Anyone can....train a dog

Dogs.....oh how I've been wanting a dog........A cute dog that will travel with me in my car. I just love to see dogs in cars with their heads out of the window, the wind blowing back their ears....it's just a picture of pure joy! And I've never seen so many dogs in cars and trucks as I have in California. The dogs here must just love the weather and the "wine country living"! You see them yapping in the delight of it all. I've mentioned to some of my friends my desire of having a dog passenger in my car and that maybe I could borrow their dog sometime and take it for a drive.........

All this talk of "borrowing" is because I can't have a dog of my own :-( Yes, we have a great lawn that it could run on....but we do travel quite a bit...and so I've been "told" it just isn't practical....and also, we grow grapes and grapes are poisonous to dogs (but loads of wineries have dogs????). Anyhow - right now, it's not dog time for me - (although one day I will replace my husband with a dog.............)!

So currently, I just enjoy other people's dogs - like KJ, and Scout......and those that I see in cars in trucks!

As I can't have a dog - I thought maybe I could live vicariously through "anyone". So my latest "anyone can...." piece is "anyone can train a dog". But Anyone isn't content with commands like "sit"..he is much more adventurous! This is like agility training!!! Anyone is teaching his little dog to jump through hoops!! Way to go anyone!!!!

It is a lariat style necklace - and features "anyone" holding the loop and then the little dog - with one ear up and one down jumps through the hoop and hangs down below. There is a little hook on the back of the hoop to secure the chain at the length you like.

This was my first attempt at sculpting a dog and it was an interesting process! I first tried making a dog in regular clay...and it took a while to find that the nose was an important feature that distinguished it from some other animal. Once I cracked the nose (so to speak) I tried the dog in the silver clay. I was thinking of adding silver wire legs with hammered feet - but when I tried that - they looked too skinny. So I made some legs from clay and attached them...along with a curled up tail.

But it looked like a pig!!! So I figured it must be the tail...the ears looked good...the nose looked good....so I pulled the tail off. I tried another tail curling up - but it still looked like a pig.....so off it came. Then I tried a stubby tail like lots of dogs have. It looked like a dogs tail alright - but it still looked like a pig.....

So I started working on the back legs....making them more muscley where they join on to the body......but it still looked like a pig!! What was it???

Then I got it - he didn't have any paws!!! I'd done legs but not little paws...so it looked more like trotters and thus a pig!!! It was interesting how one characteristic can change an "animal" so much. The face was a dog, the legs were dogs, the tail was a dog.......but it was still a pig!!

So, I gave him four little paws and Anyone now has a dog!!! And a name for Anyone's dog.......??? How about Doug the Dog....(as in "dug"??!!)

Home is where the heart is

Well yes, maybe a little sentimental - but I'm hoping my "home is where the heart is" design has a little twist on things by making it a lariat necklace. The heart hangs through the home and there is a little hook on the back of the home so that you can keep the chain at a particular length.

I think lariats are more an autumn, winter type of jewelry. Don't know what anyone else thinks, but personally I like them over jumpers/sweaters and more summery clothes seem to get in the way of them a bit....


So with autumn and winter approaching fast.......bear lariats in mind as an adornment for your plain sweaters.

Featured in DIY City Blog

Today I was featured in an online magazine - DIY City Mag. It was an interview about me and Birdland Creations, by Sara Millis from Sara's Texture Crafts. Thanks Sara, for including me! Here's a snapshot - and you can read the full interview if you click here.

The simplicity of the birds

I just finished a couple of simpler bird pieces. The first one is a little singing bird in a tree. A happy looking bird - singing because he can!

The question often comes up - "why do bird sing?" Because they can? I was just listening to a CD - Andrea Bocelli - and my pet parrot, Harold, has been singing away to it - in a voice like Andrea's! Yes, he likes to add vibrato and he really does sing like Andrea! Why does he do that? Coz he can and it's fun??? Who knows. Even when we went out of the house he carried on - so it wasn't to get our attention..... Funny little Harold. No wonder he's so loved!!

The second necklace is Bird on a wire. Just two simple birds sitting on a wire - such a familiar scene. Do you think they communicate with one another? Or they are just hanging out?

I love it when there are lots of birds on a wire and a new one tries to come and moves the others around! All trying to find their own little space - and they never touch one another either. Always equally spaced....keep that perfect distance....

Maybe I need to study the psychology of birds......

Anyhow - these two piece can be found on my website and I'll soon put them on Etsy and Dawanda.

Blog award!

Marian from Florcita nominated me for this blog award today. Thanks! I only started my blog in July - but I'm really enjoying it. Hope you are too.
The idea behind the Brillante weblog Premio 2008 is that who ever receives it, then nominates another 6 blogs - so here is my list:

Easterya Jewellery
Crafts of texture
Babushka Jewellery
The Perorations of Lady Bracknell
Blogasaurus
Tiny house blog

Hope you'll take the time to browse them!

Anyone can ........fly a kite

So here is my latest "Anyone can...." piece. A necklace entitled "Anyone can....fly a kite"

It shows my new friend, Anyone, holding on tight to his new kite and you can just picture him loving that feeling as it takes to the skies and pulls on his arm - and then just for that split second, it takes you off the ground.




This picture here looks like he is just willing the kite to fly......that feeling when you want to blow and encourage it....try as you will, the wind hasn't quite got below it...

But then, the wind gusts and up the kite goes, and you are excited and you let out more string and then it feels like you can fly too!

What a lovely thing kite flying is. Yet you see very little of it nowadays...or is that just here? Maybe there aren't any empty beaches or parks anymore .....?

Anyhow - I hope you like my new Anyone and he gives you the feeling of up, up and away......

If you haven't met Anyone before - be sure to check out "Anyone can fall in love" and "Anyone can whistle".

Etsy Treasury

One of my items - Happy Flowers necklace and earrings set - is featured in an Etsy treasury, along with some other lovely metal pieces created by other artists.

I like this treasury collection because it shows how color can be incorporated into metal clay using different techniques such as stones, glass, resin and concrete.

All the artists on this treasury are members of a new Etsy group - Etsy Metal Clay Team. We are working together to promote metal clay on Etsy and further afield and are just setting up a new website www.etsymetalclay.com More will come soon.

Anyone can.......whistle

I love to whistle. I do it quite a lot actually. Can often be heard whistling a tune.....and on many occasions I have been told that I whistle like a man. What exactly does that mean? Is it a compliment? Should I be proud? Should I try to whistle like a woman? Who knows - but it doesn't put me off whistling.

And I have a great whistling pal in my pet parrot Harold. (He looks a bit fluffed up here, as I just woke him up to take his photograph! Sorry Harold!!) He sings too - but he does have a lovely whistle - including a very flattering wolf whistle!

So a couple of days ago I was trying to decide what my next "anyone can...." piece would be - and I had the idea that anyone can whistle. So here is Anyone. Yes, he/she looks like just an ordinary figure - just hanging out from the chain as a necklace. But Anyone has a surprise! Hold Anyone up to your lips and blow - and "Anyone can whistle"!!!

I build the whistle part first. I'd never tried making a whistle before - and it was fiddly to get the sound to hit the correct part to the make the whistle....but when the metal clay was dry, I blew into it and it did make a sound.....so then I added and moulded Anyone onto the front of the whistle! Then I hoped that in the kiln it wouldn't all collapse or shrink in an uneven way and no longer sound. But it worked!

For those musical types out there, Anyone whistles an E (unless you don't blow fully and then it's an E flat!!!!). It's a pretty sound too. A nice clear tone. Maybe this will become the new tuning fork!!!

Hope you like Anyone. I built another Anyone can.... this weekend too whom you'll meet soon.....

I'll list "anyone can whistle" on my site and Dawanda soon.

Green grape harvest II

We've just harvested the green grapes....not many this year - but still nice to do it. But it's hot out there already! Phew! need to cool off now...

That's my husband in the photo in his new "merlove" tee shirt! And it's his hand with the yellow curved knife that you use to cut the bunches off with.

After we picked the few green ones (this year we got many more from our arbor) we then did some sampling of the vineyard checking the brix level of the merlot grapes in different areas. I took rows 8 to 14 above the oak tree and then did the center section too. As you sample, this is meant to be a random thing, so you try and find a representative sample. The grapes are then "mushed" up (very technical term!) and a little of the juice is put in a refractometer and from that you can read the brix - which is the sugar content!

This is useful to guide the decision on when to harvest. It's not only the brix important - other things too - like acid levels etc - but brix is a good indicator.

In previous years, our buyers have only wanted one harvest so some of the grapes were a little over ripe and some were under ripe and some were just perfect. We sell to Havens now and they like to harvest different sections at different times as they ripen at different times. Normally we harvest the top section first ( most of the vineyard is on a slope), then above the oak tree, then generally the rest is pretty much the same as it is on just a gentle slope or no slope at all.

The brix today are: 24.1 for the top section - that means we may be harvesting those next week. The ones I sampled are 22.2 and 22.8 - so probably a couple of weeks yet before they are ready but as we've been having such hot weather lately...who knows.....

Green grape harvest

A morning for some grape harvesting - but green grapes, not merlot!

There are three rogue vines in our vineyard - with white grapes instead of red ones. They were mistakes when the vines were planted. I think two are Gewurztraminer and one is Chardonnay. They are no doubt ripe - as our merlot is just about ripe in some areas. The tricky part is finding them in the hundreds of other vines - and then two of them are in a really awkward position - so it's like risking life and limb just for some grapes! But I do it!! We will probably then juice them and be drinking our grape juice for a while.....

Then, later this morning, we are going to go to the coast for a picnic. My brother in law is with us at the moment and the weather is really too hot to do much outside...but it will be nice at the coast.....

Anyhow - sorry the photo is of our merlot grapes - but I'll take my camera with us now and try and get some of the green grapes....

Flowers disappearing

I went to cut some flowers for a vase today....and there was a distinct lack of fresh flowers..... Ah - how sad.......There will be more roses soon and a few other things...but the flowers are disappearing. Guess that is what fall is all about...

So, here are some of my old flowers too. When I started making jewelry, I did alot of flowers - especially fuschias...so here is a garden of silver flowers... (hmmmm - very different style photography!!!).

But it's interesting to look back at what you used to do and how you used to do it and hopefully to see how you've progressed.....

I'm a little teapot (Part II)

One of the pieces I just got back from my competition entry was the "I'm a little teapot" necklace. I've made a few of these now, different sizes and one as a charm for a bracelet. All those lovely cups of tea, that I just hate.

I know, I've written about tea before in this blog but ......as I was reading the local paper, I then saw this lovely little Pickles cartoon - so knew I had to share it!!

Full of Treasures

I can't believe it's the end of August. It hardly feels like I've started August. Where do those days disappear? But one stroll around the garden where you see all the ripening pears and apples and grapes and yes, there's no doubt that it is the end of August.

What a bounty of yummy fruit! And that pleasure you get from eating something that you have grown - never mind the extra pleasure when you eat it straight off the tree, warmed by the sun.....

Everyday we are picking a bowl full of tomatoes. They are the sweet 100 ones - yes, it's like a hundred a day! We leave them out in a bowl in the kitchen and they are just a tasty little snack as you walk past! By the next day - they are just about all gone and we go and collect some more! We aren't quite as good at eating up the apples. I guess apples come down the list for me and at the moment they compete with the pears and I think the pears win! But I'll cook with the apples.. make some nice chutney, some pie mix, and last year I made pear and apple marmalade which is my favourite marmalade ever - so I guess I'll do some more of that.

But right now, I'm holding out for the figs.... Ah...a warm fig fresh off the tree. I don't think I ever had fresh figs before moving here and we now have three trees - two green figs and one brown. The biggest green fig tree just has the most tasty figs ever. There is alot of fruit on the trees but they still need another couple of weeks to ripen. I think we might cook with their leaves tonight though - if you wrap fish (I'm going to buy some wild salmon) in the leaves and cook them on the barbecue the leaves not only give off this lovely coconutty smell but impart a delicate flavour to the fish.

(Oh - my husband just brought me in half a Gravenstein apple! Juicy, sweet and crisp! He's been strolling around the vineyard and maybe he knew what I was writing about!!!).

So the garden is just full of treasures! Bountiful treasures everywhere you look. And therefore my "full of treasures" necklace is shown here. It is designed to look like a bag/purse and inside are lots of little garnets - the treasures. Looks like it could be a fruit collecting bag, full of plums or grapes or maybe our dark red pears..........What treasures are you gathering from your garden right now?

Anyone can fall in love

Let me introduce you to "anyone". He/She is my newest friend and will be featured in my new "anyone can....." series of jewelry. I wanted to create a little figure that could be male or female and so I created "anyone". (I'll refer to "anyone" as "him" but only because it gets awkward to keep using both sexes!).
Anyhow, I want anyone to try doing different things - be adventurous and see where it takes him.

For a start this, my first piece, is "anyone can fall in love". It is a lariat necklace. "Anyone" is seen falling through the heart shape of the necklace - and so is falling 'in' love!

He is a simple little figure, pants/trousers and a hat and his arms are out in this piece as he his free-falling! And yes, as he is falling - he hangs upside down! Maybe a little bit reminiscent of my first "anyone" piece- but then "anyone" was a bird and the piece was "anyone can fly". Maybe my new anyone will try flying one of these days.

As I do with lariats, there is a little hook on the back of the heart so you can loop part of the chain on it and it holds the lariat at a specific length. So anyone can hang just where you want him. He's close to the "love" in the photos so that I can get a closer up photo of both pieces but you may wear him further away.

I'll put him up on Dawanda and my website soon.

I have lots of ideas of things anyone can try - but if you have some suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I'll mention them to anyone and see if he thinks it's something he'd enjoy! Obviously falling in love was an easy choice! We all love that feeling - that free fall feeling of falling in love!