Owls on my desk

Here's a couple of favorites I've made recently, particularly the little one on the right, she's precise and pretty, not that I'm a stickler for precision because it's the imperfections that add character most of the time!

These three share fritty feather camouflage, the eyes on the far left are magical, the fellow on the far right looks like he could swim and the little one in the middle is simply cute.

Above are Sunshine, Aurora and Buttercup.

There are angels amongst us

I made this 'cherub' yesterday for my sister who wanted to give a present to a friend who collects cherubs. It's my first cherub and can I just say it's a cherub that only a mother can love! I'm very fond of him even though he's got the face like the backend of a baboon. Better to have character than to be forgettable I reckon.

Merry Christmas

I caught these two looking for eggnog.
"'Cos I look like an egg" said the first,
"and that's what birds drink at christmas" said the second.
"Gross, that's like cannibalism or something" I replied.
We stopped talking to each other after that.

Celebration Owl

Last week I made some Aardvark fish and this week my owl seemed to have caught something from the fish, there's just a tiny weeny touch of influence there don't you think?

Aardvark fish!

The Underbitey and Shovelnose. I made them yesterday from a tutorial purchased from Aardvark glass who makes wonderful cranky cactii and colourful masks -and fish!

Ginger Cat

Here is a ginger cat, I have made three... the first two were hideous, this one I love. I was commissioned to make him for a work colleague and I knew what I wanted to do, but it still takes time getting the right knowledge to achieve a good result.

The three amigos...

These little fellas look like they hang out together and they're just so darn cute! I achieved a few things with my owls this week...

1. A different design, I like to keep expanding the portfolio of shapes and styles, I've tried primitive, folk, simple, profile, long, short, tiny, big head, little head, played with wings and frit. This week I did experimental head sizes.
   
2. Consistent 'bright' eyes and solid knowledge of how to do it. I still get surprise when I see the final result because I like to mix up the eye recipes, but the consistency is in the intensity - not all owls turn out the way they're 'supposed' to, some of the eyes are boring or clouded or too bubbly/fizzy, overcooked, too patchy. I have a bunch of them sitting here, I'm sure someone somewhere would love them.
   
3. The BIGGEST eyes I've ever made on owls and they're pretty (well I like them!)
   

Space Marshalls - robots

I made 3 more robots yesterday, I love how they have such distinct personalities but from the same universe. Yeah I know the one on the right is leaning, but do you realise how much of a miracle it is that they can stand up on their own anyway? The hole is centred, but the bottom edge is slightly uneven. They remind me of space marshalls with their special epaulets.

Made for each other... button botts

I have been making both owls and robots and in their midst out sprang a funny little colourful 'bot' which I did not show anyone but family because it was a bit too 'unusual'. However my niece, Emily, thought it was cool so I said, please take it away. She strung it up on a piece of string and a button she found (in lieu of a bead), and suddenly it looked great, especially with the bright clothes she was wearing. So I revisited the thought of botts, and have made two more... when I put them together they look made for each other, how corny! but you know what I mean :-)

A Cog? of Robots

Here is my army of robots, not really an army, I'm not sure what the collective noun for robots is... wikipedia reckons it's 'a cog of robots' but also says that this is spurious (false) lol I dunno, a cog sounds ok. SO here is my COG OF ROBOTS hoorah. Probably the only time they will all be together as one of them is on ebay for sale. They were all made by me out of glass, palladium leaf and pure silver mesh.

On a side note, while looking up the collective term for robots I came across a cool one to share... An Aurora of Polar bears, how great is that? yep it's great.

Web 2 thoughts

We've scratched the tip of the iceberg at work, on what web tools are out there. But at least we know it's an iceberg! I think I might even be able to get my mum interested in one or two of them.

One of the useful sites I will revisit is seomoz so that I can keep exploring the 'best' of what is out there.

2nd owl b'day present

Another niece, 10yo Grace, made this little owl critter for me, I am one lucky Auntie!

Birthday present

My 13yo niece, Esther, made me this cool little owl box to put my owls in.

RSS feeds and Podcasting

I was very happy to learn a little more about rss feeds, I've come up with some applications for using to let regular customers know when I have new owls made! hootrah!

Podcasts are great too, I've been into listening to motivational type mp3's anyway, so hopefully I can find some good podcasts on that type of topic that I can download to my player.

My birthday afternoon tea with library mates

Afternoon tea at Le Favorite's

YOU TUBE

How to waste a lot of time...

Look at a bunch of stuff on You Tube!
ok, sure, you can look up stuff that will help you become a rocket scientist too, yawn.

Flickr

We are amused. (photo by koller93)

Wiki itty woo

I have learned something about Wikis today. I'm trying to get my head around it, but it feels like my brain is leaking.

Are they just online website templates that you fill up with content? great potential for collaboration.

Some company is happy to host your content, much like google is happy to host your blog. Zoho, for instance, provides online free wiki software and provides free hosting. You kind of have to hope that their servers will be there forever or else you lose everything.

I guess alternatively you can serve the wiki yourself, keeping the content in your own control. Sheesh, if you go down that road, why not call it a website.

Another day at the office

I don't work in an office, it's really an unusual combination of building
spaces. All connected on the inside. On the outside it appears to be about
6 separate buildings, from different eras.

Owlbot!

Introducing OWLBOT. An owl robot covered in layers of palladium leaf, some pure silver mesh wiring, and crystal clear ears for good radio reception.

Palladium is a cool metal, more expensive than gold and does some interesting things in the flame and in the kiln. It has an extremely high melting temperature, so it doesn't vaporise like gold or silver in my torch flame. It has kind of a matte finish but as you turn it in the light it reflects different metallic colours, like gold, green, blue and pink. It's cool.

I'm going to make a bunch of these owlbots and inscribe a series number in roman numerals on the bottom edge. This fellow is OWLBOT I

The Beginning

In the beginning there was an owl (bead), it was made of glass and many people wanted it. He may not seem much now but he was a start.

Maybe there's something about this fella that can go even further, maybe there can be enough owls for EVERYONE!

Since the first, there have been over 150 owls and a lot of progress. This is my website, which has lots of photos.