Day 129 - 132: fingerprints, toilet paper tubes, clay bird, and felt

Day 129: "Use fingerprints/thumbprints to create an image or portrait."

fingerprint flower.

Day 130: "Work only with toilet paper tubes and/or paper towel tubes today."

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and have had it in the back of my mind. So, I made it today. Maybe I will spray-paint it sometime and hang it on a wall.

Day 131: "Use the world of birds as your inspiration."

Here is another one that I saw on Pinterest one time and really liked. The tutorial is from here.

little bird, made from clay.

when it dries it will be an ornament of some kind.

Day 132: Just something I saw and liked. I followed the pattern found here.

blue felt flower.

Day 128 - blackbird

This was another idea I had for yesterday's theme for a project based on a song.

blackbird singing in the dead of night.

Inspired by the Beatles song, "Blackbird."

There is so much lovely symbolism in this song.

"Take these broken wings and learn to fly

all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise...

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

you were only waiting for this moment to be free."

Day 127 - love is revolutionary

From the book: "Pick a piece of music you love (or hate) and use it as the inspiration for today's piece."

I could have had a million ideas for this one. Music speaks to me in a significant way. I already did a project using song lyrics, back on Day 82. Today, I had a couple of pretty concrete ideas.

Here is what I came up with:

love is revolutionary. made from cardboard, black sharpie, and red fine-tip sharpie.

The song I was thinking of is actually the Muse song, "Resistance." I haven't listened to that album in a while, and for some reason, I was thinking it used the word "revolution". Oh well.  I do like that song a lot. I like the imagery in it which reminds me of the characters from George Orwell's 1984.

This project was also inspired in part by this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

Real, neighborly love is revolutionary. Approaching a fellow human being, whether a stranger, a family member, a close friend, or even an enemy, from a place of love, is so much more difficult than responding in self-defence, which can manifest itself as anger, manipulation, back-stabbing, verbal or physical violence, etc. But, love is the better way. The way that breaks down walls of hostility. The way that can lead to restoration. This is something that I think I will be working toward for my whole life. I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Some things that have helped to shape my thinking in this way:

the Catholic Worker movement

C.S. Lewis' book, The Four Loves

a sermon series on "faith, hope, and love" at Jacob's Well Church during the autumn of 2011

learning about Ghandi's philosophy of nonviolence

some writings of Aung San Suu Kyi

the life and teachings of Jesus

I had another idea for today's project as well, but wasn't able to finish it tonight. I'll save that one for another day.

Day 125 and 126 - wire and winter scene

Word from wire:

grow.

And, one from the book: "Make something in a box."

winter wonderland.

Day 124 - leaves on wood

From the book: "Make something out of wood."

grow.

A piece of wood that I salvaged from my office; ribbon; fabric. 

Leaves.

Day 123 - needle-felting

I made a little needle-felted robin...

he's just a little guy!

Day 122 - postcard

For Day 114, I was supposed to alter a postcard. I didn't really do that, since I was working with a ridiculous vintage postcard (follow this link and scroll down). However, I got a postcard in the mail yesterday, which sparked some inspiration.

i got this postcard in the mail.

i made it look like this.