Welcome to Wiser Now’s weekly email blast which reflects my eclectic interests and, I hope, yours. This week, continuing my focus on Miniatures Month, you’ll find adorable tiny animals. I write the Light News section of the beautiful and unique print magazine Mirador (See Featured Product) and while I was researching material for my little vignettes, I learned about the roughly 6.5 inch tall “Magical Mouse” statue sitting on a sphere on a quiet street corner in Klaipeda, Lithuania. It’s considered magical because it might make your dreams come true. According to legend, when you whisper your wishes into the mouse’s upturned ears, “your words will become miracles.” Much more, below.

I hope you find these offerings fun, and perhaps even useful, and welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com) And if you haven’t yet pressed the subscribe button so this newsletter doesn’t go to spam, please do so now.

The Quirky Quote

Size isn’t everything. The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine.

~ Bill Vaughan.

The Quirky Facts

The Magical Mouse is small as public art statues go, but not as mice go. There are many other artists, though, that make much smaller-than-life animals. So many, in fact, that it was a struggle to choose from among the categories of creatures and materials. Here are a few examples:

These adorable flowerpot rabbits were made by Kerri Pajutee from polymer clay and alpaca fiber. The pots are cast metal that have been painted to look like terra cotta. She has also done a series of birds– including the singing canary also shown here which was made with “BeeSputty, wire thread, [and] real cut-to-size feathers and flock.”

Similarly, Hungarian artist Fanni Sandor is a trained microbiologist and science teacher who creates tiny, biolgically correct sculptures of birds and animals. In an interview with Treehugger, she said, “I consider environmental education, and sensitizing people to nature to be very important.” Aiming to call attention to the miracles of Nature, she crafts her creatures, like the birds shown here, out of polymer clay, feathers, fur, fibers, and other materials, at a teeny-tiny scale of 1 to 12. You can see many more examples at My Modern Met and Fanni Sandor's Instagram and Facebook pages.

Some artists work with blown glass, and I have collected a few of my own from multiple countries. I could not find any details about the one shown here, but Google “miniature glass birds,” for enchanting examples.

Still other artists work with the Japanese art of origami. German artist Anja Markiewicz makes her tiny figures using the tip of a toothpick, skilled hands, and patience galore. You can see much more of her art here.

Japanese artist Naoki Onogawa folds hundreds of miniature paper birds by hand, a process he finds meditative. To him, the birds symbolize prayer, and he attaches them together to form bonsai tree-shaped sculptures. The example shown here was found at https://search.muz.li/NGYwMzFjNGI3 but you can find more examples in multiple colors here.

Then there are those who work in pencils and watercolors like Russian artist Irene Malakhova whose Tiny Momday series includes this darling panda pair. She has also done a series called Tiny Creatures Days. All of her charming, highly detailed animals are only about the size of a nickel.

If these are not enough, here is one of many Pinterest sites featuring an astounding array of tiny sculpted birds and other animals

The Quirky Observations

Glass, paper, polymer, pencils and paints all have many participating artists, but only a few creatures come with patterns. If you are patient and have very good eyesight along with a pair of teeny needles, you might try these free patterns for crocheting your own tiny animals like this one for the mice in the hands or this one for the owl on a fingertip.

The Featured Product

Mirador Magazine is “an ad-free, leisure-oriented online and print publication created for people experiencing cognitive change.” That’s the website description, which fails to mention that the quarterly magazine is graphically gorgeous, an omission made up for in the most recent edition’s “Letter to our readers” which states, “Mirador is for anyone who likes a beautiful engaging publication.” It was designed to be accessible to a “neurodivergent audience” in that it uses short articles in slightly larger print than most other magazines, as well as a few activity exercises, and ad-free, uncluttered pages with a variety of prompts meant to spark conversation. The website has a prominent endorsement from Teepa Snow, one of today’s foremost advocates (and a fabulous trainer) for people living with dementia, but the word “dementia” never appears in the magazine, and its appeal is to a much broader audience – multiple ages and interests. Art and nature figure prominently. See samples (and subscribe) at https://www.miradormagazine.com/. I highly recommend that you check it out, even if, as a contributor, I am a bit biased.

Please Spread the Word

This week we’re giving you a fun image for sharing WNW with anyone you know who might enjoy this 4-time award-winning e-newsletter. Just copy the image at right and share the URL which is always listed later in the day of publication under WN Wed Archive on the Wiser Now menu bar. You can click on any issue you want to share, and when it appears, at the top of the screen you will see “Share” with an f for Facebook and a bird for Twitter. Click on them to share to your contacts or just copy the URL at the top of your screen and send it to them in an email. For all you activity professionals out there, this is also the best way to create a printable copy without your email info at the top.

Thank you for your help, and if you represent an organization that would like a customized version or that would consider becoming a sponsor, send me a note at Kathy@WiserNow.com.

The Questions

• Do the miniature birds and animals shown above appeal to you? Are there any you especially like? Do check the embedded links for many more examples.
• Would you have the skill, patience, or eyesight to create any of the miniature creatures illustrated in this eblast?
• Do you know anyone who does?

The Quiz – Who Said It?

Because this eblast is focused on tiny animals, a trivia quiz on matching lighthearted quotes to their originators makes sense. There are loads of witty quotes about animals I could have used for this matching quiz, but I decided to only use quotes from really famous people (meaning people whose names I recognize) so you would have (I hope) a better chance of getting the answers right. But, of course, right answers matter less than whether you learn something new and are amused in the process. If you want more funny animal quotes, try this site – which is where most of these came from.

Can you match the quote to the person who said it?

1. The more excited the rooster gets, the higher his voice goes. He’s got a little bit of a Barney Fife quality to him.

2. In LA we get coyotes in our garbage cans. Coyotes are just like my relatives. They go out in pairs, they whine at night, and they go anywhere there’s food. 

3. Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.

4. We’ve all done this because we’re so mature. You see a cow on the side of the road, stick your head out the window and go, “Mooooo!” Like we expect the cow to think, “Hey, there’s another cow, driving that car! How can he afford that?”

a. Billy Crystal

b. Jeff Foxworthy

c. Garry Shandling

d. Mark Twain

5. God in his wisdom made the fly, And then forgot to tell us why.

6. “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.

7. A couple of rabbits were being chased by a coyote. They stopped in a haystack, and one rabbit said to the other, “We gonna make a run for it, or stay here and outnumber them?”

8. What should you do if you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?

a. George Carlin

b. Groucho Marx

c. Ogden Nash

d. Red Skelton

The Resources

I have embedded many wonderful links in this eblast that I hope you will check out. You can also find many others by Googling “images” and typing in “miniature birds” or the animal of your choice.

Photo credits are all associated with the embedded artist links except those purchased from iStock.

And, as always, check out www.WiserNow.com.

Answers to the quiz

1. b. Jeff Foxworthy

2. a. Billy Crystal

3. d. Mark Twain

4. c. Garry Shandling

5. c. Ogden Nash

6. b. Groucho Marx

7. d. Red Skelton

8. a. George Carlin