The Owl Parliament is in session

I have been on holiday leave from work for 3 weeks and have one week remaining.

What have I done in that time?

Squillions of owls have been made, the parliament pictured are just the latest that have not been listed yet (or cleaned). I have made chicken balls (flying henriettas) and played with brass in glass. I have made a few moon owls and scarabs and a littlebo-peep bead. Outside of beadmaking, I've bought loads of glass (therefore spent too much). Basically I have lived the dream :-)

There's still so much to do and not enough time to do it! Where is my neverending supply of funds to maintain the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed?

Divertimento in blue and green

I have it in my head to make a piece of jewellery with funky unique beads including some large silver findings. Using the colour theme of green and blue this is what I have made so far. While I think they are pretty cool all together it's not really what I envisioned, so I am going to try some different shapes, more extreme, and also some larger-holed discs. Making them this afternoon hopefully!
The beauty of a project is the new things you learn along the way. Like how dense and rich Reichenbach Iris Blue is and how it spreads and forms some lovely gradations. Below is an extreme enlargement so you can see what I'm referring to. It was laid on CIM celadon, can't wait to play with this effect some more!

What came out of the kiln?

Three owls that's what! On the left is Maree Dubois and on the left is Lady Willow. Maree has a little french flavour and Willow has a little chinese crockery flavour. I finally committed to selling something on ebay again and these two are the first.

When I go to the torch to create something, there's always a dash of mystery involved. The heat turns the colours of the glass to incandescent orange or red or clear, so it takes some visualizing to predict what's going on as you apply various colours. Then you have to wait for them to cool down in the kiln, and that usually means going to bed and looking at them the next day.

I have always loved the kiln unveiling experience, but I have to say that the more time and labour involved in each bead, the greater the elation and excitement when they are successful (and the greater the disappointment when they fail).

Little Harriet below is nothing like what I thought was going on in terms of her colouring, and while she has some merit, well, I'm afraid she was determined to win one of those 'worst dressed' awards. Like Bjork with a dead swan slung around her neck.

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?