Foam #6 as Art?

Hello Everyone! The popular refrain to stay safe and sane continues. June has been an incredible, momentous, and exhausting month. Planet Nice Crafts has felt the emotion of these times. It has spent time reflecting, but also continuing to stay the course. As of today, 257 masks have been delivered to the MasksNowIllinois group and others in our orbit. The MasksNowIllinois group in totality has completed over 15,000 masks with almost 29,000 requested – so the group is more than half way there. It has been asked where these masks are going. According to the updates, before the beginning of June, healthcare facilities and disabled/senior centers were the main recipients. Now the focus has changed to non-profits and under-resourced places such as orphanages, safe havens, homeless shelters, food pantries, and child care services. This affects Planet Nice Crafts because now only the 2-layer masks are sewn instead of a mask that has a pocket for a filter.

The sewing of masks is one of three initiatives that Planet Nice Crafts focuses on to help Planet Earth. The other two are recycling foam #6 (Styrofoam is the brand name) and the garden plot. The garden plot is coming along. It really enjoyed the recent rains after the dry, windy weather. A few plants were lost but new seeds were then tossed in. Regardless, seed planting continues as the work of weeding and hopefully in a few months, harvesting is staggered. The traditional Spring plantings of the peas, cabbage, and poppies are still going – in fact they seem to be growing faster in this warmer weather. It was thought maybe they would falter completely by now. A few weeks ago, the first pea flower was observed. These seeds were planted in early April!

A few handfuls of kale have been harvested, but unfortunately not enough to make a food pantry donation. The tomatoes and peppers have been basking in the June sun and heat so the next hope is on them to produce enough to share.

One of the municipal services that re-opened this month with additional precautions is the Highland Park Recycling Center which is open to everyone in IL - Lake County. Deliveries of foam #6 are usually made quarterly. The foam #6 has been collected and scavenged from households in IL - Cook County, IL - Lake County, and WI – Winnebago County. Because of the virus, there was much to be collected as many neighbors were buying computer monitors, sewing machines, etc during the April lockdown. The garage was filled to capacity and multiple delivery trips were anticipated. With very careful consideration of trunk space and the additional rules, only two trips were needed. Here is a photo of the trunk on run #2:

The big foam #6 pieces remained loose and the food containers were packaged in clear plastic bags. Because of the color, texture, and unique stacking, the clear plastic bags had their own photoshoot with the big (aka non-phone) camera.

I am not sure this is art. How the bags were filled was done with intention – clear plastic bags are rare so careful grouping and stacking was required to use their volume to hold the maximum number of food containers. The photos were also done with intention. The bags were purposefully placed on the asphalt so the contents would be the focus of the picture. The photos were optimized in Photoshop. Taking care of your planet does require effort 😊.

The last update is on bird photography. The birds continue to be photogenic. The birdbath was moved a couple weeks ago so it is now right outside the patio door. I observe the birds more closely, even having the identification book close by but taking photos of them continues to push the skill level. The camera must be on and right at my side because little movement and sound sends them scattering. A good cardinal photo continues to elude. This is the best of the bad:

The robins continue to be the most photogenic as they tend to dominate the crowd – I have ceased taking their photos, but this pompous juvenile was too good to pass up. He was sitting in the birdbath for about 10-15 minutes like he owned the place.

Other birds that have been identified are goldfinches (males and females visit separately), cowbirds, catbirds, mourning doves, and sparrows (both the native and the introduced house sparrow). The set up needs to be altered to minimize time in Photoshop.

This male goldfinch is post Photoshop. The original photo is here:

Here is the female cowbird post Photoshop. I think she is an attractive bird with her subtle coloring but cowbirds are fraudulent because she’ll lay her eggs in other bird species’ nests and leave the rearing to others. It takes all kinds even in the non-human animal kingdom.

Here is the original. There was no time to move to not be blocked!

When there was a rabbit nest, there was an opportunity to take photos of the kits (babies). This was the winner, with very little manipulation in Photoshop (a little cropping and adding tone). All of these photos are taken through window which Photoshop helps greatly by adding tone.

And on this happy, adorable note. See you in July. Reach out to planetnicecrafts@gmail.com if a care package is desired – creating and sending packages is fun. Stay safe and healthy!