In Australia we have this amazing unique bird called the Kookaburra. It has the most unusual song - check out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ZbykXlg6Q. It is real and reminds me of time on the family farm in country Victoria as a child. They are a type of kingfisher I believe.
There is a song that most Aussie kids used to learn at school, about the laughing kookaburra. Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
This is the image that inspired my work. It is a watercolour and pencil drawing by Joanne Barby that I found through a google search/pinterest and is at https://www.deviantart.com/joannebarby
Merry, merry king of the bush is he,
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh,
Kookaburra gay your life must be.
It is usually sung in rounds though I don't think it is taught much these days because of the use of the word 'gay'.
I used the words as the quilting. Inspired by the quilting of words style of Gillian Travis from the UK.
The leaves are just fabric stuck together with vliesofix then stitched and trimmed.
I did a fabric collage class with Linden Lancaster last year and so used techniques learnt in this class. I tried some thread sketching to finish the bird detail.
Great colours in your kookaburra Lisa.
ReplyDeleteLove your kookaburra. I remember learning the song as a child and I teach it to the children - although we do have a few more verses
ReplyDeleteThe only other verse I recall is the funny one: Kookaburra sits on the electric wire, You better watch out cos your pants are on fire...but always thought this was just kids mucking about. Would love to hear of other verses.
DeleteKookabuarra sits on the old gum tree, counting all the monkeys he can see, no kookaburra, no kookaburra, that's no monkey that's me!
DeleteKookaburra sits in the old gim tree, eating all the gum drops he can see, stop kookaburra, stop kookaburra, leave some drops for me
and of course the one with the electric wire!