No Cross Words Between Us

It's not exactly pheasant under glass, but it certainly is a bird of a unique feather! This was truly a labor of love: the better part of 2 weeks, countless crossword puzzles, frustration, failure, near defeat, and finally- would it be wrong to go with this analogy?- like a phoenix from the paper shavings emerged my little nested treasure.

My mother-in-law is both an origami and crossword fan. The idea started with me making a giant banner of little origami birds made out of crossword puzzles. She is very adept with paper, and has folded and created some amazing things. There is always a doubting fear present when making something for someone who is so talented: it seems nothing you create can ever be as good as theirs. At least, this is how I felt after the 12th very frustrating attempt at paper folding. I don't fold, I sew.

I thought, "Well, why not sew instead of fold?" Sadly, fabric birds would be very heavy for delicate banner- so the sewing was a realistic solution, but a banner wasn't. I really didn't want to lose the idea of using a real crossword puzzle as a base material, either. I then remembered the charming "scenes" of nests and birds in candy/cheese dishes that I had stumbled up on a year ago. You never know when an idea is going to inspire you, do you?

Enter the frantic research on nature under glass, paper sewing and nest building. Which, by the way, is minimal at best. I ended up resorting to drawing out the pattern as though it were fabric, attempting to sew it, and then ripping, tearing, and otherwise destroying the paper. Over and over, attempt after attempt, learning a valuable lesson each and every time. By the end of the first week, I really REALLY wanted to make this work and giving up was not an option!

In the end, I had successfully made 1 linen nest, 3 charming eggs out of the crossword clue list, and 1 little crossword puzzle bird with tiny glass beaded eyes. Carefully placed in a glass candy dish with lid to keep it clean and away from the evils of damp. I can honestly say I will never, ever, ever in a million years ever sew a paper bird in a nest again. Ever. This one has my heart, my patience, and a teensy bit of my sanity carefully tucked inside. I think one is enough.