Blue Bird Blessings

Why, that's the blue bird we were looking for! ...We went so far and he was here all the time! ...Oh, but it's wonderful!

From The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck

When I was about 5 or 6 my mother took me to a screening of the 1940 movie The Bluebird starring Shirley Temple, based on the 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck. The story is about a brother & sister, Tyltyl and Mytyl, who are sent out by the fairy Berylune into various magical realms to search for the Bluebird of Happiness. Returning home empty-handed, the children see that the bird has been in a cage in their home the whole time. When Tyltyl gives the bird as a gift to a neighbor's sick child, the bird flies away. The moral is that, ultimately, happiness can only be found within oneself. With this beautiful story in mind, I dreamt up this little mobile project...

To start off, I used watercolors to paint a wash of blue on heavy-weight watercolor paper. I also flecked some brown paint onto one of my painted sheets so I could cut out speckled eggs,  To make the speckles, grab an old toothbrush, dip the bristles in brown paint and then run a toothpick over the bristles -- tiny flecks of paint will go everywhere, so be prepared! Once the paint was dry, I ironed the paper and then placed it beneath a pile of heavy books for a few hours to smooth and flatten it.

Next, I drew outlines of my birds (and eggs) on the back of the painted paper,

And carefully cut them out.

Added feathers & punched holes for hanging...

Then strung it all together with an egg in the middle & a feather on the end. To finish things up, I inscribed a message on the backs of my birds.

They say, "May you always find the blue bird of happiness in your home and in your heart..."

What messages will your blue birds bring?