Spring is here…I think? And more Crow tales…
I have decided….Spring is a tease. She arrives and flaunts herself for a day here and there…just enough to make you believe she might actually stick around this time, might coax the buds from the branches, might plant the sun in the sky to delight you. And then she disappears, without a word, without a trace. And suddenly you are back in the lonely depths of Winter, wondering how the snow could be falling so hard around you again when just yesterday it seems like your world was finally melting under her fond gaze.
We are destined to get yet another 5-10cm of snow tonight, and I am displeased – to say the least. Perhaps I am overly eager, and need to learn patience (good things come, and all that jazz), or to appreciate what Winter has to offer. Need to wait for Spring to pick her time, make her grand entrance, and be enthralled when she finally arrives with her dizzying gifts. But it has been a long, cold, Winter of waiting and waiting. I am not very good at waiting at all, not when the end is uncertain in its timing. It is torturous.
In the meantime, my fingers have been busy with making. And my mind wrapped up in daydreams. This morning I awoke to the news, complaining of crows. How can anyone complain of crows? Apparently Victoria Park in Charlottetown has a crow problem – thousands upon thousands of crows have decided to make their homes there, and cause a great raucous. The surrounding residents are complaining of the noise, and the mess, and say that the crows are causing mayhem and destruction. I am, however, absolutely enchanted and delighted by this notion. A massive clan of crows causing mischief! I must see this with mine own eyes. They say that when the crows return at dusk, the sky is thick and black with them…so I will make it my mission this week to see such a sight. Thousands of crows gathering to welcome the night!
from the pendant series “A Storytelling of Crows”
Crow #1: One is for Sorrow
“My love she’s like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.”
My love she's like some raven, At my window with a broken wing
The message hidden inside...
This particular pendant was inspired in large part by the Bob Dylan song “Love Minus Zero/ No Limit“. I had been searching for Crow #1 for quite some time, but she had not yet come to me, when I happened upon this song – and immediately I recognized her. This is what I wanted her to be – this beautiful, wise and strong crow – wounded temporarily from life’s heartbreaks, fragile. At the window of her lover, waiting to be healed. And the gift of finding her dark self, waiting there…
It was important to me, that the window could open. That the wearer could feel that act of participation in the story, the act of opening the window, of finding the crow, of bringing her inside. I also wanted that moment of discovery, of finding the hidden story, of it drawing the wearer in. So…hinges! My first set of hinges – which are tiny and a little tricky to get just right, but in the end they were nowhere near as difficult to construct as I had let myself imagine. Fiddly, yes. But certainly not impossible. I plan on incorporating them into my work more often.
The Trickster
This fellow is not part of the storytelling series, but is a storyteller none the less. He is a mischievous fellow, this particular crow… full of strange tales, and sordid adventures. He could charm the stripes off a snake, charm the devil himself I think, and the coin from your hand while he is at it, and all the while you would thank him for it. But there is something in these tales he tells, a method to the madness, and a message in it if you listen closely. And as much of a raggamuffin scoundrel, this crow who hops from branch to branch, there is a certain redeeming something that draws your eye, begs it follow.