Sing Out Loud, Part Three

In the first two parts of this project, I showed how I carved, sealed, and applied gesso to the song sparrow and then accomplished the painting. Now I will show how I constructed and painted the thistle habitat for the sparrow.

I chose the thistle habitat because it is typical of a tall plant that the song sparrow often uses as its stage when it’s ready to perform. There are many varieties of thistle I could have chosen. I selected one with a fairly simple flower cup, as this is the most challenging part to make. The Flodmans thistle (Circium flodmanii), commonly known as the prairie thistle, came closest to what I wanted to do.