Still making birds!

I’m still working in the studio to get ready for the Home to Roost exhibition… at first I wasn’t digging the fact that I only had time to work on birds, and only birds… but this week I started to get really into it! Check out these wire tributes to the peacock feather: Meanwhile, polymer clay has been a side interest for many, many years. For instance, check out my little dragon-guy from a million years ago: I haven’t always incorporated into jewellery though, and it’s been sort of on the back burner for a long, long time. But one day I realized that the best way to use all the miniscule watch parts leftover from my steampunk work – the bits that are too small to wire wrap – was to shove them into some clay. And so, my clay steampunk shells, discs, and hearts were born (the hearts, with a little help from a tutorial by Christi Friessen): I used to make canes all the time, and I still have a batman logo cane and some fiery leaf-feather things; but I haven’t gotten into anything so complicated for years. Until yesterday. Yesterday, I woke up wondering what kind of bird-y thing I could make today… and while I snuggled in for an extra 15 minutes of our awesome bed, the idea for a peacock feather polymer clay cane started slowly forming. And slow it was! I don’t have a clay machine for making sheets of clay, so I was using a hand-roller (ow) – and some of my clay is old and crumbly, and I didn’t have the colours I wanted, so I was mixing over and over (through half a season of Buffy!). But then, I had what I wanted – a reasonable facsimile of a peacock feather! Sort of! I squished and reduced the thing – too quickly, as it turns out – but managed to get quite a few perfect little feather slices out of it. And here’s what I made with them! A series of various-sized slices for earrings and pendants. I used my new pearl-ex powders for this and I am AMAZED at the beautiful shimmer they give: And what I think might be the coolest thing I’ve ever done, a whole peacock in a pendant: I’m always happy with my work but this was the hardest (did I mention ow?) and most satisfying thing I’ve done in a very, very long time. Oh and hey, while I have you here, take a look at my first attempts at 3D wire sculpture, also bird-like: I think I’m going to dig up my old box of canes and see what leafy things I have that might turn successfully into feathers. Something not peacock-y. I’ve also got to get those single peacock slices into earring and pendant form. Away I go!