Corn Cob Birds

Day 60: Many of the ornaments on my Solstice Shrub are at least partly hand-made. In this case, the birds were store-bought, but I designed and created the corn cobs by beading them over a felt core tightly rolled around real cornhusks using #6 beads. Later, I took the process to extremes and made tiny end-of-thumb sized baskets, each holding three corn cobs made with #13 beads, so small that a standard beading needle wouldn't pass through the hole. Now as you might have guessed, my tree is full of birds of all sorts: resin, wood, felt, terra cotta, ceramic, metal. It's no wonder the chickadees sit on the shepherd's-hook outside the window looking at them. I'm sure they'd love to come inside to join the flock.

A Little Birdseed, Please

Day 82: As you're hurrying about with the fixings of your Christmas dinner and trays of cookies, please don't forget to put out seed for the little "people" in your yard. Fill your feeders with black-oil sunflower seed, nyjer and mixed seed, and put out suet blocks if the birds in your area enjoy them. Provide water if temperatures stay below freezing for any length of time.

Many birds enjoy corn, and this little fellow is no exception. I crafted his corn cob using #6 seed beads in square stitch, applied over a rolled felt core. The husks are raffia. Several of his kin have taken up residence in my Christmas tree.