Cluck & Feather

one beautiful day, not so long ago...

the kiddo is just down for a nap, i grab the monitor and head out to do a quick walk-around of the gardens. 

a quick 10 minute fly-by before heading inside to get some work done.

until i notice two of the chickens are out.

i can see my nap-time plans disappearing in a puff of cluck and feather.

calmly and acting as oblivious as ever i casually walk over, put down the monitor, pick up one of the two chickens and place her back in the run.

success.

the 2nd chicken, now fully aware of my plans for her little walk-about, is not so easy.

like some crazy magnetic pull the chicken takes off straight for the monitor and steps on it. this monitor has a number of buttons, one of which plays a "lullaby" in the baby's room.

the speakers aren’t exactly top quality and the noise, yes noise, that comes out is - well - horrible.

of all the buttons.

i am no longer calm. i am no longer oblivious.

like a crazy person i charge toward the monitor, practically pushing the chicken aside.

in short - i panic.

miraculously, the kiddo is still asleep.

and the chicken? lets just say it is more fun watching the person who is trying to catch a chicken then being the person who is trying to catch a chicken.

---

the new chicks have arrived.

they are in a somewhat less elegant phase now - their teenage years you could say.

their voices are louder, their feet too large for their little bodies.

their combs are starting to grow and make a part in their fluffy heads.

their adult feathers are coming. 

the soft fuzz is juxtaposed by the smooth, sleek adult feathers.

their colouration and patterning is starting to show. 

pure inspiration.

i love glass as a medium. hot, molten and difficult to control hardens to a cool and immovable form.

it probably seems like an unlikely thing to think about while looking at soft fuzzy chicks, but although cool and immovable to the touch, glass is fluid and natural to the other senses - giving a kind of warmth.

i like the contrast in these beads. by creating millions of tiny bubbles in only one colour of glass there seems to be a "fluffy" side to the bead. i've also tried to mimic the colour of the chick with these beads.

in the studio, my goal with these test beads is try to create the same feeling of contrast. so as well as texture, i've tried feathering between two colours.

i love these colours together! here i am working on finding a shape as well as a level of "feathering" between the two colours that i feel could work.

more feathering, but this time with some rose-gold glass to make up part of the bead. i think the colour balance is a little bit off, but i love the reflective/oil-slick effect that is achieved with these two colours.

there is more work to do on these beads and more development to come as i design and use them in my handmade jewellery pieces, but the process acts as another reminder of how important it is to let yourself be inspired by the world around you.

as i look at all of fuzzy little chicks - safe in their pen under their heat lamp - i think of the future inspiration to come ... and all those times that my plans will be foiled by a curious feathered friend.