stickin' chicken

many many months ago, i took a trip with some friends to orange, california. that is where i found, fell in love with, and purchased this:


as soon as i picked it up i knew i had to take it home with me. filled with emery sand, this is about the cutest vintage pin cushion i have ever seen. working with pins and needles as much as i do, i can always use a pincushion. i've got pins and needles in champagne corks, in the arm of my couch, woven though my tablecloth -- all over.
once the little chicken was mine, i knew right away that this was something i had to figure out a pattern for so that i could make a brood of my own.
but it took me several months to get to that point.

after several tries, i came up with a pattern and a method that made me happy.


and then i had it, my own little clutch of chicks:


gah! i can't stand it; they're so stinkin' cute. sorry, i'm just very pleased with how they turned out. i wish i had better photos - you're gonna have to trust me that if you think they look cute here, they look even cuter in real life. (and if you don't think that they look cute at all, even just a little, then you are loco.)


i put them up on etsy, even though i'm still thinking the photos could/should be better....



i'd kinda like to see them go to a shop somewhere - somewhere where they can hang out together in a little cluster until they all find new homes. maybe i'll shop them around.

oh - here's more info on them (in case you're interested....)
they're filled with sawdust. i did a little poking around on the world wide web and found that sawdust was what many homesteaders and simple folk used to fill their pincushions. emery sand isnt exactly easy to come by, you know.
the sawdust has been provided by my friend josh, who is a super-talented carpenter/build-it-man. i guess you could say he's my dust-dealer. (that was his joke.) if you're in the southern california area and you need something built, call josh; he's your man. (find him here.)

i'm kind of in love with chickens a little. a few months ago, i experienced the dream-come-true moment of being able to hold a chicken in my arms:


oh my goodness, can you see the rapture on my face (even though it's a poor cameraphone photo)? i never wanted to let her go. but i did.
someday, i hope to own chickens of my own, like my good friend melanie linder.

i've taken lots of photos of chickens. here's one of my recent favourites, from the same day that i held the chicken:


and now you think i'm totally crazy, right? that's okay with me.