Quentin Quail is back

We have lots of Quentin and Queenie pairs of quails running around the neighborhood right now, so it was timely that I got a request to make a Quentin necklace as a mother's day present.

Quentin has little running shoes on, as they always do seem to run everywhere very quickly!   I was sat on the porch the other day and Quentin walk slowly past me - not noticing I was there, but then Queenie came up behind him, saw me - and ran so fast, so Quentin ran too!  They are so lovely to watch.

Anyhow - my Quentin customer was a delight. He was buying the necklace for one of his daughters.  I do hope she likes it. I made a different styled Q necklace this week too, but haven't finished it yet. Hopefully early next week I'll show it to you.

Songbirds

I first made my songbird necklace and earrings early on when I started out with metal clay. This week, I made some more with a slightly different design.

This time, I've made them flat backed, instead of a complete 3D bird.  They have always been a best seller, and there must be lots of these little songbirds all over the world.  

As someone who likes long necklaces, I thought the lariat version might be nice too. There's something to be said for keeping designs simple, don't you think?

52/52 Bird a week challenge - Given wings, where might you fly?

Gosh, the last week of the year and that means my 52nd bird of the year.  Yes, this year I have made a different bird each week of the year for the "Bird a week challenge" that I started.  To end the year, I wanted my piece to somehow take me into the New Year...and to be an inspiration for what the new year will bring.

And thus, here is: "Given wings, where might you fly?"

They are ear thread earrings of flying silver birds.  Ear threads are my favorite style of earrings and of course, birds are my favorite subject, so it seemed fitting to end the year with favorites.

And the title I find inspiring as it intimates that we all have wings...all we need to do is decide where we want to fly to.  The New Year is bringing lots of new things to my life - new opportunities, new challenges, new experiences - and so I'm going to spread my wings and fly!

It's been wonderful to do this challenge and have other artists join me on the way.  I'll do some summary posts of the the whole challenge over the next couple of days, but in the meantime, click on the links below to see this week's birds.

I hope you'll spread your wings for 2012 too.

50/52 Bird a week - March of the penguins

This week's bird - or actually birds - are edible...but I don't think any have been eaten!  It was our book club Xmas lunch on Friday and I signed up to make dessert. I thought it would be nice to make individual desserts for the 10 of us, so I made gluten free ginger and zucchini igloo cakes and penguins from icing!

You may well see a similarity between these penguins and my penguin necklace "Cold hands, warm heart"!

When they were made, they all started playing together. Their favorite game, as you can see from the photos, is "follow the leader", or as they call it "The March of the Penguins".  Off they went, all around my kitchen!

Each one is sculpted from black, white and orange icing - which is made from powdered sugar with gelatine and glycerin. It's very easy to sculpt with.  You stick the parts together with either water or alcohol.

My sculpting of birds and animals in icing actually predates my sculpting in silver, and jewelry making.  In fact, it probably was a big influence in my 3D sculpting with metal clay as opposed to creating more flat pieces of jewelry.

Anyhow - at the bookclub lunch, the igloos were eaten, but everyone took their little penguin home. Some were to be saved for grandchildren, the others were going to sit as decorations for the Christmas holiday season!  Yes, they last quite a while in the open. I have three sat at the bottom of a candle!

With their igloos!

I am making dessert for a party this weekend too, so maybe some more penguins will join the march.....

To view the other birds that have been made on our 50th week of our bird a week challenge, check the links below! Yes, these little penguins are my 50th bird this year!  Only two more to go!!!

Expressive birds

So I wonder if you noticed anything different about my bronze bird that I photographed yesterday???

If you look carefully, you may see that, unlike my other birds, this little bronze guy has eye lids and eye brows too!  and yes, a little topknot feather.  Can you see?

I guess my not including eye lids before was an anatomical error as all birds have eye lids. In fact birds have three eye lids - an upper one, a lower one and a nictitating membrane.  Unlike us, however, their moveable lid is the lower one.  As that looks a little odd to us - I gave this guy moveable upper lids instead!

And as for the eyebrows?  Well - no. Birds don't have eyebrows - but I have artistic license!

So how come my new bird has two new anatomical features?  Well, I started a cartooning class last week!  I can't draw and don't particularly want to learn to draw "regular" things - but I thought cartooning might be fun.

When I met my tutor, he'd looked at my website and jewelry etc and he decided that I was a "three dimensional cartoonist!"  I like that phrase!  I started work on drawing cartoons based on Humphrey and Trisha ...... I have a lot to learn but in the process we spoke about expressions and how eye lids and eye brows add to expressions - and voila!  My sculpted birds now have lids and brows so I can start working on different expressions!

I have my second lesson today.  Looking forward to it.  I can see that my sculpting and my cartooning will be switching back and forth with me learning things in one and adding it to the other and vice versa!  And my goal is to be able to show you some little cartoons here on my blog.  Hope they won't cause too many raised eye brows!

Playboi photo!

So for those who were too afraid to look - here is the photo that was in Playboi (www.playboi.de) yesterday:

They thought my little "Perched" birdie ring looked like he would go well with their logo birdie!  Playboi is a German design website/blog.  Thanks KariaQ.

A bird in the hand.....

 This little freckle-faced girl is just loving being able to hold this tiny little bird in her hands.  It's like the world has stopped for her and nothing could be better.  She daren't move - she is just loving every minute...

And that, to me,  is the basis for the saying "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". Let's be grateful for all that we have right now and not waste our time wishing for things that may not even be as good as what we already have.

Let's treasure the moments, the things, the people we already have in our lives..and be like this little girl - love every minute!

Dog-eared!

Feeling a little dog-eared?  Then this is the pair of earrings for you!  You'll look dog-eared - with dogs in your ears - but you'll no longer feel dog-eared!!!

Two happy best friends to dangle and wiggle their legs from your ears!

They have cute little faces, floppy ears, and little sticky up tails! Your perfect easy-to-keep pet that'll blow those dog-eared feelings away!

Yes, these are #12 in my month of earrings challenge!  (I haven't shown you #10 and #11 yet...but I will! )  "Dog-eared" will be up on my site soon on the "playful" page.

So what do YOU think are the doggies names?

TPP - Tiny Precious People

Thought I'd introduce you to my first TPP - tiny precious people.


Oh dear, they are a little bit shy....... We'll have to encourage them to turn around and show themselves!!!

Cindy, who you may have read about before as she commissioned Doug the Dog, Cher the Sheep, Dandy the Lion and more....... recently asked me to make little silver versions of her kids!

So she sent me three photos and then told me some characteristics about them. I wasn't sure I could do it...but played around a little with some regular clay first and then when I got the ideas in my head, moved onto the silver.

Meet Ashlyn. She's the oldest and tallest (- at just over an inch!). Cindy told me she loves to read...and the photo she sent me showed her with her hair plaited (or as you would say - braided). Imagine braiding silver clay????

Next is Chandler. He's a keen football player, as you can see!

And then the youngest is Eli. Here is the photo Cindy sent me of Eli:

And here is the TPP Eli:

What a great looking family! And now Cindy can have them by her side every day. Yes, they aren't pieces of jewelry, just TPP to sit by your computer or bedside or wherever.

Here are all three TPP:


Thanks Cindy. I loved the challenge and enjoyed getting to know your family.

Anyone can juggle!

Quite a few years ago (- gosh too scary to remember how many!) I spent a weekend with my sister at her new apartment. I remember going to Covent Garden on the Sunday and wandering around.... but then when I woke up on the Monday morning, I found I had chicken pox! Ugh!

My sister had to go into work and I felt horrid so I stayed in her apartment for the day - feeling too ill to travel home. It was not a fun day - but luckily a purchase I had made in Covent Garden came to my rescue! I had bought myself some juggling balls. 6 in total! And so, sat up in bed with the pox, I learnt how to juggle!


It was the most productive thing I did for the next few days until I felt well enough to make my way home. And by the end of my stay, I could juggle all 6, albeit briefly!!!


A couple of weeks ago, I was rummaging in some drawers in the laundry room, waiting for my kiln to finish a firing and I found 3 juggling balls! So now, whenever I have a couple of minutes, I'm back at juggling. As I only have three balls, I guess that is my maximum right now. Probably best to leave it at three.


And so, here is my "anyone can juggle" piece. I wanted some balls up in the air - so when you wear the set, the earrings provide 4 balls up high and then there are two more above 'anyone' attached to the chain!


A perfect necklace for someone with too many balls in the air - or a wanna be circus performer!! Hope you like him!

Anyone can change direction

Are you feeling a little lost and don't know what direction to go in? Or been doing the same thing for ages and ages and now wondering about having a change and doing something different? Just remember - "anyone can change direction" as this little necklace shows!

My little figure"Anyone" is holding a directional arrow and it can move around in what ever direction you feel like! The arrow is held on with a super strength magnet and "anyone" hangs down on a 20 inch chain so you can see the arrow and move it around!

So if you are feeling like a change - be inspired by "anyone"! Change direction in life!