So I really started getting into animal tracks and tracking when I moved to New Hampshire. I wouldn't say I'm a tracker or anything remotely like that - but I do like trying to use a bit of detective work to figure out who has been around.
When I lived in New Hampshire, I volunteered at
Squam Lakes Natural Science center. I became a docent and just loved the training and learnt so much. I then went on to help in the development department with their capital campaign. It is just a wonderful place and if you are ever anywhere nearby, you have to go and visit it - whatever your age. It made such an impact on me - and I wish I still lived close by.
Anyhow, we were new to the USA at the time and I just got interested in all the different animals that we didn't have in England. Opossums playing dead, skunks smelling the roads - ugh, bobcats, bears hiding behind trees, flying squirrels...... - it was all so new and fascinating.
But my most loved of all was the porcupine. Ah - I definitely have a soft spot for the porcupine. As a docent, my favourite prop was to take the giant porcupine quill model out on the trail, plus some real quills and explain about porcupines and how they live. I encouraged the kids - and adults - to feel the barbs and would tell the story of a man who had a quill go inside him and travel through is body and then get caught on his shirt one day as it was making it's way back out again! Sorry - too long a story to go into the details here....you'll have to ask me some other time.
Then, the whole time I lived in NH, every single time I went outside, I couldn't take my eyes off the trees, looking for porcupines. I was constantly searching. They are so pretty.
We had one porcupine at the Science Center who had been injured and was like an 'ambassador' - teaching children and adults about the species. I always loved to watch when they did a porcupine presentation.
But my whole time in NH, the only porcupine I ever saw - apart from the Science center one - was a road-kill porcupine :-(. I did however make my husband stop when I saw it dead on the road and I got out of the car and went to have a look :=D
While I was working on the capital campaign to raise money for the Science Center, I was involved in creating and designing a brochure for the campaign. The Center is a wonderful educational place and in everything they send out, they like it to have some educational component. So I worked on coming up with a design that would tell what the campaign was about, why we should raise money, why the person should donate and also had some educational component to it. The brochure turned out to depict pathway along the different pages - and on each page, I put in a different set of animal tracks/footprints...that followed on with subsequent pages. Like my bracelet, the reader had to try and guess which animal created the footprint. It added a fun and entertaining, yet educational element to a document asking for donations.
Anyhow - the result is that we achieved our goal for the capital campaign - and maybe someone even checked out the prints and had a guess.
So ten years later, I had this idea for a foot print bracelet and the Science Center brochure connection didn't even occur until later! And yes, I still gaze up at trees and can't take my eyes of them, looking for porcupine when I go to areas where they may live. One day.....
And in the meantime, I look at the tracks the animals leave near our pond in the mud, I look at the scat and wonder who has been eating all our grapes.....I look at the bird tracks on the beach....and so, my interest continues......
Hope you'll enter the competition to guess the bracelet tracks and win your own track as a key ring or bookmark.
For example, quite a few years ago I created my first "anyone can" necklace which was "anyone can fly" with a bird hanging upside down. For a long while I liked the idea of an "action" series using the 'anyone can' idea - but I wanted it to be a person and not a bird and couldn't decide on how to design a figure that could be male or female and pose-able. 
Move forward two years and I came up with a person - "anyone" and then created my "anyone can" series with people "accomplishing" different things like whistling, or training a dog, or falling in love, or flying a kite. And the series has proved popular and will continue with some new ideas soon...
As you can see, there are lots of ways to explore this. My latest series that is just beginning is my bracelets where I now have an animal tracks bracelet and a bird tracks bracelet. I want to do a safari animal one with elephant, giraffe, lion etc tracks.....but then also a story one where
each square tells the next part of a story, like a cartoon strip...then I've thought of doing grape leaf shape variations, as I live in wine country...then....and so the list develops. It started as animal tracks...followed that subject to bird tracks, then will go off in a slight sideways tangent away from animals but using the same design.
So I really started getting into animal tracks and tracking when I moved to New Hampshire. I wouldn't say I'm a tracker or anything remotely like that - but I do like trying to use a bit of detective work to figure out who has been around.
But my most loved of all was the porcupine. Ah - I definitely have a soft spot for the porcupine. As a docent, my favourite prop was to take the giant porcupine quill model out on the trail, plus some real quills and explain about porcupines and how they live. I encouraged the kids - and adults - to feel the barbs and would tell the story of a man who had a quill go inside him and travel through is body and then get caught on his shirt one day as it was making it's way back out again! Sorry - too long a story to go into the details here....you'll have to ask me some other time.
We had one porcupine at the Science Center who had been injured and was like an 'ambassador' - teaching children and adults about the species. I always loved to watch when they did a porcupine presentation.
And in the meantime, I look at the tracks the animals leave near our pond in the mud, I look at the scat and wonder who has been eating all our grapes.....I look at the bird tracks on the beach....and so, my interest continues......
In my latest bracelet - "animal tracks", the tracks of 9 different mammals were used and impressed into the silver. Now your job is to identify which animals the tracks belong to. I know it's quite difficult, so I will tell you the animals used (apart from one) and you then just have to put them in the correct order and try and figure out the missing one.
And the prize - I'll make you a key ring or bookmark with the footprint of your choice (as long as I can find one to replicate!). The piece could also be a pendant.... Your choice. With your guess, please name the animal or bird footprint you would like to win and why. And if you don't like leaving comments you can email me your guess instead!
Keep watching!
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