Obsessive Compulsive

My birdies are starting to border on obsession for me.  I, finally, got a reasonable facsimile of a blue footed boobie finished.  I decided to forget the springs and wires and to do the feet off mandrel and pull the legs into points which I could glue to the bird!  Yes--for now, I'm relying on glue, but I'll probably look for another way to do this, too.  For now, he's just standing on a piece of wood that I had lying around.  I thought that this resembled the rocks that surrounded him in the Galapagos.

I'm getting better at this and, maybe, changing my direction from jewelry to more sculptural objects.

I'm getting faster in my glass bead making, too!  Which is good, cause my frigate--you remember, the one that was getting a makeover with some goofy feathers--well, I got impatient and tried to force some coper wire legs into him--and, of course I broke him.  So, yesterday afternoon, I rather quickly made another, better one.  I did leave the hole in his head--origionally--I wasn't planning on fessin up to breaking him.  So--He'll be a bit festive too!

I didn't know what kind of legs a frigate had so I went in search of some pics.  In the wild I saw them, either flying over our ship or perched on the ship mast or perched in the bushes as in my original photo.  I then went to do some more research and learned from Wickipedia that they do not swim and also do not walk well--which is why we saw them either soaring or perched.  One source on the internet--this one talking about the Hawaiian frigate--said that they couldn't walk at all.  Their feet are also partially webbed.  In the best photo that I could find, the feet appeared to be white in color.  I decided that I needed some brush for him to perch on and remembered some twiggy things that I made in bronze clay awhile back which didn't come out right for what I was working on at the time--a recurring theme for me, as you've learned!  So--I'm making them into a perch for my frigate.  I have to add some more metal clay and refire so I'll post pics in a day or two.  This will also keep the feet somewhat inconsequential as they seem to be in nature.

OK--another contest--my blue footed boobie needs a name.  Drop me an email at susan@goulashdesigns.com with your suggestions.  The winner gets him!  Deadline for this contest is Tuesday, January 31, 2012.  I may be giving away a frigate, too!