Animal tracks bracelet

I've simplified the design of my animal tracks bracelet a little, mainly to use less material so when it is in silver, the price isn't so high.

This time, I tried making it in copper, with a footprint toggle clasp.

Can you identify the tracks?

It's a popular piece - I often get requests to make them with a different combination of tracks. And just once, I made it with different size human footprints, to symbolize different family members!

Tracking animals

I've just finished another commission of an animal tracks bracelet!  This time heading to identify tracks in Texas.  That's two in two weeks. 

For each track, I make a separate photopolymer plate of the track and then use that to make the impression in the silver clay.

I have 21 different tracks now, plus a few other birds, but lots of birds look quite similar so I don't tend to use many of those.

Here are the tracks that I have - and, without cheating and reading what is on the back of each square, see if you can figure which ones are used in this bracelet:

• badger, 
• beaver, 
• river otter, 
• opossum, 
• porcupine, 
• skunk, 
• fox, 
• mountain lion, 
• raccoon,
• deer, 
• bear, 
• elephant, 
• rhino, 
• dragon (!), 
• buffalo, 
• dog, 
• cat, 
• owl, 
• eagle, 
• duck, and 
• crow/raven.

Wild in Virginia!

I just finished another animal tracks commissioned bracelet yesterday for a lady who lives in Virginia.  She wanted animals and birds that live around where she lives, and wanted some earrings to match too. 

L-R tracks - Owl, Bear, Porcupine, Mountain Lion

For the earrings she decided on White Tail Deer tracks - a new track for me. 

White tailed deer

Fox, Beaver, Skunk

So how many of the tracks would you have guessed if I hadn't told you?

Porcupine, Mountain Lion, Opossum, Wolf

I have another tracks bracelet to make now, so see if you learn any here and can remember them when I show you the next one! 

Five year shoe mystery solved!

Five years ago, not too long after we moved to CA, my husband John had this old pair of deck shoes. They were too old and beaten up to wear out anywhere - but he used to keep them outside near the back door and then slip them on when we went around the vineyard or garden. They were perfectly suited for this - worn in, comfortable, pale so showed the dirt but didn't matter....

One morning in September that year, he got up and one shoe was missing...... We searched around....he wouldn't have taken one off outside and brought the other in....but we checked everywhere...and sure enough - he only had one shoe..... Where had the other disappeared to???? It was a mystery.....

We once did a evening class in "murder mystery" ( that's another story I'll tell you one day - best class ever !) - and even though this wasn't a murder, we wanted to solve it and figure who/what would take one shoe? Our only theory at the time was that there had been a fox around lately. We had seen it in the garden and heard it's calls at night time so we decided that the little fox had taken the shoe...for some reason or other....Didn't really make much sense but then there was no other theory that made any better sense....

Fast forward three months and we got our first rain for months - since the spring. It was a Sunday morning and John was out playing golf. I got up and just glanced out of the window - and what did I see - but John's shoe!!! What a surprise after all this time... It was in an obvious place so if it had been there all along, we would have seen it - but no - it was "returned"!!

So I ran out and picked up the shoe and put it in a big cardboard box and put a big bow on it. I then left for the day and left the box for him to open when he got home!!!

He was surprised by getting his shoe back but then admitted that just the previous week he had given up hope the thrown the other shoe away!!! So now he was left with one shoe again..... I extended our fox theory to include that with the first rainfall, the shoe started to smell a bit so the fox returned it!!!!

It was about this time when we were trying to come up with a name for our vineyard. It will probably come as no surprise to you if you have read my "naming" posts - but we weren't short of names - we had loads. We just couldn't decide which one...but after the shoe incident, we were sorely tempted to call the vineyard and wine "foxtrot"! We could just imagine a wine label with a fox on it with one white shoe on one of his paws......

Well, until yesterday, the fox being the culprit was just our theory and, as we felt, a nice little story. That is until our neighbour emailed us this link.

It's all about a fox in a western town in Germany. A forest worker saw some shoes near a fox's den and investigated further and found 120 shoes in the den! It seems that the fox stole the shoes for her "cubs to play with"!!! How many cubs are there and how many shoes do they need???

Anyhow, although there were missing laces, the shoes were in good condition. John's too was in the same condition as when he lost it! The German shoes have been returned to their rightful owners and no charges will be pressed!


Aren't animals just amazing creatures!!!!

Thanks Craig and Natalie for passing on the German fox news. We now feel confident that our theory from 5 years ago, was indeed correct!

Animal tracks competition winner!!

And the winner is ........Karen!! Well done Karen. You got 8 correct out of the nine. You got all the animals I mentioned in the correct order but just missed on identifying the missing animal, which is the second square.

So the correct answers from left to right are:


Badger; Beaver; River Otter; Opossum; Porcupine; Skunk; Fox; Mountain Lion; Raccoon.

The mystery track was the beaver - I thought it was quite distinctive - but maybe not distinctive enough!!! Don't you just love the opossums little hands.....

Anyhow - well done to Karen - and to everyone else who entered. Hope you'll remember these next time you are out - or better yet, buy a bracelet for the perfect reminder! :-D

So Karen, please tell us what footprint you would like on your prize (- and looking at your profile - please don't make it the Loch Ness Monster!!!!) - it needs to be an animal or bird that I can find a representative print from. Then do tell us why you selected that animal. Also let me know if you want a key ring, book mark or pendant.

Then can you email me your mailing address so I can send off your prize!

Animal tracks

Still time to enter the animal tracks competition. Go on - you can do it. It's easy, apart from the missing animal....



Click here for details:
http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com/2009/01/competition-identify-animal-tracks.html

Competition ends 02.02.09 evening!

Competition - identify the animal tracks

In my latest bracelet - "animal tracks", the tracks of 9 different mammals were used and impressed into the silver. Now your job is to identify which animals the tracks belong to. I know it's quite difficult, so I will tell you the animals used (apart from one) and you then just have to put them in the correct order and try and figure out the missing one.

So the animals are:

badger
fox
mountain lion
opossum
otter
porcupine
raccoon
skunk

plus one more mystery animal for you to guess. (PRINTS NOT TO SCALE)

Start listing from the first footprints after the clasp (on the left in the photo above). Please put your guesses in the comments section. You can enter as many times as you like. Go on - give it a try. This first person with all the correct footprints identified wins - or else I'll keep it going for a week and the person with the most correct identifications will win.

And the prize - I'll make you a key ring or bookmark with the footprint of your choice (as long as I can find one to replicate!). The piece could also be a pendant.... Your choice. With your guess, please name the animal or bird footprint you would like to win and why. And if you don't like leaving comments you can email me your guess instead!

Let's get tracking!

(PS the book shown in some of the previous photos isn't where I got the tracks from - so while it may help, you still have to be a detective!).