For the 17th year, the Cherokee Heritage and Sandhill Crane Viewing Days will have a presence at Birchwood Elementary school in Birchwood, TN and the Hiwassee State Wildlife Refuge. 
This year's event is organized by the Birchwood School, area volunteers and Meigs County Tourism Council. 
Although, it won't feel the same without participation from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, who experienced budget cuts this season, in a recent conversation with Dan Hicks, Region III spokesperson, Dan said he expects their participation to return to full swing for next year. This season they are surveying the waterfowl and sandhill cranes for migration and feeding patterns to obtain more information about food plantings and the scheduling of the 2009 festival.
The event will be held on Saturday and Sunday this weekend and there will be exhibits, food, presentations and lots of wildlife viewing!
I will be exhibiting my sandhill crane and whooping crane watercolor notecards, prints, gourd art and jewelry. I will also have plenty of information on hand about the history of greater sandhill cranes in Tennessee, the re-introduction of the endangered whooping crane to the eastern flyway and Operation Migration's current ultralight migration.
If you're going to be in the area, come by my exhibit and say 'hello'!
Vickie, what a wonderful job you have done with your gourds! So beautiful. If I were there I would stop by to visit you. Sounds like a fun time all around. Nice photos of the cranes. Their wings look like umbrellas cut in half!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kathie. I love the "umbrella" photo. It was one of the things that made me fall in love with them.
ReplyDeletehow exciting to view the cranes for a weekend! i'm sure you have camera in hand and get many great photos. i love the gourds. they are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures!
ReplyDeleteGreat art, I'm fascinated by that lovely piece of art, and how you have change the gourds into the beauty.
I am totally smitten with your gourd art!!!!! Holy Cow. I have never been to TN, but if I were nearby I certainly would stop by.
ReplyDeleteSo BEAUTIFUL! I love your work!
ReplyDeleteWow--I've seen gourds carved (?) like that before and think they're lovely. So much so, I grew some one year,....oh, well.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someday.
Nina at Nature Remains
Hi Gina. I hope I get to see the cranes. Sometimes I'm so busy at the exhibits that all I see is people!
ReplyDeleteThanks you, Tabib. Nature is so much a part of the beauty of the finished piece.
Welcome, Bevson and thank you! I hope you will get to visit Tennessee soon.
Thank you, Michelle. Its been fun to visit your blog and see all your creative product designs.
Hi Nina. Welcome! I've never tried to grow my own gourds. They can be tricky to get the thickness needed for a good art surface.
I woodburn my designs. The lighter surface you see is the natural color of the gourd; the darker browns in these photos are dyed; and the colored cranes are painted with acrylic paint.
Great photos ... the last one is an award winner. It reminds me of the Grecian Urn.
ReplyDeleteYour Gourd Art is exceptionally Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThey have a wonderful presence to them.
Beatuiful gourd art (all your art is). I have tried to create art on gourds and it isn't easy to work on a rounded surface!
ReplyDeleteLovely gourd art, Vickie.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you have used your cranes for that. You are full of talent!
Welcome Robert! Thank you for your comment. I have had an antique coiling collector buy a piece because of the pine needle coiling in combination with the "old world" look of my design.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bernie. I think gourds are beautiful in themselves. And that makes adding art to their beauty all the more fun.
Thanks Amila! The first piece of gourd art I made had a whooping crane on it and they've continued to inspire my creations.
Wish I could have been there! Wow--your gourds are so wonderful, Vickie....would love to see all your work in person some time! And that last photo of the cranes has frozen them perfectly in motion, like time stood still--wonderfully crisp and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteMarie
Hi Nature Nut. Somehow I missed your comment. Thank you! I think its the "hold" that takes practice. Gourds have so much energy and natural beauty, I'm drawn to them.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marie. These cranes were flying against the wind and practically still when I photographed them, a rare opportunity.