The Picture She Chose

A new customer asked me to make a piece of artwork for her daughter, something that she could hang on the walls of her apartment. She sent me a favourite black and white photo of her daughter and her boyfriend, one that her daughter had herself picked out, along with another photo in colour. 

"I love your work and I know my daughter Avital will too" my customer wrote to me. 

I created a paper version of the young couple, carefully copying the details, from the folds of her pink shawl to the markings on his watch strap.

My customer was happy to receive the piece, then sent me a lovely message telling me that she had given it to her daughter. "I just want to tell you that I gave Avital the picture and she loved it!" she said.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

The Eurasian Jay

One morning, not long ago, I looked out of the window and saw a beautiful Eurasian Jay hopping around our front garden. This particular bird is a frequent visitor to our garden and one that I always enjoy seeing. Even though I was still in my dressing gown, I grabbed my camera and, after just a handful of shots, managed to get a lovely one. The jay is sitting on our garden fence, framed beautifully by one of our flowering bushes which is currently offering some bright orange berries, below.

I posted the photo on my Facebook profile and it was popular! I decided that if my friends liked it so much, I was going to recreate the photo in paper. The piece I have made measures 20x25cm and, like much of my work, is created from layers of cut paper. The original is for sale and it is also available as print in my Etsy shop. Please send me an email or leave a comment if you are interested in purchasing the piece.

Now, a little bit about the Eurasian Jay. It is a relatively small corvid (a bird of the crow family), with a length of 34–35 cm and a wingspan of 52–58 cm. It has a stout black bill, a white throat with a thick black moustache. and the forehead and crown are white with black stripes. It has a black-and-white wing pattern with a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars on the shoulder. The tail is mainly black.

The Eurasian Jay is an inhabitant of woodland, forest, parkland and gardens with larger trees, especially oaks. It feeds in both trees and on the ground, eating a wide range of invertebrates, acorns, seeds, berries and even young birds and eggs, bats and small rodents! It is typically rather shy and difficult to see well, but sometimes feeds out on open ground, as the one in our garden did. Pairs mate for life and work together to construct their messy-looking nests. Nests are built in trees and shrubs using twigs, with roots and hair for lining, where the female will lay four to five eggs.

The Eurasian jay is a common resident of Israeli towns and villages that have parks and green spaces, particularly in the north and central Israel.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Inspire Me Tuesday and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

Critical Mass Forever

This piece was created for several siblings as a gift from their sister. The siblings haven't been together for 9 years and she simply wanted to celebrate "us". I was flattered when my customer asked me to make this piece for her, since we met through a papercutting facebook group and she is a talented artist in her own right. She was keen for me to create a piece in my style. 

My customer sent me the black and white photograph of all the siblings, above, taken by their father in the family's "backyard", the Rockies, about 50 years ago! My customer is second from left. Obviously since the photo was in black and white I needed some help with the colours. The Rocky Mountains, she told me, are not as green as the Alps and she suggested that I work with shades of green and brown. The trees and valley were green but the foreground should be light brown with stones. She pointed out that there is still snow on the mountain tops, even though the photograph was taken in the month of September.

"Everybody had brown hair, except for my brother who had black hair", she said. With a little help from her sister they remembered that the girl on the left of the picture, above, had a navy blue sweater, the younger sister was wearing a light green and white striped top and their brother wore plaid (tartan). That left only my customer with the long plaits. She suggested that I give her a light coloured top. Their dog was salt and pepper in colour.

Finally, my customer requested the phrase "Critical Mass Forever" at the bottom of the picture. I printed it in green to match the trees and valley of the Rockies.

She was delighted with the final piece, which she had printed several times over for the rest of her family. "The more I look at your picture, I like it even more. It is so true to who we were/are." She followed up by telling me that her husband and son liked it a lot and then, once everyone had received their framed picture, reported that my artwork was a hit all around!

* This post has been shared on Inspire Me Monday, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Thursday Favorite Things and Creatively Crafty Link Party.

A Covid-19 Engagement

A new customer contacted me with a request for some framed art. Her sister-in-law had got engaged and she thought it would be nice to give the new couple one of my pictures based on their engagement photo. They had met and got engaged through Covid-19, so she thought it might be cute to make the "diamond" on her sister-in-law's engagement ring a little corona ball. We also agreed to keep the masks that they are wearing on their chins as a reminder of the period.  

I have shown the couple exactly as they appear in the photo, making sure to create the bride-to-be's jacket in denim and to add the teeny tiny logo on her fiancé's shirt. The proposal was at sunset, so I showed the sun setting in the background.

My customer also wanted to add their names on the picture, along with the date of their engagement. I added them in Hebrew at the bottom of the piece.

My customer seemed delighted with her picture. "I've been waiting for an occasion to get one of your cards or pictures" she told me. Her sister-in-law was happy for me to share it here on my blog. "Thank you for the wonderful picture." she said.

* This post has been shared on Share Your Style, Little Things Thursday, Creatively Crafty Link Party, Thursday Favorite Things and Craft Schooling Sunday.