Creating Beautiful Birds with Joanna Coupland at Olive's Nest

Bird by Joanna Coupland

On Saturday I went to a workshop at Olive's Nest (great for cards and gifts) run by Joanna Coupland. Jo, inspired by nature, makes fabulous quirky sculptures out of wire and paper.  She has a whole range of beautiful birds, animals and fabulous fairy lights - all handmade, with no two the same!  We were making birds.  Julie & Kate made crows, Lily made an owl and Jeanette and I made birds of a less specific sort!   

Olive's Nest on Scarcroft Road, York

We started off making a wire structure which was the bird's body.  Jo helped us all sort out the shape and showed us how to make it 3D.  Here's mine...

Wire armature

Next we covered it in paper - no pics - I was too engrossed in getting it done.  This was the bit I found most tricky.  Although, as this part took me longer than anyone else, I think it was only me who thought that!

More birds by Joanna Coupland

Then we got down to painting.  Jo had lots of lovely inks, dyes and paints for us to use.  I went for blues and greens...

My bird

Lily favoured pinks and oranges (and rather liked the sequins)...

Lily's owl - spot those sequins!

Kate's had a very regal pose...

Kate's crow

Jeanette & Julie gave theirs proper eyes with eyelids!

Jeanette's bird - check out those eyelids

Julie's crow

It was a fab day which I really enjoyed.  Gaynor, who owns Olive's Nest, kept us topped up with tea and coffee and things to munch while we worked on our creations.  This was definitely a fun thing to do - check out the other workshops on offer at Olive's Nest here.