The past 6 weeks or so have been really rough. I've dealt with chronic illness since I was a child, but there are times where it is still really hard to cope. Lately, the dysautonomia related to MVPS has been downright horrid. The dizziness, brain fuzz, and swelling in my hands have made it hard to do much sculpting, so I haven't had many updates to post here unfortunately. When flare ups keep me from working for weeks on end, it can be frustrating - not only for my customers waiting for their custom orders, but also for me, since things just don't seem right if I don't have my hands clay every day! :) Thankfully the last few days were a tad bit better and I was really thrilled to be able to get this trio of macaws done!

A lot of my customers enjoy seeing photos of works in progress, so I thought I would post one on my blog today. This is a custom ordered pin featuring a Quaker parrot on the left and Jenday Conure on the right.

In the first picture (kind of fuzzy, sorry!) is the raw polymer clay, the birds are starting to take shape as I sculpt and blend the clay. Next, they are just about finished and if you look very VERY closely (pull out your glasses for this one!), you will see a TINY white spot on my middle finger. That is the highlight for the eyeball about to be applied! Since I don't paint my parrot jewelry, I have to apply each individual color separately, the eyes are usually made from 4 to 5 layers of itsy bitsy pieces of clay. The last picture shows the finished piece, after being fired and is ready to have the pin back attached.