Weekly Bird in the Hand

It's Saturday - back in Glen Ellen - and time for my weekly "bird in the hand" - the things I am grateful for:

My wax sculpture - soon to be bronze sculpture!

• Having the opportunity to have our 7 week "sabatical" in San Miguel - and having such a wonderful time
• Family who came to join us in San Miguel
• The teachers whom I took classes with - Rita, Rae, Gerardo, Keith, Kris - and all the fun, all the new things I learned and the inspiration their classes gave me
• The sunshine, flowers, food, colors, cobblestone streets, sunsets, rooftop gardens, burros, people of San Miguel
• The two lovely homes we got to stay in - thanks Dennis and Kathrin, and Jay
• New friends we made
• Cassie my friend, who stayed in our home while we were away to take care of Harold, my pet parrot.  Thanks soooo much Cassie
• Harold - for singing all day with me today to welcome me home
• All the ducks, herons and egrets that are on the pond today to welcome us back
• A wonderful birthday with many messages from friends all around the world
• John's brother's carers/doctors/nurses at the hospital in England

We've had a wonderful time away and hope to bring some of what we loved about that trip back into our daily lives.  Now I'm looking forward to getting back into everything here - especially both my art and my singing, which starts again tomorrow.

Life is good! :=D  Hope it is for you too. xxx

5/52 - Bird a week - A bird in the hand

Time for another "bird a week" (- my little challenge group where we make a different bird each week using whatever media we like).

This week, my birdie is based on a phrase that means a lot to me - "A bird in the hand." If you read my blog regularly, you'll see that each Saturday I write a "bird in the hand" blog post which lists the things I'm grateful for that week, as I see the saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"  is all about being grateful for what we have.

This is my first wax sculpture. The hand is life size.  The two pieces are going off to be cast in bronze.  My first bronze sculpture! I'm quite excited by the prospect of it.

The photos are from different stages along the way and not the final pieces.  We'll wait until they are in bronze to see how my final refining and details came along.

The pieces will remain separate - not connected - so that you can pick them up and change the position etc. 

I loved working with the wax.  I really like how the hot tools just glide into it...how you can add and take away easily - and how you can add so many details. I learned under Rita Torlen, here in San Miguel. She is the same teacher that I had for my "girl with the bird in her hair" clay sculpture.  I've so enjoyed my classes with her.  They all called me "the bird lady" in class!

Doing the bird was fascinating. With most of my jewelry, I like simple designs, not much fuss or texture, but with this bird, I thought I'd try something different and put all the little feather patterns in. It was such fun to do.  And doing something life size was a welcome relief after all the tiny jewelry sculpting I do!

I know I will be doing more bronze sculptures when I get home, using the wax for models.  Here in Mexico, the price for having it cast in bronze is very reasonable - can't say the same for the US ...but maybe I'll just ship them back down here.

 

There are a good group of us doing the "bird a week" challenge so I hope you'll take the chance to look at some of the others by following the links below.  Hopefully those in the challenge will add their blog post link or flickr photo link. If you would like to join us in the challenge, you are most welcome.  Click on the flickr group link for more info.