Posts

My Take on the Beautiful Barbet Bird

Image
When I went to Africa among the many animals I fell in love with was the Barbet - a most unusual patterned bird.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-and-yellow_barbet   There are several kinds of Barbets. This is my take on the Barbet, a wearer of many patterns and colors, blue legs and feet and attention seeking. Making the Bird That Flew Out of the Pillow (see previous post), I just had to make another bird.  This time I took some photos of the process to share with you. Materials: steel wire, pliers, wire cutters, Ultra-lite clay, aluminum foil, polymer clay (solid colors and old canes) Taking the steel wire and forming the bird head, body, legs and feet was the most difficult part of the process.  Figuring out the scale, the type of bird shape, how to attach the legs and form the feet definitely took the most time.  It was also the most essential part. Starting the wire form The next step was filling the body with foil and using 28 g wire to secure it in place.   This was the first
Post a Comment
Read more

The Bird that Flew Out of the Pillow

Image
The Bird Flew Out of the Pillow  Sometimes an idea needs time to foment or stir up the creative mind to action.  This is one of those times!     I have a friend/client who is on the tail end of finishing the decorating of her home.  She is using a wonderful fabric with woven character birds on her kitchen chairs.  We fell in love with the birds and she sent me (she lives in another town) enough fabric to make myself a pillow.  The more I looked at that fabric the more I wanted to create a bird for her table.   This is the product and I'm waiting for my friend to name her new table accessory!   It took awhile to plan an attack.  I used steel wire, wire cutters, pliers, aluminum foil, Ultra lite Clay, and polymer clay.  In my next post, I will go into much greater detail of the process.  I've made another bird and took pictures along the way. I'm sure this bird will have quite a story  when she arrives to her new home. Don't miss those shoes!!
Post a Comment
Location: Prescott, AZ, USA
Read more

Sea Creatures - A Study of Texture, Color and Nature

Image
Series of Four - Texture, Color and Nature  It's always fun to start a new project.  This time I wanted to explore nature with techniques using texture and color highlighting sea creatures.  The sea fascinates me with all the large and small shapes of animals, with animals that look like flowers and plants, with seashells that were homes and so much more.   Selecting which creatures I use in this study took some research, planning and experimenting. There is so much in nature we are not aware.  For instance -Sea Slugs and the variety of shapes and colors they come in.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_slug   Nor was I aware of the Ribbon eel - such a graceful unusual creature.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribbon_eel I began collecting pictures of the creatures that were appealing to me and that might support each other in a texture series.   Before the actual work could begin, the decision of how and what to use for mounting each piece was decided on.  The structure chosen was
Post a Comment
Location: Prescott, AZ, USA
Read more