Who could forget the iconic Swan dress that Bjork (mom to Sindri and Isadora) wore? I also love this quote of her's on being with children. Swan, Bjork, Sindri and Isadora is a pretty awesome set of names, too! Back to the dresss-- it sure ruffled a lot of feathers, but it's no wonder we want to emulate birds, they're beautiful! And who hasn't dreamed of flying?
For more mixing of the avian and the human, check out these prints by Australian, Catherine Campbell of the shop My Folk Lover. (below)
I love this feather print by Danna Ray of Grounwork:
And I'm absolutely crazy about Leah Duncan's creations. I have her pillows and tea towels on my wish list for the holidays. I would be sad to see her 2011 calendar leave my wall if 2012 versions weren't already available here and here. Plus, the prints at the top of each calendar page can easily become 4 x 6 prints for framing, so you don't have to part with them at the end of the year. Leah also makes these terrific bird prints!
I love Canadian, Kate's, blog. She recently had a baby girl, Alice Mae (such a pretty name!) Alice's nursery might just be one of my favorites ever. Kate also makes beautiful, soft animals. Her Etsy shop, Tiny Warbler (love this bird name name, too!) is such a jewel. Here are a couple of her soft birds:
Speaking of fantastic bird softies, Tel Avivian, Timor Cohen, makes the loveliest, eco-friendly birds and fills shop TIMO Handmade with so many other lovelies, as well. Recycled materials can yield such pretty things. I'm also so, so fond of the mice in the shop!
I'm loving these hand-painted, porcelain feather plates and small cups that Tuscon ceramic artist, Vanessa Villarreal has in her shop right now.
And these mugs by Ricki Oltean can add such a pretty splash of bold color to your kitchen shelf. This design also comes on a portable, glass coffee cup with lid! There was never a better time or reason to replace that plastic one!
Your little one might want to enjoy some pretend coffee or some real fruit tea with you. Melissa Brown of Etsy shop, Cedar Pocket (how fantastic is this shop name?) had this in mind when she made this wheel-thrown mug for a two year old. Gotta love pretty, mini cups for mini hands. Nona would drink this up.
How great are these hand thrown mugs and egg cups (egg cups!) by Manchester shop, Fishink, made with Norwegian artist Tone Von Krogh?
And I'm loving this awesome wooden mobile by
German shop snug studio (not to mention their bear, cloud and bus shaped wooden cutting boards!)
And finally, some jewelry! Here's a vintage brass bird cuff by A Common Thread- shop:
feather necklace by shop Dear June (love the name! and the scarves there, too.):
And that wraps up my collection of bird inspired art for Marginamia's official bird week! I hope our readers outside the U.S. enjoyed seeing artists from your necks of the woods. Etsy is a quite a place, yes? You have to love an international community of makers!
Now lets talk names!
Wednesday I did a guest post over at Nameberry (so much fun!) There is one particular category from my post on bird names that I really want to talk about some more. I mentioned Meadowlark there among several others that all share a particular element. Meadowlark, like Maryanne, is a smoosh. Maybelle, Annabelle, Marilou, Rosevine (which I suggested recently in a consultation)-- all smooshes.
Sometimes smooshing involves pushing two words together to form a completely new word (Greystone and Rosedew, for example), so the practice might not appeal to some for that reason alone. Other smooshes come to us pre-smooshed, like Lovebird and Goldfinch, so they couldn't be considered by anyone to be misspellings. And yes, I think they still qualify as examples of a smoosh if they come prepackaged as such. What do you guys think?
I definitely count myself a fan of a good smoosh. And bird names are a smoosh lover's dream. I won't re-list all of the ones I talked about on nameberry, but here are some extra examples (some pre-packaged smooshes and some smooshed together by me):
Goldfinch
Snowfinch
Mountainfinch
Rosefinch
Greenfinch
Songlark
Sandlark
Sunlark
Skylark
Woodlark
Rustylark
Shorebird
Seabird
Blackbird
Lovebird
Songbird
Bellbird
Hummingbird
Baywren
Nightjar
Feildfare
Monday I interviewed bird house artist Jenn Wong, of Wongers, and I love her idea of taking names from a genus of birds (or the class, itself-- Aves) as well as individual species. And while I don't really keep up with celebrities too much, my favorite celebrity baby name of the year was definitely Agnes Lark Bettany. Agnes Lark is perfection. It checks every box for me, really. So combining my love of the lark and Jenn's idea, here are some genus names of larks and finches that I think sound lovely:
Lullula
Aleamon
Alauda
Eremalauda
Calandrella
Galerida
Loxia (finch)
And more names of bird species:
Brambling
Barbet
Crane
Downy
Dipper
Eagle
Falcon
Hawk
Inca
Kinglet
Kokako
Minla
Munia
Myna
Ouzel
Petrel
Plover
Pipit
Sibia
Swiftlet
Tern
Teal
Tawny (Owl)
Vanga
Yuhina
Still longing for more bird names? I mean, who could have enough of them, really? I haven't been the only one talking about bird names, lately:
What do you think, readers? Would you use any of these? What would you put with them? Any more bird name posts out there that I'm missing? I'd love to add them! Any favorite birdies flying from the hands of makers?
This was absolutely one of my funnest blogging weeks ever!
An extra thank you to Jenn Wong of Wongoers. I've been excitedly holding her wonderful interview for weeks so I could group it with the other birdie posts for one happy flock. It wouldn't have been bird week without it! Thanks, Jenn!
Thank you to Linda and Pam at Nameberry and, of course, all the lovely berries for having me over this week!
And thanks to all of you readers for sharing in the fun and tolerating my many bird puns! I'm such a geek with this topic, I tell ya. I'll see you all next week.
Happy Friday!
And Happy 11/11/11!
(bjork image)
