Ravens…quilts?

Early on in my experimenting with quilt art I allowed my interest in ravens to guide my work. This was a freeing experience and opened the door to innumerable new personal insights and quilt-art making opportunities. The quilts created during this period were produced by progressively experimenting with various design elements and techniques. Like raven I have enjoyed going outside ‘the rules' to create these personal statements. Some ideas have worked, others have not, but each piece over the last 15 years has brought me new knowledge and ideas to fuel my work into the future.

In those earlier pieces raven made his presence known, for he was there front and center in many of my designs. Since then raven is usually only there in spirit and when asked ‘where are the ravens?’ I honestly answered, ‘he is there, you just can not see him’.

As I travel, I am almost always asked, ‘what is the difference between crows and ravens?’, so I put this little bit of information together… hopefully, it is enough to entice you to find out more.

Raven Tidbits

Ravens have played an interesting role in many cultures throughout history. Raven, in many myths and stories, plays the role of creator, cultural hero, trickster, philosopher and fool –always showing intense curiosity and the ability to transform.

From tales in Britain , Ireland , Norway and the Pacific Northwest , it is raven who, through playful and sometimes hard earned wisdom, enables us to understand our shortcomings, to value humor and to allow mischievous play and transformational magic into our lives.

If you watch these lively birds you will gain an understandingof how their ancestors were able to gain such notoriety.

The ravens we see are the largest member of the Corvidae family, commonly referred to as ‘corvids'. They grow to the size of a large hawk, but are often confused with crows.

I am always asked…how can you tell them apart? The quick answers are:

Ravens are larger (much larger than a crow)

Their tail feathers come to an angled point, whereas a crow's tail feathers are straight

In flight the crow's wings will appear shorter and have a distinctive bend, like an ‘elbow'

A raven's call is deeper and throaty. A “Kaugh” as compared to a crow's nasal sounding “Kaw”.