Update from the studio

Ok, I haven't been out here for a couple of days, so there are things to catch up on!

Yes, that picture is a bird foot.....we've been working on the designing of a toucan, so we've begun with the feet! Another artist that we know (Sue Ann Holcomb) makes some truly awesome chickens, and she shared with us how she creates the feet for them. So, off we went to the hardware store (our second favorite place to find materials after our mohair supplier!) and got some very stiff covered 4 wire cable to create the foot. Note that is standing up on its own, and we're confident that it will carry the weight of the bird without needing additional support. The next step from here involves paint and glaze and then I guess we'll have to actually build the bird (no one will buy the emperor's new toucan I suspect!)

I have finished the polymer pieces for the sun and moon pieces. They look pretty good....the sun is especially nice, I wasn't sure about that piece as yellow is not a color I usually work with much, but the lemon yellow polymer with several layers of gold glitter nail polish over it looks great. The beads have arrived too, so I have spent some time creating full size drawings for both of these pieces. The sun piece will entail 45 brick stitched "sun rays" that will be free standing from the face. The moon one is just beginning to take shape in my head, so I'm not sure exactly where it is going.

Progress is being made on the stipping around the quilt blocks. This part is machine sewing, so it shouldn't take too long to have the entire quilt top finished and ready for backing (the next big issue will be trying to find cat print fabric for the back).

Yesterday we made an excursion to the Gem Show to look for pieces that we can include in future work. We actually had a list of findings that we had on hand that we needed stones to fit and were successful with 2 of them. Since the malachite bracelet sold so quickly in Columbia, I got a new malachite cab and a string of flat triangular malachite beads that I can put into some new malachite pieces (I also sold the malachite collar I had last summer, so I need to make a new one of those as well.) The guy that sells the rhodochrosite knows me on site now, and since I was actually wearing one of my smaller pieces, he got to see an example of what I do with the stones I get from him. He had some very nice crystaline round cabs this time, so I'll try a design with a round stone.....one of them is small enough to do a bracelet. I was actually looking for some additional wide (at least 1 1/2") bracelet blanks, but no one had any, so I'll have to go back to the internet to search for them.

We got up early this morning and went looking for the Farmer's Market in the location that it was all last summer, and there isn't one this year.....we're bummed! Unless we can find one locally, even summer is lousy for produce since most of the stores here don't know how to handle most of the stuff. Last summer there was a little stand close by too, but they've built a Waffle House there now, so it remains to be seen if that one will be open this year.....{sigh!}

I'm contemplating making a complete change to our website. Since much of what we are now making is One Of A Kind, it doesn't make much sense to have the website work like a catalog......I haven't really come up with a clear vision of what it should look like, so if anyone has any ideas, just leave me a comment with your thoughts! (if you haven't been on our website, here is the link: http://www.esmerldas.com)

This morning, as the DH was fertilizing the lawn, the dog was trying to get out to "taste" whatever he was working with. We're wondering if charcoal has become her new favorite treat of choice! Not to worry, he shut her into the house and kept her out of it!

Well, that about brings everything up to date.....time to go get some work done