Quentin Quail

My favorite bird in the summer garden in northern California is the California Quail. They are such cuties! They have beautiful coloration on their feathers - especially the male and their little topknot feathers are so comical. But their best feature is their love of running! They prefer running to flying and their little tiny skinny legs move soooooo fast. Apparently they have been clocked running at 12 mph!

Anyhow, this year we have been watching a couple of quails in our garden- a male and a female - Quentin and Queenie. My husband and I have commented on how frequently we see them...we can be looking out of the window in the office and see them, then go outside and they are already somewhere else and.....Just amazing. And they are scratching around for food in the ground...then run fast. Occasionally Quentin will sing for us as he sits on top of one of our seats. Well the other day we went to walk down for our newspaper and said "hi" to Quentin and Queenie, then walked a little further and saw them again, then again.......And suddenly it hit us! We have Quentin and Queenie 1, 2 and 3!!!! We have now seen 3 pairs of Quentin and Queenies in the garden all at one time - not just one pair that runs around the house all the time!!!!!

So I made a necklace in fine silver of Quentin - coz he makes me smile!!! I hand formed his shape in metal clay, and added fine silver wire for his top knot and legs...but then of course, had to put him in running shoes! Well, if he runs at 12 mph he needs them. So hope you enjoy my Quentin and that he makes you smile :=D Our fingers are crossed that the Queenies are nesting somewhere and one day we will have to come up with lots of Q names for babies. The babies are sooooo tiny - just adorable.

The picture below is of quail sculptures in our front garden. The best sight - which unfortunately I didn't catch on the camera, was then Quentin sat on the topknot of the large quail!

Anyone can fly

"Anyone can fly" is a necklace made from fine silver (.999). It shows a little bird about to make his first flight - but he is a little scared so is still hanging on with his feet. But his wings are spread and he's ready to take that leap........This little bird's story is:

I made this piece in the summer of 2007. I had just finished participating in a Chanticleer workshop. Chanticleer, as you may know, is a wonderful group of 12 male singers - "an orchestra of voices". They are a great ensemble, not only to listen to, but to get to know. At the Chanticleer workshop in Sonoma each year. a group of auditioned singers have the opportunity to sing with, learn from and become friends with the members of Chanticleer, their music director, Joe Jennings and other singers from around the world. It is such a inspiring experience and the summer of 2007 was no exception.

One piece of music that was selected for this workshop was "Leonardo dreams of his flying machine" by Eric Whitacre. The text explores Leonardo da Vinci's dreams of flying and Eric Whitacre has a great use of music to create visual images of flying...using not only words but also "noises" from the singers to conjure up the sound of the wind etc. At one point we sing about Leonardo watching the pigeons and figuring how they do it...and then he builds this machine...and the climax of the piece, with the notes rising is that "he leaps!" - and the air carries him and he manages to fly, despite his own and everyone else's doubts....

So after this uplifting workshop, where the singing and friendship was just incredible...I sat down one day to create something, not having any plan at all...and a bird came first with his wings outstretched and then "anyone can fly" was born. It is a piece that I hope inspires people to take that leap - to have courage and just try. So it seems a perfect piece to being my blogging experience with. I'm taking that leap today with my new blog "inside the artisan" - listening to the stories behind our creations - and believing the anyone can fly!