Jaci Dawn

I can’t show you the whole project because it’s in my head. It’s hard to get a photograph of things inside my head.

I’m just so darn excited that this project is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks. I think it will be a couple of weeks – I won’t tell you how long it has been getting to this point, where suddenly the vision has jelled and I know how I want this to turn out.

It started out with a personal challenge: could I make a tree out of an empty paper towel tube? I wired, I scrunched, I added, I subtracted. And I gave up for a very long time. I had the base, but I didn’t know where to go from there.

I was digging through my scraps of fabric when the light came on: I had the perfect fabric to create the bark of the tree, right here. A week ago, the whole project took off again.

This is the very unfinished project (which may still take some twists and turns). It is made out of: wood, wire, an empty paper towel tube, dryer lint, fabric scraps. yarn, and concentrated liquid starch (the “glue” that holds it all together).

I have this funky little hard plastic owl that I found … um, I really don’t know where I found the owl. A yard sale? An estate sale? Someone gave it to me? Half way through the design of the tree, I decided it should be funky little owl habitat.

Then I decided the owl should have owlets.

They are in the first stage of being painted. I didn’t crop the photo because I realized it’s a bit of a snap shot of my desk: India ink, craft paint, letter opener, sticky note, paint brushes, and a pen. I made the owlets out of polymer clay.

OK, OK – a close-up of the buggers. I think they turned out pretty cute, even before I get them painted. Problem is, the cavity in the tree is only large enough for one owlet, so the other will have to be on the ground. I’m sure they will tell me their story as I put the finishing touches onto their faerie house tree.

The ground baffled me for a very long time. I stopped at the craft store and was browsing around when it hit me: YARN. Now, this is not what the ground will look like when I am finished. There are flowers and mushrooms and other things to add.

I might add moss up one side of the tree (the “north” side, of course). The block it is standing on needs to be finished (ribbon & felt sound good). I have to adhere the owls to the tree. The tree has to be coated with a protective layer (varnish, I think).

But all-in-all: I am feeling very good about this project.

Best of all, I have another one in the wings that is finally starting to shape up. I feel like I am the one with wings tonight, not just the funky little plastic owl.

I’ll post more when it gets closer to finished (or when it is finished