Paper Clay Music Notes Bird

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Are Our Jokes Really Jokes?

I learned a hard lesson (again!) over Thanksgiving.  I traveled to be with family for my cousin's 50th birthday.  There were about 40 family members there and when my cousin was sharing some thoughts with us about the day and reflecting on when we would be together again as a family, I made a comment, out loud, that at first blush I thought was funny.  The comment was meant to be lighthearted and was poking fun at one of my younger cousins.  The minute the comment came out of my mouth I realized that it really wasn't a joke because it had hurt my younger cousin's feelings.  I felt terrible!  I immediately went over to her to try to repair the damage I had done.  What I know is that trying to repair the damage after the fact was really too late.  The repair needed to happen when I had the thought - what I needed to do was say to my thought, "Yes, you might be funny in my mind, but you have the power to hurt someone if you leave my mind and exit my mouth.  So, you are not going anywhere!"  Our jokes may not be jokes at all to those who are on the receiving end of them.  I hope my cousin will forgive me and I hope that I have learned this lesson for the last time.
Today's project is not a finished piece - it is a piece that I have now incorporated into a larger mixed media collage (and my plan is to do my best to share the finished piece with you tomorrow).  I began by creating a paper clay bird.

I took a photo of a bird and used a thick black marker to go over the outline of the bird.  I then used that black outline as a template to create the paper clay bird.  The feet were created with armature wire.  Once he dried (and he took awhile to dry), I painted him with white gesso.  Next I used my Music Notes wheel and some Staz-On Jet Black ink and covered a piece of tissue paper with the music notes.  I then tore the tissue paper into strips and started adhering them to the bird with matte gel medium.  Once he was thoroughly coated, front and back, I set him aside to dry.  Stop by tomorrow to see what happened once he was dry! :)