Dragonstones

Dragonstones

Today is a housekeeping day.  You know, all that stuff that has to be done in the house that makes us look, feel and smell civilized. 

So, while I am waiting for the drier to finish, I will share with you.

Fossils

Florida is full of fossils.  I find bits of fossilized bone while I am digging in the garden.

I do some contract fossil restoration.  Preparing the bones for exhibition and having seen the bones of these long extinct animals, it is no wonder that there are legends and myth about Dragons.

So, I decided to make something ancient looking with my pieces of fossilized bone.

                               I polished them just enough to take off the sharp edges.

I have never done any wire wrapping and decided to give it a try and thought that copper would work good for the look I wanted. 

I had this whole "fairy tale" going on in my mind that I was this ancient craft person creating a magical amulet for some heroic champion.  Something that bound him to his dragon.  (who needs television, I already have enough going on in my head)

                          This piece has a masculine look.  So, it obviously has to go to the hero.

And of course there has to be a magical amulet for the majestic lady.  I started out with an oval piece of sheet copper about two inches long, punched a few holes into it to anchor the wire and designed as I went.  I added a little bit of sparkle with some dark amber colored crystals and finished it off with some green patina to give it that aged look.

                                                    Royal "Dagonstone"  pendant

Since I had the wire out, I hammered some out flat and wrapped it around some embossed epoxy clay disks that I had made, painted the clay with some muted colors and metallic paint wash and came up with these.

                                                Somewhat primitive in appearance 

Well, the clothes in the drier are going to get all wrinkly if I don't get back to my chores. Unfortunately, I have all kinds of new ideas going around in my head but they will have to wait.

In case anyone is interested, I do sell my artwork and also, do custom work.  Really need to get that Etsy store set-up.  

Until next time, I hope your days are wonderful.

Welcome Spring

Welcome Spring

So, March and the beginning of this month were rough for me.  Those familiar with me know that I am always fighting off depression, have sever allergies and arthritis.  Well I got brought down by all of them and then to top it off had a mild (thank the Lord) case of Shingles.  

I am back and productive again.

Pleasant Surprise

We have a nice flock of hens here and they are laying like crazy.  More eggs than we can use even after giving away many. 

part of the flock

So, we have a couple of "broody" hens.  They want to sit on the nest and incubate the eggs.  

I gave a pile of the eggs to one of the hens and let her have her way.

 She is a mean thing and very possessive of her eggs.   Left her alone for three weeks and peeked in on her to make sure she was still alive.

 Then one morning when I checked on her, this little surprise was waiting to say hello.

 And three more.  She hides them up under her wings carries them outside and taught them to scratch in the dirt for bugs and seeds.  They also have "chick starter" and water.  Momma hen has her dish of layer feed that is to large for the chicks to eat.

I just wanted to share this with you.  These cute little babies have helped to put me back in a positive mood and back to being creative and motivated.

There are lots of ideas spinning around in my head and have been productive the past few days, making some pendants.  Some are wire wrapped fossilized bone. Some are molded or carved epoxy.  Look for a preview of them in next post.  

Hope you are all having a wonderful spring.