SINGING BIRDS!

One of my fellow makers at the One Craft Gallery, who is a wood turner, gave me some paper thin sheets of bark which had peeled off a silver birch tree.  They had lovely markings and inspired me to make some long thin cards depicting trees with singing and perching birds.

I treated the bark in exactly the same way that I would treat paper.  The background was collaged papers and tissue.  On the next layer I used the bark and then put another layer of cutout paper before adding the birds which were cut out of some art papers left over from another project - it pays to keep everything!  Some  further details were added using acrylic paint and thin black marker pens.

The bark not only provided authentic colour and markings, it gave an interesting texture.  I am now hoping to use the same subject and papers to make a larger artwork on a wooden panel.