Embroidered Total Avian Life Support System

Northern Cardinal on organic whole grain bread

A new false product from Stuff You Can't Have, offering the birds in your back yard everything they need from cradle to egg. While earlier experiments with stitched bread were entirely frivolous (Embroidered Wonder Bread) or purely aesthetic (Boro Bread), the Avian Life Support System is marvelously utilitarian.

Red-winged Blackbird

Blackbird close-up

Each slice of hand-stitched bread depicts either a specific North American bird species, as with the Red-winged Blackbird above, or evocative nature environments, as with the California wildflowers below. The base is organic, whole grain, high-fiber bread and the embroidery floss is 100% cotton. Each slice incorporates a loop at the top for ease of hanging. Here is how the Total Avian Life Support System works:

1. Hang your Total Avian Life Support System (TALSS) from the limb of a tree, well out of reach of predators.
2. Over time, birds will come and peck at the bread, absorbing its nutritional value, until they eventually consume all edible components of the TALSS.
3. What remains are colorful strands of embroidery thread hanging from the branch. Now the birds may swoop in, snatch the soft cotton strands in their beaks, carry them away, and use the strands to line their nests, nurturing the next generation.

California wildflowers TALSS

Trio of Western Bluebirds

Close-up of Western Bluebirds

Below is a time-lapse series showing the Total Avian Life Support System in action as the slice depicting the Northern Cardinal is displayed in a tree and slowly consumed.

TALSS installed in tree

TALSS slowly being consumed

TALSS in late stages of consumption

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, look for Total Avian Life Support Systems hanging in the trees around Lake Merritt. You may also inspect some of the TALSS examples pictured here more closely, on display under a bell jar at the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium after the grand opening in its new location on Pier 15 on April 17.

The Edible Easter Bonnet a la Peeps

Fascinators topped with purple Peeps

Here is an after-the-fact Easter bonus for makers. Too late for this year's Easter parade but pin it or bookmark it for next year or revise the concept to suit another occasion.

These little headpieces bring new meaning to the expression, "I'll eat my hat." Technically, these are not hats they are "fascinators" — the little nonsense creations worn by the fashionable, by nobility attending a royal wedding, and by anyone who launches into the project below.

Modeling a Peeps fascinator fashioned from felt and tulle.

Materials required: cheap headbands (buy them in a pack, like six for $3); felt scraps; a half-yard each of a couple of colors of tulle. I also scored some little straw hats intended for dolls to use as a base for a few of the fascinators. And finally — Peeps! Choose any color you want. Note that if you do not eat them within a day after creating the hat, the Peeps turn into a material resembling styrofoam and appear to be semi-indestructible.

 

Peeps fascinator using straw doll's hat and felt as base, embellished with tulle

To make the hats, play with the tulle and felt (and straw hats if you have them) until you have something pleasing and stitch them together with a needle and thread. Use a glue gun to attach the Peeps and again to attach the entire hat to the headband. When gluing the hat to the headband, glue it slightly to one side of the arc or the other so the fascinator has a rakish tilt when worn.

Adults in a variety of Peeps fascinators (click to enlarge)

Toddler sporting high-fashion fascinator

If you want to involve young children in the making activity and they aren't adept at sewing, try using some soft homemade Playdough as a fixative to hold elements of the hat together. See the example below, made and modeled by a three-year-old. For the toddler and three-year-old's fascinators, soft circular headbands were used instead of rigid plastic ones.

Made and modeled by a three-year-old

Bird Watching Baffle Card

Here, as promised, is another version of the baffling little hand-cut, hand-stitched, and cunningly folded card technique used earlier in this blog to produce the diminutive shop called Wings.

The same technique is used here to produce an interactive bird watching experience. I've included a link at the end that will enable you to download a 3-page PDF with the card template and detailed how-to instructions so you may, if you wish, finally figure out how this card works and create your own bird watching experience.

Front cover: lady with binoculars. Card is tied with hand-painted Chinese ribbon.

Card tied with green ribbon so you can see the lady with binoculars a little better

Back of card

Opening the card up

View from one angle (as you view from different angles, you see different birds)

Aerial view

View from another angle

And now it is do-it-yourself time. Be prepared to cut, fold, stitch, and glue. I've uploaded a 3-page pdf to Google Groups. Click on the following link and download your free copy. You may only use to make a bird watching card for yourself or to give away. No commercial use or selling.

The link: Do-It-Yourself Bird Watching Card

For free 3-page PDF to make your own card, click here or on link above.

Boro Bread, Sashiko Stitching

Sashiko stitching

There is a convoluted story regarding how these pieces came to be but to keep it Zen-simple, I just find the making and contemplation of these deeply satisfying. For earlier work in textiles that involves the Japanese tradition of boro mending and sashiko stitching see Uber Boro - Extreme Mending. This segue into boro bread just seems like the natural punchline at the end of a haiku.

Boro bread (materials: whole grain bread, white bread, embroidery floss)

Boro patching: bread slice and bread heel

Close-up of sashiko stitching

The final piece below is not from the boro tradition. Instead it is a simple mend using a blanket stitch - lovely in its own humble way.

Simple mend, blanket stitch

The Wing Shop

Introducing Wings, a little out-of-the-way shop where those in the know go to purchase a new set of wings. This little card combines collage, stitching, and a bit of cunning folding. See if you can figure out how it was done. I may do another version soon with instructions.

The front door (front of the card)

Back door, tradesman's entrance. Note a careless delivery person has left a feather by the gate.

The open shop from above

Shop display windows (click to enlarge)

Window close-up

Window close-up

Aerial view

Embroidering the Scent of Winter Tangerines

Embroidered tangerine

Drawing on an old folk tradition that never existed but should have, we present the wonder of what the Germans call "sticken des geruchs der wintertangerinen," or "embroidering the scent of winter tangerines."

Embroidered tangerine design dating back to the 12th century

The two halves joined

Interior stitching

One method used to dry tangerines while preserving their shape - sand packing

In the dead of winter, with scant light from flickering candles, those who lived deep in the forest fought despair by taking up the meditative practice of embroidering tangerines and oranges. As they stitched the citrus skin, the essential oils of the fruit were released, filling the room with the scent. Modern research indicates they instinctively stumbled on a strategy that is based in scientific fact. Studies have shown (http://www.prevention.com/health/emotional-health/scent-citrus-shown-reduce-stress) that the scent of oranges is effective in fighting off anxiety, stress, and depression.

"Blood of winter" design

Two halves

Close-up

Stitched "hinge" joins the two halves

Interior stitching

Once completed, the embroidered oranges and tangerines were packed with moss or dry soil in order to assure the peel retained its shape while drying. Once dried, the resulting beautifully embroidered casings were tucked in nooks and crannies around the house as an offering to friendly spirits in hopes they would make themselves hidden nests for the winter, forming cozy beds from the interior stitching. These friendly spirits could do battle with evil spirits and dark moods, so the more of them you could lure into your home, the better.

Celestial pattern based on design circa 14th century (note star taking advantage of bark-like discoloration in fruit)

Close-up of top

Two halves joined

Interior stitching (spirit nest)

A sense of scale: size of finished embroidered tangerine