I can’t entirely remember where the idea came from, but a few days ago I started thinking that I could probably make bird silhouettes using the 19 gauge stainless wire I have around, and use them to mark where some of my plants are. Especially the bulbs, which are starting to go dormant. I already made some other plant markers using 14 gauge (?) wire, but that’s rather hard to work with compared to this thin stuff; I can work the thin wire mostly by hand.
The previous plant markers are spirals and loops and things, and I am bored with them, and I like birds, so, a couple rough sketches of birds were enough to get me started, and then as I was bending it, it took the final shape.
I very nearly grabbed my good jewelry-making tools, but remembered in time to go get the normal tools, because they can handle steel wire without being harmed.
Now I am thinking of ways to suspend a piece of beer can, cut in a wing shape, inside the silhouette; the aluminum is soft enough to “write” on (make an impression, really) with a ballpoint pen, so the wing could serve as a plant label. I’d probably need to add more wire (maybe thinner gauge) to suspend the wing/label, and that might ruin the lines a bit. We shall see.
Oh! While I am thinking about it: this weekend I (re)added a couple of ways to subscribe to the blog, meaning, get an annoying email letting you know an update has occurred; the options are in the right column here on the main blog, but they will not show up in the syndicated feed on LJ. The Add to Any button will also let you get an update through about a million zillion other ways, too, in addition to email (Netvibes, um, uh, stuff). At the present time, the update email will only send a short excerpt from the post, not the whole thing.