The cog army evolution!

My watch parts finally arrived and my plan for building robots is coming to fruition! I love how the watch bits lie on a surface, it always looks like a work of art.
Here are the first two robots with the new parts. I learned so much in the process! and there is still so much more to learn. Although I can acknowledge many challenges in the making of them, I don't have all the answers yet, just some ideas of how I will tackle them.
Captain Cog is the one on the left, he was my first, and more successful than Grease Monkey on the right, who lost a bit of his cog in a somewhat frightening display of sparks and spats.

Wild

I made Wild Woman as a gift for my sister for Christmas, she has a very strong medusa vibe (the wild woman, not my sister). I am looking forward to making another one, she has such a strong character.

In the kiln right now are some robots that I made, I know they didn't turn out the way that I wanted, but I am hoping that when I take them out of the kiln, they will still have lots of potential. Over the last few days I have been waiting for torch time so that I could use the watch parts I bought recently as components in the robot. There were definate problems 8-) but the extent of them will be found out tomorrow.

Kind of Ojime Barn Owl

This little guy has been in my sketchbook for some time and he finally got a look in yesterday. A watchful barn owl in a crouch position. He reminds me of an ojime bead. I think I will do him again and only use the one glass and impress/sculpt the facial features rather than use other coloured glass. I liked how he came out though! It has been fun playing with different ideas over the lull of the holidays.

Rainbow petal/feather owls

I was really excited to use a tutorial to start creating these 'petal' beads. I was thrilled how they turned out and was inspired to make little colourful owl heads that could sit on top. The stackable concept it very appealing to me, like those story books where the page was cut in thirds and could be flipped over to show a new torso or new head or legs to change the look of the person, object or animal.

Man in the Moon

I was putting off taking photos for auction and looking for distractions when I saw an unwanted dangle on my desk that I had created for a robot. With new eyes I saw the leg and foot of something... but what?
Well there needed to be two legs, so that was a start, and there needed to be a pelvis so that they hung right.... hmmm lets try 20 beads before settling on a silver torso bead.
Now we just need arms, naturally they should be silver wire to fit in the narrow space. Hey if I make loops for hands they could dangle something!
Where am I going to find a head?
After digging around for a while, I had the 'AHA' moment. I made the 'man in the moon bead' a couple of years ago, I really liked him but other people just didn't understand what he was, so I didn't make another and he sat in the bead box biding his time....waiting for his body....
Finally... what hangs around the moon and what would he carry? duh!
I just love him, pure unadulterated creation with a wonderful rightness.

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.