12 days of Christmas Day 7

 ‘On the seventh day of Christmas 

My true love gave to me

Seven swans a’swimming’ 

THEFRANCOFLY, Pinterest

Today is the last day of the ‘edible’ birds

in this familiar children’s game and song.

In the 1760’s (Approx. when this game may have been played) the dining table would have included 

Partridges

Doves

Chickens, French or otherwise

Songbirds, black or others

Geese

and Swans.

Not your typical fare in the 2000’s!

Photographer Ann Geddes

So you could say your true love

was providing you with delicious meals.

Of course you had to feed, kill, pluck and cook it all…but still a nice gesture.

Except now some of the goose eggs have hatched and you have little goslings running all over, with their gander papa hissing at everyone to stay away from his babies!

Ah, true love.

Time to talk swan now!

Pinterest 

A male swan is called a cob.

He helps protect the nest, feed and take care of eggs, his mate and the hatched swans, which are called cygnets 

(pronounced sig-net).

And mama swan? She is called a pen.

Cygnets are quite large when hatched and start swimming just a few hours after!

To compare, a newborn duck weighs around 50 grams.

A newborn swan weighs between

200-250 grams!

That’s a lot of baby swan…

Papercutting by inkspired (me!)

Let’s have some super-sized SWAN FUN!

ArtProjectsForKids.org

You can draw your swans as big, or as many as you want! Here is another way to learn how to draw a cob or a pen-

BuzzFeed

If you draw 3 or more you have a flock of swans.

Once a cygnet chooses a flock, it will stay with that group usually for the rest of its’ life.

From an article by Erma Ruthven-Stevenson, 2015

A swan swimming suit contest?

Here is a beautiful swan that has been hand embroidered-

By Karen Nicol embroideryasart.blogspot.com

and here is another embroidered one, 

in an Art Nouveau style -

Etsy

Here is a beaded swan-

Posted on Instagram, in French

and here is one made from gems and pearls -

Ochira jewelry

You can make a flock of swans using your hand, a pencil to trace around it; some paper and scissors. A couple markers or crayons to draw in face features are nice. Put it together with a little glue and here you are-

DLTK’s Crafts for Kids by Leanne Guenther

Here is another style, same basics-

A few thin cut strips of blue paper are all it needs to be ‘swimming in the water’.

To make it look more like a swan, cut the section between the neck and the back more, to make the neck longer.

This is a vintage illustration for one of Hans Christian Anderson’s stories -

‘The Wild Swans’

Here’s another one!

Next is a wonderful pattern to print, cut out and assemble into your own swan.

Make it from felt, and embroider if you want.

Cut it from fabric 2x, then stuff and sew around the edges of the front and back for a pillow, 

or fabric pin, or backpack dangly!

Cut 2 wings and sew on just the bottom part of the wing to the main body.

Or

Embroider all around each wing.

The Mailbox, Pinterest

More interested in edibles?

You can find cookie molds like this one -

House on the Hill, Inc.

Like cutting and gluing?

Here is one to print and cut paper ones like this-

Monkey-design.com.tw

It is looking more and more like we need to have a SWAN party!

:)

I love vintage advertising, and this one is a beauty!

Nothing to do with the quality of pencils, 

But still a beautiful illustration!

Coming soon -

Day 8

8 maids a’ milking!

‘Til next time,

Inkspired  

P.S. Blogger is doing weird things with font sizes and placements and font colors. I apologize for the odd look - haven’t figured out yet how to override it.

:(

In addition to previously posted websites for 12 Days of Christmas, I checked these out:

ClickACraft.com

TheGraphicsFairy.com

Wikihow.com

Kaleidoscope by inkspired and KaleidoCam