A blue bird and a bear head... finished.

I've just completed two clay pieces that I'm quite proud of. 

An adorable blue bird figure, and a bear head wall hanging.

To see them before painting... click here.

I hope you don't mind if I show them off.

This is my blue bird before I painted a 

glossy finish on him. 

The gloss protects the paint, and enhances the colours,

but makes it hard to get photos without glare.

This is the bear head before the glossy finish.

These are after the glossy finish. 

A quiet Easter weekend

These are the 1st spring flowers, growing at the base of our walnut tree.

This beetle was crawling up my pantleg...on the inside! EWWW!

Had me doing the funky chicken and yanking all my clothes off

in the living room. Thank goodness I wasn't on Skype!

On the bright side, this little bird (pine siskin?) posed on one

of my big garden pots. (No, I didn't make it, but am resisting the urge to paint it.)

I did a bisque firing, and these are all the items I fired.

I can't wait to paint them. (some of the small weird items

are actually press moulds I'm experimenting with).

These 3 birds were in that load, and are ready to paint. The big one is my 2nd big bird, and he's the same, (or slightly bigger) than the 1st one. I haven't decided on what colours to paint him.
Any suggestions??

I started painting the bear and the medium bird, starting with a base-coat.

I hate waiting for paint to dry, so we went to the beach
 to enjoy the sun, the birds and watched the ferry cruise by.

Simply charming...

The short version: I bought some charms and made simple, earrings with them.

The long version:

  I enjoy shopping for unique pieces to use in my jewelry.

Combining pretty charms, colourful glass, or precious stones, into a pair of earrings, is almost instant gratification.

 The other day, I received a new order of charms, and was anxious to go to my studio and make some new earrings. However, my son was on Skype, and we were having such a good visit, so I opened the packages, and we just kept talking.

    I have a couple of tools in my desk, so I made several pairs of earrings while we visited. 

They're simple, lovely, and Inexpensive.

Clay pieces often take weeks from start to finish. 

Paintings also take many hours to be completed.

Earrings are one of the few things I can make from beginning

to end, in one sitting AND they are easy to ship.

But, just adding a charm to an ear wire? Anyone can do that… if they want to.

Makes me reluctant to call them "handmade", however, not everyone is willing or has the patience,
to fiddle with tiny things. 

 So... 

A simple charm hanging from a hook.

Easy to make, and yet so pretty to wear.

It'll take time for me to get them all listed in my Etsy Shop, but I did 

add the butterfly earrings.

Saw an otter or two today...

Deer in our front yard

This past week, we've had major snowy mornings melting away by the afternoon.
Makes it hard to get up and go to work.

A pair of Canada geese.

But now it's the weekend and the sun's starting to shine, so Dave & I drove to Castlegar. We made some stops on the way home, to enjoy the sunny day and the beauty that surrounds us.

 I'm so glad we stopped at the Kootenay River bridge, 

I wanted to take pictures of these ice spikes. 

We spied a river otter (or two). They were far away and hard to see, but eventually one swam along the shore line, towards us, and I was able to get a little video and a couple of photos.

River otter

 River otter under the bridge.

Video of the otter swimming.

 Sorry about the poor video & noise. My camera's about 3 years old, and it's time to replace it. I've been shopping around for the past month, and last night finally made the decision and bought a new one. It'll have a better zoom, video, and bigger viewing screen (so I can actually see what I'm filming:)  I can't wait for it to arrive!!
 In the meantime, here's a National Geographic video of otters.

A productive weekend.

I hate to see this weekend end...

 We spent a peaceful morning enjoying the sunshine, birds, and collecting rocks at Queen's bay beach.

(Note: The lake level is really low right now.)

                                     Then the weather changed quickly so we headed home.

 I dived into my studio to start my 3rd clay bird project. This one will be a bit smaller than the others, but only a bit.

         I also made some earrings (and a little pug "window jewel")  with the tiny animal beads I bought recently. 

 Taking pictures and listing them takes some time,

 but I managed to list a couple of them in my Etsy shop as well. 

Back to work tomorrow... time to change gears.

Finding treasure on a gloomy spring day.

 Short version:

Dave and I went for a drive, walked on the beach near Queens Bay and I found a neat skull.

  

Longer version: It was gloomy but mild today, so Dave and I decided to go for a bit of a drive to Queen's Bay. We parked at the side of the highway, and took a steep little trail down to the beach. 

 It was cold, windy and noisy! I was surprised at how big the waves were, so I took a little video .

The rounded rocks are hard to walk on, but I love beachcombing… every chance I get. I found a "couple" of rocks to take home…so many rocks, so few pockets.

  Then I made a most unusual find!!

The partial skull - of a small deer, I think.  One of the short antlers is broken, but the weird part is that they were growing in opposite directions!  If you know anything about this, let me know… PLEASE! (Here's more photos from different angles).

 We didn't walk too far, as the wind made our eyes water and our ears got cold, but I have a new treasure to show for our efforts :)

  Next we drove up to see the little church, of course I had to stop and take pictures. It's rare to find a church with an outhouse out back.

   When we got home, I took Spike for a walk to the mailbox, hoping for one of my bead orders to arrive... but was disappointed. Oh well, there's always tomorrow :)

 Have a great week...

Finishing up some paintings, and new earrings.

 A wintery weekend, and some creative time in my studio. What a way to end February.

 Here's some pictures….

Some earrings I made, with my new beads.

The armadillos, and many other earrings are available 

in my Etsy shop.

These little paintings just needed some final touches,

so I finished them up, and clear-coated them.

The same little paintings- back sides.

This painting just needed a couple of clear coats,

I call it "Crow's picnic" and have listed it for sale in

my "Original paintings" section.

This painting is called "Eagle View".

 I'm sure you can see why.

Goodbye February, it's been fun.... Hello March - let's see if it's a lion or lamb.

Comments are welcome... surely you'd like to say something.