Showing posts with label Paper Mache. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paper Mache. Show all posts

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Baby Mockingbirds and How to Care For Them

I remember a time not long ago when a baby mocking bird came into my life and what an adorable little buggar he was.

Not knowing a single thing about mocking birds, heck I didn't even know he was a mocking bird until someone told me, I scoured the internet looking for enlightenment. I thought I would share a little bit of what I found.
The original post is here.


My hungry little man.



Verrrry hungry.


My tribute to the wonderful mocking bird. This is Percy and his little brother Lionel.

They are headed over to the shop soon.


The following is just some of the great information I've stumbled across on how to care for not only baby mocking birds but any baby bird you happen to come across.

Most babies are still under the watchful eye of their parents and are taken from them by people only trying to help. Unlike human babies, wild babies are not constantly watched by their parents and spend large amounts of time alone. (This is especially true of mammals.) In most cases, wild animal babies should be left alone. The following is what we recommend to do in specific situations. BABY BIRDS FLEDGLINGS People often see baby birds that are partially feathered sitting on the ground below a tree and automatically assume that they fell out of the nest and need to be helped. At this stage in a birds development, they are considered "fledglings".

Fledglings NORMALLY will jump or fall out of the nest. This is their "flight training" stage. The mother bird will then continue feeding the bird on the ground until the bird is able to fly (usually only takes a few days). Unless injured, these birds should be left where they are. Efforts should be made to keep cats, dogs, and curious children away from the bird so the mother can continue to feed it.
Cat or Dog Danger? If a dog or cat is threatening the baby animal, do not instantly bring the baby in. Rather, keep the pet restrained the short time the baby is there. However, if the animal has already been attacked or picked up by the family pet and is injured, please bring the baby in as soon as possible.

NESTLINGS Baby birds that are naked for the most part (featherless or feathers just starting to come in) are considered to be "nestlings". These birds stay in the nest and the parents come to feed them there. These babies, when found, are usually on the ground directly below the nest. This occurs either because the baby fell out, blew out (common after wind storms), or was "pushed" out by a sibling. One must realize that this last behavior is actually adaptive for some species. This way, only the strongest of the brood survive and go on to raise young themselves.

What to do if you find a nestling that is out of the nest: The best thing to do is to try to place the bird back in its nest if at all possible. If the nest cannot be reached for some reason, the following works very well. (This is also the procedure to use if you find the whole nest on the ground.)Make a "makeshift" nest out of a clean Cool-Whip container or margarine dish. Make holes in the bottom of it to allow for water drainage. Line the bowl with paper towels. Then tack the makeshift nest back up in the tree as close to the original nest as possible. Finally, place the baby bird(s) into this and leave. The parents will usually come back in a short time and will feed the babies in it just like it was the original nest. (Often, you will see the mother going back and forth between each "nest", feeding both sets of babies.) The only time we recommend bringing the baby birds in is if you KNOW that the mother is dead or if the babies are injured in any way. The natural parents do a much better job at raising their young than we could ever do. A baby bird that is featherless must be fed every 15-20 minutes from about sunrise to 10 pm! This obviously requires a large time committment on the part of the foster parent. What if I already touched the birds, the mother won't come back, will she? People often believe this to be true and therefore think they need to keep the babies. This is simply NOT TRUE and is just an old wives tale. Birds in general have a very poor sense of smell (vultures are one exception) and will not mind the fact that you have handled them (but will be bothered by your presence by the babies).
If you do find a REAL orphan or injured baby bird, please do the following: Get it to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator AS SOON AS POSSIBLE; the longer the delay, the less chance it has of surviving Keep the baby bird WARM and in a quiet, dark place until you can bring it in (a small cardboard box works well) DO NOT give the baby bird any liquids (they get all they need from their food and very often will inhale any liquid)
Source(s):
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/guideto.htm#2b

What I found for hand feeding my little man worked quite well and was easily available if you have a pet store near by. It's made by Kaytee and is formulated specifically for hand feeding baby birds. I got mine at Petsmart.


Saturday, May 29, 2010

Alchemy Meerkat Waves Good-Bye

It's the end of our visit with little Alchemy, he's actually almost on his way home to England by now to see his Mom right before the drawing to find his new permanent home. but we thought we would share a few photos from his last day here.

We decided to take a quick trip down the strip so little Alchemy could see some of the sights here in Las Vegas before he leaves.


The beautiful Bellagio fountains.
Paris? Are we in Paris? No?

Are you sure this isn't New York? I see lots of taxis here and there's that green lady!

We stopped sight seeing as Alchemy wanted to learn how to play a little poker.
Off to a really rough start.

*sigh* I'll take four cards please.

Woohoo! Does this mean I win?!

After that fantastic hand Alchemy decided he'd had enough of the fast paced life of Vegas and went out to the garden to smell the flowers.
Can you see me in here?

Ahhh, this is much better.

Alchemy sitting at the airport watching the planes take off and land wondering about his upcoming trip and what adventures lie before him now.

Very excited to see where I'm headed now and wondering if Studio Cherie will make me something wonderful for my next journey.

Look at this great pin I got!

And this little paper mache house too! I think this means I'm going home soon...yay!

And just look at all the great stuff that is coming with me too!
I already miss this little guy and his fun little antics. Keep your eye out here for news of his final leg of his journey and news of a fabulous giveaway soon. You can also keep tabs on him on his Facebook page.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

An Entire Village of New Chubby Houses

I have many many favorites in this bunch and can tell you almost exactly what I was doing when I look at each one. I barely had room for all of them in my little "photo studio".
A close up of just one of them. Such happy little houses.
I managed to avoid any heating disasters this go around too. I'm rather pleased by that.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Tiny Chubby Sweat Shoppe Style Birds

My little Sweat Shoppe Style Birdies have all finally arrived as the last one, that traveled to China, finally got there! These guys are tiny versions of the legged ones and were actually the reason the legged ones were born but after realizing the others were far too large for the swap I ended up making these smaller little guys. I think they logged in about 4 inches tall.

I sure enjoyed them and was sad to see them go...

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Yay! Finally...More New Stuff and A Lesson Learned


Agatha just loves her crown and she thinks she looks so regal with it on.
Momma Maddie and baby Margo.


Some chubby little houses.
Okay, my lesson learned this week was an interesting one. I had these big chunks of packing foam and I was thinking how cool it would be to use said foam block, cut into cute little house shapes and then covered with paper mache.
Yeah! I'm definitely on to something here! I get to have a ready supply of foam blocks and I can cut them into interesting shapes.

When I get a project going I "usually" stick with it, wanting to get it done as I'm so excited by the prospects of it and with Celluclay all I have to do is pop it into the oven on a low temp to "bake" it and then I can easily move on to the next step.

I swear, it never even occured to me...

Totally my fault as I had initially made 13 of the little buggars.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

A Challenge and some Works in Progress

I've just been so busy lately that all I seem to be doing is spinning my wheels.

I'm feeling a lot less creative these days than normal and I'm not real sure what the issue has been. I do think that I would like to try something a little bit different as in I really need to have some kind of "challenge". I would like to try having a monthly challenge where in I pick a word, description, feeling or what have you and then create it, using whatever means I'm using at the moment to create it.

What I would really like to do is create these challenges and have anyone that would care to join me participate. I would love to have participants in this and would especially love to link everyone's finished creation here.

Does anyone have any feedback on this they would like to share? I'm all for creative input here, hehe. Let's unite and get this darn creative block thrown off!


I also wanted to share this picture which shows that I have been creating...somewhat.

I'm amazed at how far one 5 pound bag of Celluclay can go. These guys were produced with what was left at the bottom of said bag. I am also amazed that I hadn't discovered the joys of paper clay before now...wow!

I'd read about this fabulous product but had never used before now and have to admit...I'm hooked!

Yes, those are yellow hearts. Totally my base color though, hehe.

I love the way the sun is shining in my back yard there through the window. It's supposed to be about 65 degrees today, yay!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

My Heart


Valentine's Day is right around the corner and while I resisted doing anything I deemed Christmas-y I apparently had no problem with this particular holiday. I don't even know what to say in my defense.

I'm not even a romantic sappy person by nature but I feel compelled by the color red and it seems as though hearts are just a natural progression at this time of year.
Haha, I know, that was one really lame excuse but I made some hearts anyway, hehe.

These are the same three hearts but I started playing around with the camera and different angles and such. Very interesting.

I think it's well known that I am NOT a photographer...at all. And I know that just by looking at these photos I don't need to even put that disclaimer in there, but, I had fun nonetheless!


My "cheerful" little paper mache pomegranate
May Blessings be yours.

Friday, December 26, 2008

The After Christmas Grumpies

The Christmas Spirit was rather hard to come by in this particular neck of the woods.

The Grumpy Gnomes were mostly to blame though. It seems as nothing went their way and they've had scowls on their faces ever since, poor things.
They've been talking amongst themselves for awhile now on what to do next...

Sunday, September 14, 2008

A Sneak Peek at Something New

Although now that I think about it showing the actual item in its' entirety and in its' finished state isn't a 'peek' but I shall call it a 'sneak peek at a new direction' and call it good, hehe.

I had first experimented with this guy and paper mache and enjoyed it quite immensely but got so busy with other things I never really got to play with paper mache again.

Well friends and neighbors that has all changed and I've got a succession of photos to prove it!

I thought it was interesting to take in progress shots for these guys and while there aren't very many photos I still thought they were informative enough.

I had to draw the eye on there just to give myself an idea of how he was going to look.

I really rather like the group of white birds, kind of look like doves, fat doves but I digress.


Doesn't it look as though the big one is teaching the little ones how to read?

I also prepped a stack of canvases with vintage pages for a slew of Ralph paintings.
You all know who you are...

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Big Eyed Bird goes 3-D

A paper craft challenge was announced on Craftster.org that involved using music sheets in any project of your choice as long as the music sheets were an integral part of the project itself. I though about doing something but couldn't come up with anything. So of course when I decide to work on something else inspiartion comes along and whacks me with a big old stick. I'm up til almost 11 o'clock on a friday night starting on my project. It involved a really cool looking rusted metal "thing" I found about 5 years ago, had to have but didn't know why. I broke out my brand new bag of Celluclay, another had to have but didn't know why, hehe...see a pattern here?

I learned alot about working with Celluclay when I woke up the next morning and my "piece" was just as wet as it was the night before. Knowing I still had lots of sculpting to do as well as lots of painting and whatnot and have it posted by the Sunday deadline I started to panic a bit. It barely fit in the oven with both shelves taken out...whew!


This is my entry, based on my ever popular (who knew) big eyed bird:
Here's a close up of his music sheet wings.I painted him to look grungy which considering how lumpy I left the Celluclay was actually rather easy.

Size reference with a 2 oz bottle of paint. This is the color I used on him. He makes me happy.