Joe and the local wildlife

Here's Joe with Cowsuit and the leghorn chick... the chicken was easier to wrangle for these photos than the cat was!

Big Girls

New photos of my baby chicks- all grown up!

Forming tools

I wanted to show off my incredible set of forming tools: a stump with a groove and a piece of scrap wood were used to create the first step of forming this bowl. The metal is 18 ga copper, 6" diameter disc. The technique is called 'raising with crimping' as found in the Seitz and Finegold book. The next step will be to hammer this crimped bowl on a stake (also homemade) until it is smooth and perfectly curved- we'll see how it goes. I will be grinding and shaping the stake this weekend. I bought the fancy plastic forming hammer- I don't remember the name of the material, but it's supposed to be super-durable and is weighted... pretty nice.

Enamel fiasco

Here's my first and second attempts at making an enamel barrette: judge for yourself. The first was supposed to be rose pink transparent and clear; the second is clear and aqua opaque- go figure!

Chick Pics

The chicks are now fully feathered and outdoor residents... I don't have new pictures yet, but will post them soon. Here's a pic of Boo hanging out with the little puffs...