Tuesday, February 21, 2012

elusive inspiration

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The turkeys have given me a lot of inspiration. I've been noticing them each morning, when they leave their roosting area. They glide from the tops of the pines to the other side of the river. . This flock, or rafter, of turkeys has at least 40 hens to 3 or 4 Toms...as far as I can count. Each evening, at approximately 12 minutes after 5, they make their climb to the base of this hillside. It is usually too dark for me to photograph. I am in search of a stray feather or two..so one afternoon I decided to make the climb.

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There are many fallen pines up here, downed by the strong winds from a big storm a few years ago. The turkeys jump on these and use them like ladders to make their way to the top. I look for feathers, but don't find any.

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Looking up, it is hard to imagine how they get themselves up high into these trees at dusk. They make a lot of racket, bumping into each other and knocking down branches...flapping their wings...settling themselves into position,... or not. If you have ever seen chickens go to roost at night, it is very much the same procedure. You would think with all that flapping around there would be a spare feather or two. I could not find a one.

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I took time to notice the view before heading down to the cabin. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't find a feather to study. I took a photograph a few weeks ago, a closeup of the feathers on the back of a hen that was outside my window. I loved the colors and thought they would make a good palette to use when mixing up dyes. A sort of turkey feather colorway.

Someone suggested that I use the image for a virtual palette..so I took the advice and had two of them generated. Here is the first one.

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And the second.

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Neither one seems to translate what I am seeing IRL. I want to see more iridescent blue and green and purple...so I will keep searching for the elusive feather. Sooner or later one will fall into my path. You just can't rush some things. You have to wait for them to happen.

9 comments:

Jody said...

I hope you find your special feather...would love to see those colours :-)

judy said...

I think that you wrote my post. We are entranced with 'our' rafter. One group that spends much of the day here is The Boys Club, 12 toms. We know that there are at minimum 47, though are not sure if the separate into smaller groups to confuse us.
Rarely do I see a feather. As I write, three toms are looking at me.
We regulate our days by theirs. They fly, one at a time into the tree tops at a few minutes past sunset. The cats must be in when the turkeys roost. ;)

Lisa at Greenbow said...

What fun to be able to watch turkeys go to roost. I have never seen such a large rafter of turkeys. I can't wait to see the color combos you come up with. All good things come to us slowly.

Valerie said...

What a great idea to extract the palette from the feathers. Hope the blues and greens come to you through the next feather you find!

We saw at least two groups of turkeys on our weekend trip. The birds are certainly enjoying the mild winter this year.

elizabeth said...

Turkey feathers remind me of oil slicks, all the same colors.

annmarie said...

the virtual palette thing is so cool! at the risk of seeming like a complete luddite who's been in a cave, how do you generate the palette from your photo?

thecrazysheeplady said...

Interesting! How do you do a virtual palette?

Cathy said...

I used to make a point of riding along the river at sunset just to watch the wild turkeys single file across the meadows to the tall trees. I never imagined seeing that many turkeys at once. Here we see only a half dozen or so at a time.

So hard to translate nature's palette with our poor dyes, isn't it? Maybe some metallic thread...or angelina...or silk blend??

Artis-Anne said...

I too would love to see a feather ,the colours sound wonderful. How did you make that palette from a photo please ?

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