Birds with Bling!

Since I started working from my studio at home I've been thinking about the birds in the garden...mainly because they don't give me much choice, pigeons land on the tin roof and stomp up and down like a marching band. Kookaburras frequently let rip with a laugh that sounds like a personal criticism and magpies compete to sing the loudest in the garden or chase the dogs when they get too close. So as many of our Australian birds have a such audacious personalities that could compete with any Fringe performer it made sense to start some work which talked about this.

I began by making some simplified clay models of Australian birds and then made moulds from them, as mould making is a process that I find far more entertaining in the planning than the execution by the time I'd finished, my initial enthusiasm for the project had subsided...

...about 1 year later... I began to decorate them! I've always loved decoration, especially Arts and Crafts, William Morris, De Morgan, Moorcroft and all that, so I used some of the designs as a starting point and kept going with underglazes, onglaze enamels and lustre until I had blinged them to the max!

Here are some of my first results, I'm working on a second batch now and refining the decoration - I think, I'm not exactly sure where its going yet but at the moment I have an urge to go all the way with additions of feathers and false eyelashes - maybe..