird Wing

So the last week or so I've been chained up to a sewing maching and have sewn and sewn until I made a wing. It took a very very long time but I think it was worth it.
It started off with this...

And, after many hours of hard work, turned into this...

(inside of wing)

(outside of wing)

 (wing detail)

 (compared to the drawing I was working from)

I think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt. It's not prefect, I need to make the feathers bigger so you can't see the calico where I sewed them together and stuff but I'm still quite impressed with myself. I think I deserve a hot chocolate and an episode of Vampire Diaries don't you?

#wing #embroidery #machine embroidery #myna bird #vampire diaries

... if you can't fly?

Busy day today!
I woke up and it was doing this outside my window...

... so I had to trek to college in my snow shoes with enough supplies to last the journey. I was just hoping it wouldn't end up joining the ranks of the Donner Party!

When I finally reached College I spent all day in the sewing room making a bird, the wings alone took about 4 hours. It looks pretty nifty though...

I'm so glad it's done! I think I want to do my final one like this, although I think I'll put a bit of wire in the wings to give them a bit more shape and will try not squish the feathers so much when I'm sewing it together lol
 
#bird # myna bird #what's the use of wings #donner party #prototype

Why do people cage the things they love the most?

The last few days I've been playing with making cages. One of them failed quite a lot - Lauren thought it was a Jellyfish - but I sewed some words on it which I quite liked...

 
It did get better after that, I made one that actually looked cage-like which is always an improvement. It would have to be a bit bigger for the bird to actually fit in it though...

Then, today, our lovely sewing technician lent me a book that told me a proper way of making cages and it worked quite well. It might've worked better if I'd used the wire when I was supposed to and my wire is a bit flimsy but it's still pretty nifty :)

 I think this is the cage I'm gonna use in my final product, I'll have to re size it cos it's quite big at the min but I'm still quite proud of it. It took sooooo long to make though 
 
#lion #myna bird #cage #what's the use of wings #wire #calico #water soluble

Feathers

Had a fun day playing with making feathers, the individual ones turned out reeeeally nice - I really like them - but when I cut them out they ended up with an edge of fabric all around them where I couldn't cut it away so tomorrow I'm gonna play around at dyeing the fabric before I sew them. But this is what I made today...

 I did the body with a brown thread and then sewed the darker brown on top to make the wing shapes before I realised that I was doing them in scale shapes, not feather shapes, so I changed half way though (the ones at the bottom with more definition are how they should look)

#feathers #wings #myna bird #embroidery

Myna Bird

I've had a fun week or so with my Myna bird-ing. Remember the wing I drew, first off I decided to make it out of paper...

(wing inside - the bit you can see from the front)

(wing outside - the bit you see from the back)

When I'd done that I decided I could move onto fabric stuff so I had a play and failed a bit...

I finally managed to get it right!

Now I just need to play with making it look like it has feathers and more like an actual bird and it's done lol

#mynabird #calico #drawing #prototype #wing #whats the use of wings

What's the use of wings if you can't fly...

I've had a fun day with this wing, it took aaaages but I think it was worth it. I decided to do a wing study so I know what both sides of the wing looks like so it'll look amazing when I make it out of fabric...

#wing #myna bird #drawing #pencil crayon #whats the use of wings

'I could've found adventure,' said the Angelfish

Well, had a very busy day of drawing. I've got a Myna bird and an Angelfish so far. You cant see as much detail as I'd have liked in the Angelfish cos the colours are quite light and I did a lot of the fins in tracing paper (which was very exciting)

Then I had a play at making a cage out of wire.

It did not go well...

What's The Use of Wings

Well, new project started this week - butterfly one's all handed in and now we're onto our 'Work Related Learning' one. We get to pick everything about it which is quite exciting. I'm basing mine on the song 'What's the use of wings' by Brian Bedford (and I've even got a link to Mr Vin Garbutt singing it if you click the link cos he's ace and I've learnt how to put links in now lol) so there's gonna be a lot of sad animals in cages. I've only done a moodboard so far and here it is...

Miles better than my other ones I reckon :)