My first birdie ornament

I've been working on this design in my head for a few weeks now and it is finally in the real world! Oh, I just love it! Soooo.... cute. I've been playing with exactly how to sculpt, paint, and finally what to use for the hanging loop. I wasn't sure what to put on the bottom, but I really like to little organza pouf of a tassel.

First birdie ornament all finished!

I'd love to know what you all think. I plan to offer this on my ETSY site, so feedback is welcome.

I'm off to Mount Shasta, CA to celebrate the new year with my folks. I hope that your new year's eve is a wonderful celebration!

Blessings

New Year, New Projects... so excited!!!

As each new year approaches, I feel invigorated and excited about the "starting over" that New Year's Day brings. This year I plan to launch an ETSY site and do some craft shows. I love making art and sharing it with others. When I made my first birdies, I made them because they got in my head and I wanted to see them in real life. Then a neighbor fell in love with them, too and I've been making them to order for her and her bird-loving family. So, I plan to offer some on ETSY. I think that doing craft shows allows us to talk with people and get real feedback from people about our work. The combination seems like a good idea (we'll see how it pans out in real life!)

I also do work with stained glass, painting, fabric... Someone once told me I have ART ADD. That may be, but I prefer to see myself as someone who has many interests and likes to explore them all!

Something I've been playing with is the idea of putting a hole through a birdie and running a ribbon through it's body so that it can be an ornament. Here's the first one I'm gonna try before I've painted it.

first birdie ornament before sanding or painting

You can tell by the size of it in my hand that it's pretty tiny. I love the super little ones, this one is sort of medium sized. I can't wait to see how it looks finished. Maybe I'll even give her a tiny nest.

The creative process pulls me along and keeps my sunny side up. I can't imagine living without it.

Art makes me happy. I hope you are having as much fun as I am!

The books are shipped and I've received an order for two more birdies!

Today was a super great day! Wow, what a week for me! I just checked lulu.com and found that my books have shipped and are due to arrive on November 22nd. In plenty of time for the book signing at Caffe Santoro! Also, I delivered the set of Goldfinch birdies that my neighbor commissioned and she ordered two more sets!

Ah, an excuse to make more art, what more could a girl ask for?

two pairs of goldfinches

I fell in love with the first set of goldfinches that I made for my neighbor, so I had to make a set for myself! The male is the bright yellow color and the female is a more brown. I chose the colors they display in Spring because they are more vibrant than any other time of the year. Each little couple also has a tiny clutch of eggs in their nest.

Goldfinches




Here are my little finches in their nest.



I've been working hard on making the book perfect so I NEEDED to break to play. Here are the little cuties I made for my neighbor. I hope she likes them. But, if she doesn't I guess I'll just have to keep 'em! If you scroll down, you'll see them in their just sculpted form. Painting makes such a big difference.



Close up of the happy couple



getting back to creating art

Well, I've been working hard on the book. If you've never tried it, let me tell you, doing everything yourself is really hard!!! My wonderful mother did a lot of the editing, other than that, it's been me. Writing, formatting, laying out the cover! Yikes! So, to give myself something fun for a break I created these litte birdies and made them a home. I hope you enjoy them, too. Here's a pic of them on a tea saucer, just to give you an idea of their size.

Sharing some art with you

I just love these cute little birdies that I sculpted from paper clay then painted. The inspiration is my cuddly relationship with my partner, Jim. I added the baby because I thought they seemed like they should have a family. I hope you enjoy them, too.