This needle felt song thrush, will be a set of three birds, eventually uniting her with her two children and will complete this part of the story. The fledglings themselves will be starting to grow their own clothing as they’re not fully formed adults yet and will be adding any accessories where needed, to help tell their part in the story too.
The thrush took a very different direction from my original thought process, as the colours I originally chose for the clothing looked horrendous, loosing that much needed feeling of mourning and grief within the scene, not just for the robins untimely demise, but in part, due to her apparent unheard calls for help from ‘the above’, at least not in the way she believed them to be.
Her two children will be with her, making this a little trio, breaking the well known proverb of ‘Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil’. The two fledglings themselves will be staying true to their faith and the standards set upon them, holding both ears and mouth, as their mother lifts her head, singing for vengeance but also of fear.
I don’t want this part of the tableau to come across as anything other, than a mother’s loss of her own personal faith. I am not a deeply religious man, though I was brought up into faith myself when I was young, I have felt this abandonment being played out in my own way and on reflection, it has been a positive experience, leading me to ask many questions about life and finding a much deeper interest in theology and spirituality along the way. So although this may appear to be just a tiny part of this story, it really does mean quite a lot to me and for many reasons.
The general costume design behind many of the characters, are of course styled in the victorian period, being ever more obvious in this particular piece, as she herself is in full traditional mourning attire, which I find to be deeply fascinating and took a little inspiration from one of my all time favourite films/stories ‘The Woman in Black‘ (1989 film version only) and gave her a little bit of Mrs Drablow vibe. (Pauline Moran )All being bit of a homage to the author who has deeply inspired me over the years Susan Hill.
I could have spent too many hours in the day pouring over the different styles of mourning attire and have done so over the years, but settled for something a little fancier giving her just enough of a bustle at the back. This was actually a bit tricky to make, as the silhouette of a bird really did not like it, leaving her to look more like a curly/curvy black worm of some sort, however it did turn out to be ‘just enough’ in the end and she settled into it nicely.
As always I used super sculpey for the legs/beak and some lovely glass eyes, which I will be adding eyelashes and lids to later, with a few of those sensory beak feathers that look like hairs, before I place her into the scene itself. These features are quite delicate and I don’t want to keep knocking them when putting her away in the cupboards constantly.
The little parasol/umbrella is kind of a combination of the two, as parasols were not used for rain, whereas umbrellas undoubtedly are. The scene will be a kind of moody and rainy, so I decorated it to a point, quite literally! where it could be theoretically used for both. I had so much fun making this too, as it was a completely new thing for me to experiment with.
The little book of pslams I can honestly say, has been one of the most enjoyable accessories I have made to date. It was and is such a simple little thing, but I had everything I may of needed to make it right here already, so it only took me a short while. It will have relevant script inside, which I shall do in-between others jobs, with a few hidden extras. I found the whole experience incredibly relaxing and though many others have been made these before, I can honestly see why people enjoy making them so much!
So although this trio is not yet complete, I have had the most wonderful journey working with her and once life is a little more settled here around me, I shall most likely start in making her children, but shall see how I feel at the time, as there are a few other birds I need to make before completion and right now I have an itch to try another type of little bird.