Isagra Naglia

When I was in London, I saw this quote by Samuel Beckett and thought it was kind of depressing, but encouraging at the same time. There are so many things that we fail at that may destroy our will to continue trying them, but try them again we must and if we fail again, it is with more knowledge than when we failed the first time.

I finished this last Sunday for Mother's day for my mom. She wanted another bird to fill in her three frames that she had. She got the original California Quail and I made two of these Mountain Bluebirds. The Mountain Bluebird, Sialia currucoides is the state bird of Idaho. I put him with the state flower of Idaho, the Syringa, Philadelphus lewisii. I think I'll try to do the rest of the 50 states, although there are some repeats, but the flowers are different!



Purchase a print of the Mountain Bluebird and Syringa at etsy!

Ooo...I just got a real job in real life and haven't had much time for papercutting, but when things settle down, I'll get back on it. For now, though, I think you should behold this Martha Stewart Craft Knife, which is glorious to behold in its custom case with cushy handle.

I bought some tissue the other day with some hopes of creating some papel picado. I kept procrastinating and procrastinating until Sunday when I thought, "I know! I'll have a cinco de mayo party and put up some papel picado!" So I send out an invite and now I was committed.


Papel picado is the Mexican form of papercutting. You layer a bunch of tissue together and by whatever means possible, you cut through all of it and have a remarkable decoration. I used an exacto blade and one of those grommet hole cutters. I wish I had some carving tools.


This took me probably about 4 hours to make, I sat through two NPR shows and a LOST podcast to create it. I think it was worth it though. My porch looked the prettiest, I think, with all the sparky lights. Happy Cinco de Mayo!