nesting...

I like bird nests and bird houses in general.  I don't think this was a realization that came to me in an instant but rather as an observation I made while looking at the art and things that I have chose to surround my self with.  I have 8 birdhouses in my house (and I think there are 3 more tucked away somewhere), I have wood cut prints of birdhouses and other bird art (specifically ravens and black birds) and I have collected bird nests over the years.  These are a few pics of some of the bird nests that I have around my studio.

My neighbor gave me this nest.  He was cleaning out one of his Bluebird houses and found this gem.  There is even a hatched egg shell in there.

Several years ago when I was in grad school I did this little piece.  The drop spine box opens up to hold a journal and displays this bird nest to tie in the story.  The text depicts the story of how the Robin got his red breast.  The story in short, goes on to tell how the Robin carried water in his beak to Christ while he was on the cross.  The bird sat on his crown of thorns and dropped water into Christ's mouth.  Christ's blood was on the thorns and as the little bird perched there doing his good deed the blood stained his chest.  To show his gratitude, Christ told the little bird that from now on he and all of descendents  would wear a red badge of honor as a sign of his kindness.  And that is how the Robin got his red breast.

This is a hummingbird nest.  I love this little nest.  The tiny root fibers are woven so tightly. What craftsmanship!  I took a copy (photo copy of course) of Thoreau's Walden and cut the lines of the text into strips,  sprinkled them with walnut dye and wove them into the nest.