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.

Wow, I can't believe it! I am finally starting a blog! It is insane that I am doing this in the midst of all of the stuff going on right now - tons of custom orders from the January opening, about 27 pages yet to update for the website, etc. etc. etc. But here you have it, my new blog, a place to perhaps share a few pet stories and photos, tell you what I'm working on, and unwind and de-stress a little. Enjoy!

It has been snowing for almost 2 days solid - about 12 inches of snow! It finally stopped tonight and there was a beautiful sunset.