Thursday, April 30, 2009

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!

Friday, April 24, 2009

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...

Monday, March 30, 2009

New Chicks

We brought home five chicks from the feed store on Friday- they are so cute and fluffy...
Boo now sleeps on top of their cage, maybe waiting for his chance to pounce!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Madrid


Serious crime gets serious punishment in Madrid- local cop busts a sage dealer.