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One of my resolutions for 2012 is to make more birds!

My new pottery bird art pendants on Etsy! These are inspired by those funky 70’s articulated owl pendants that are once again all the rage. Will I make an owl pendant? Not sure, but I have a ton of other birds to make before I get there.

You can buy the Meadowlark here:

You can buy the Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) here:

And my favorite – you can buy the female Belted Kingfisher here:

These are the coolest little birds! The last time I went to the Mitchell Lake Audubon center, I saw tons of them flitting around us. I highly recommend a visit the next time you are in the San Antonio area on the weekend. Well worth the time to support a wonderful wildlife habitat.

This guy is available here in our Etsy shop:

Here is the latest pretty bird to join the flock – a Black Crested Titmouse! We get this variant down here in Austin, TX. I see them each and every day at my feeders and never get tired of their antics.

This little guy is available in our Etsy shop:

I always refer to this odd little wire bird house as the “Blair-Witch house” – it reminds me of those weird little totems made of sticks hanging in the trees in the movie. He looks quite comfortable here.

Every year a pair of Carolina Wrens nest on our patio. Over the course of several days and many scouting missions, they pick just the perfect spot, which this year is in our fox fern pot. The opening is only about 2 inches across and she has 6 speckled eggs in there!

Note this seasons choice of building materials, copious amounts of Live Oak pollen and a long blue bit of my yarn, cast off from some crochet or needlepoint endeavor.

Of course, I had to make a wren to honor the day, here she is just after being hand-formed. I need her to dry up before I start to carve her down and inscribe all the little feather details. Maybe tomorrow?

This is the first wren I made – so cute!

I love Spring – the Redbud out front are amazing this year. Dean had pruned them heavily in the winter, I guess they needed it. They have never looked this amazing. I saw some bluebonnets already on my walk yesterday and the grape-smelling Mountain Laurel are also starting to bloom. The Spotted Towhee is back, we see this guy once a year for just a few days, so glad that Dean got a good pic.

New pottery songbirds glazed and ready to fire! Here is the Yellow-Rumped Warbler, also known as the Butter-butt and 2 more Black-capped Chickadees. They are firing in the kiln right now – can’t wait to see them tomorrow when they are done!

#4 in my Pottery Song Bird series – here is the American Goldfinch – sold on WolfArtGlass on Etsy

He has his own recycled bottle pressed glass stand and can be easily removed or repositioned.

#3 in my Pottery Song Bird series – here is the Baltimore Oriole – for sale at WolfArtGlass on Etsy!

He comes with his own recycled bottle pressed glass stand and can be easily removed or repositioned.

Three new pottery songbirds made from hand formed earthenware clay. I LOVE making these birds! Each time I pull a new one out of the kiln I am inspired to make more.

#2 in my Pottery Song Bird Series – here is the Tufted Titmouse! He sold on Etsy within 24 hours of listing!

Here are the finished birds! I am so happy with them and they flew away to California the day after I listed them on Etsy. Yahoo!!

#1 in my Pottery Song Bird Series – here is the Black Capped Chickadee! He sold on Etsy within 24 hours of listing!

I have been an avid birder for a long time and love looking up into the trees and matching the silhouettes of birds to the vast number of templates in my head that I have been filing away over the years. I am now translating that storehouse of knowledge into creating hand formed and incised earthenware birds. These are my first three and they are pretty close to the actual size of the Black-Capped Chickadee, Black-Crested Titmouse and Carolina Wren. These are little birds that I see visiting my feeders every day and a pair of Carolina Wrens are wintering in our bougainvillea hanging basket that we have in our back patio hot house. Every night they sneak in and camp out up there in the warmth.

These birds need to be bisque fired and then glazed. I am going to attempt to glaze them in as realistic colors as possible and am anxiously awaiting enough of our pottery to bone dry so we can fill the kiln for the bisque. Soon!!

We have had tons of Cedar Waxwings this spring, they have been hanging around waiting for our Red-Tip Photinia berries to ripen. Hope they do not get to our Agarita berries before we do, we are going to try to make jelly this year since the bushes are loaded. All thanks to some good late winter rains.

Continuing in my owl theme, here is Magus the Owl in progress.

So I am in love with little metal sew-on purse frames, they work wonderfully with my fine gauge crochet. Here is my first owl purse, I am working on a green one right now. I am hooked.

It is so beautiful right now – the best thing to do first thing in the morning is to grab a cup of heavily creamed coffee and go on a bird walk on the property (carefully avoiding the poison ivy that has made its home here). Right off I heard the Downy (Hairy??) Woodpecker, sounds like he belongs in a jungle. Then I heard a riot of Titmice and Chickadee parents and babies in the front oaks. Best of all, I spotted the male and female Painted Bunting on the side property in the sumac. They were just relaxing and taking in the morning like I was. Two Mockingbirds sat on the wire above me and Theo and chided us for even thinking about being anywhere near their nest. A male Lesser Goldfinch was swaying on some blown out grass happily picking out the seeds. What a perfect way to start the day!

I just love these little Lesser Goldfinch, we have 2 thistle socks out for them this year and they are SO happy! We have at at least 4 pairs and they are nesting in our big Live Oak trees out front. They are usually the first out with new babies each year, just saw the first ones yesterday. The male was singing when I took this picture – “poooo-eeee” with a lilt up at the end.

This little guy is a Yellow Rumped Warbler and had been hanging around the suet all winter. I have not seen him or the Orange Crowned Warbler in days, so I am thinking they are nesting right now too. I love this guys little heart shaped marking on his breast.