My husband and I just moved into a brand new house in beautiful Camarillo, California, and the best part for me is the big open upstairs bonus room that now houses my art studio. It's more than twice the size of my old "sewing den" at our previous home in Reno, Nevada.

Below are some more views of the studio. Next time you see it, I guarantee it won't be so tidy.

I'm excited that my first phoenix is finally done! I'm calling this one Reemergence. You'll find more photos here. Now on to phoenix number 2! 

1/12/2020 I've been told that Grayson, my African Grey Crowned Crane, received a merit award at the "Art Quilts" exhibit at Sebastopol Center for the Arts in Sebastopol, California. Also, he was sold on opening day!

​I was disappointed that I couldn't attend the opening reception, but distance and snowy weather prevented travel. ​It looks like an amazing show, so I hope to get there before it closes on Feb. 16.

10/21/2019: I'm excited about this phoenix project, and have decided to make more than one. I will post updates to this blog as my work progresses.

After several false starts, I've managed to make two phoenix bodies that I'm happy with. I hope the large one will be good enough for an art exhibit. The small one is for practice. I expect they'll end up about twice their current size after I add legs, wings and long tails.

10/30/2019: Just for fun, I've decided to also make a couple of white phoenixes, AKA snowbirds, as a counterpoint to the traditional fiery red phoenixes.

Here's a batch of bird legs under construction. I'll use them for phoenixes, plus some extras for future projects. The legs take about a week to make due to drying time for glue and paint between steps, so I like to keep extras on hand in case I need to complete a project quickly.

11/14/19: Finished bird legs.

11/21/19: Beaks, painted and stitched. Up next: Attaching the legs.

11/24/19:The red phoenixes are now standing proudly on their own legs.

11/24/2019: And here are the white phoenixes with their legs attached.

11/30/2019: I decided to experiment with making my own fire by hand-painting white cotton fat quarters.
​I first wet the fabric, then sponged on Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow paints in Sun Yellow, Bright Orange and Brilliant Red. Then I sprinkled rock salt, and scrunched up the fabric. 
Six fat quarters fit on my kitchen table, and there are six more fat quarters spread out on countertops around the house. 
After they dry, I'll decide whether I like them well enough to cut into feathers for my phoenixes.

12/3/19: Phoenix feathers! These are made from purchased print cotton, and not from my hand-painted fabric. I will use these feathers on a practice bird before cutting into the good stuff.

12/18/2019: I've been a bit distracted lately, but am now getting back to work on my phoenix project. Here's some lace that I painted in fiery colors. I plan to use it as an embellishment on head and wings, unless I change my mind. I've never built a phoenix before, and am making it up as I go.

12/20/2019: Phoenix wings! I'm still not sure how to attach them to the bird.

12/30/2019: My phoenix now has a tail and wings.
This is my practice phoenix. It’s a bit crooked and wobbly, but I’m learning a lot while building it. The next one will be easier, but first I’ll finish this version.
Up next: the face, my favorite part because that’s when the personality is revealed.
For further updates, click here.

We all know the story of the Phoenix, a mythological bird that lives for several hundred years before dying in a burst of flames, and then rising from the embers to live again.
​These are the materials I've gathered so far. I will update this blog periodically as I work. 

Here is my entire owl collection.
What I like: They're adorable, full of individual personality, and they make me smile.
What I dislike: They look too much like toys.
They were fun to make, but I'm ready now to move on to other projects.
​You can find more photos of all my owls in the gallery.

I need some color in my life after spending many months working on black and gray birds. And I hope owls will be simple because they're upright and easy to balance, with flat faces and human-like shapes. 

7/7/2019: This is Ludwig, the first of the five owls to be completed. I think he bears a resemblance to this portrait of Beethoven, thus the name. You'll find more photos of Ludwig here.

7/29/2019: Mr. Bubbles is the second owl in this series to be completed.  I really love his watery blue coloring. More photos here.

8/15/2019: Poppy is my favorite owl so far. I really like her sunny sweetness. She's the third in the owl series to be completed. More photos of Poppy here.

7/29/2019: Here are the first three owls together. I still have two more to finish. You'll find more photos of these and my other birds in the gallery.

8/28/2019: I decided to change Poppy's eyes. The old ones looked a bit flat to me. These have more depth.
​I may also change the eyes on the blue owl. I think they need to be bigger and closer to his beak. Stay tuned.

8/29/2019: Mr. Bubbles with his new eyes. They're bigger, brighter, and closer together than the old ones. Yep, I like this new look.

8/29/19: Allow me to introduce Iris, the fourth of a parliament of five owls. I originally planned to trim the ear feathers, but I rather like the little-girl pigtails. I think I'll leave them as-is for now. I can always change my mind and trim them later.

8/29/19: Here are the four completed owls. One more to go. You can see more photos of all these owls in the gallery.

9/26/19: This is Hershey, the last owl that I plan to make for at least a while. You can find more photos of all my owls in the gallery. 

And here are all the owls in my collection Clockwise from upper left: Hershey, Mr. Bubbles, Ludwig, Poppy, Iris, and Pearl. More photos in the gallery.

All five ravens are done! Here are four of them. The fifth raven was a custom order and had to be shipped out before I could photograph it along with the others, but you can see photos of all of them by clicking on "Continue Reading."

This is Cormac, whose name is the Irish word for Raven.

Here's Darth, short for Darth Vader of "Star Wars" fame.

Elvira, named for the Mistress of the Dark horror film hostess.

Rasputin, named for the mysterious "Mad Monk" of Imperial Russia.

And finally, this is Eddie, short for Edgar Allen Poe, who is missing from the group photo at the top of this blog because he needed to be shipped off to his new home before the others were finished.
​You'll find more photos of Eddie and all the other ravens in the gallery.

This is the fun part: When the ravens finally start looking like birds instead of dinosaurs. ​Continue reading to view the progress.

Wrap the upper legs with fuzzy yarn.

Back view with tail feathers pinned in place.

Another view of the tail feathers pinned in place.

Front view with lace pinned in place.

Back view.

After the glue dries, add another coat of black paint over the upper body and lace. Let the paint dry overnight. Then all that remains to do is attach the eyes.
Meanwhile, I'll continue working on my other four ravens.

4/3/19: Wire supports keep the bird upright and stable and prevent the legs from twisting sideways. Continue reading for instructions.

Wrap another piece of wire over the bird's back and a couple of inches down the outside of each leg. Stitch in place. with upholstery thread.
For added stability, use a long doll needle to sew completely through the body from top to bottom, and from side to side, wrapping the thread around the wire with each pass.

Here are all five ravens with their exoskeletons stitched in place.

It's time for this bird to stand up on its own. Continue reading to learn how to attach the legs.

March 31, 2019: Remember these legs that I finished in Part 6? It's finally time to set them into the bodies.

​When it's impossible to jam any more stuffing into the opening, sew it closed using strong upholstery thread.

Here are all five ravens, legs attached, left out to dry overnight.
​Next: Supportive exoskeletons.

It's time to give these black birds a little personality. Continue reading to learn how to create the beaks.

​Paint the beak with metallic silver acrylic.

​The raven is stitched and ready to be stuffed. Next I'll cut out and stitch the other four ravens.

I stuff the bird with Poly-fil, using a long screwdriver to pack it as tightly as possible.

​A pair of legs after wrapping with floral tape.

Claws are made of polymer clay. Continue reading to view the entire process

​Shape the clay pieces into pointy claws.

Here are the feet after baking.

I make bird legs from wire and brass tubing. For instructions, continue reading.

​Step 1 in making raven legs: I cut 16-gauge wire into 40 9-inch lengths -- four wire pieces per leg for five birds.I also cut 10 3-inch pieces of brass tubing.

I love using heavy lace to represent feathers on my birds' heads and necks. But it's not always easy to find, so I decided to try making my own. Continue reading to learn how I did it.

​Here's a screenshot of the petals, separated and duplicated until I had enough to fill my biggest embroidery hoop. The shapes are perfect for small feathers.

I made the raven feathers from double-layered cotton print fabric. Read on to learn how.

​Feathers are made from two layers of cotton print fabric.

​I create the design for the feathers on my computer using a graphics software, and then transfer the design to my embroidery machine, shown here, which stitches out the design automatically.
If you look at the material in the hoop, you can see that there are two layers of black cotton fabric, with a layer of a clear material sandwiched in between. The clear material is Ultra Solvy, a stabilizer that dissolves in water. Please don't ask me what it's made of.

Trimmed tail feathers.

March 8, 2019: I'm getting ready to start on a group of ravens, otherwise known as an "unkindness" or a "conspiracy" of ravens. I prefer the latter, because when these birds congregate, it's easy to imagine them plotting mayhem.
Before I start, I'll need a lesson in raven anatomy. Continue reading to learn more.

Now it's finally time to complete the crane's face and add a few final embellishments.
This is my favorite part of sculpting, because now the bird's individual personality starts to reveal itself. Continue reading to learn more.

This is the point where I stop trying to approximate reality. After all, I'm making an artistic interpretation, not an exact duplicate.
Now I can release control of the process, and operate on pure instinct. It's almost as if the bird is telling me what to do.
​If this is your first visit to my blog series about making cranes, you might want to start at the beginning.

I became so absorbed that I forgot to photograph the steps. So I'll just describe them here.
​1. I strung small silk flowers onto each crown filament, and glued them to the scalp to disguise the bare clay.
2. I glued white and red-painted lace motifs to the sides of the head to approximate a crowned crane's natural markings.
3. I sewed on blue buttons for the eyes, and glued on black rhinestones for the pupils. 
4. I glued false eyelashes around the eyes.
5. I made a wattle by sewing a piece of red-painted lace to the chin.
6. Just for fun, I glued beads to the ends of the crown filaments.
7. And then there's that black powder-puff thing on the forehead.  I made it from a couple of store-bought pompoms and some bits of black silk flowers, which I sewed to the top of the beak.

8. And then I glued on some platinum rhinestones in the loopy places of the lace.

9. And added a beaded bracelet to one ankle.

I can't put it off any longer. It's time to figure out how to make the golden crown for the crane's head. Continue reading to learn more.

Someone suggested that I make the crown from fiber optics. This seemed like a really good idea at first. I could imagine how fun it would be to have a crown that could light up.
I spent about $100 on fiber optic supplies -- several yards of filament, wire, illuminators, switches, batteries and casings -- plus about two weeks of agonizingly trying to figure out how to attach all this hardware to the bird without throwing it off balance or adding bulk to the slender neck and legs. Plus, the battery casings, switches and illuminators need to be accessible, but they're too big to hide under the feathers. The only practical solution I could come up with was to mount the birds on a wood base, and run the wires down the legs and through a hole in the base to a battery pack and switch underneath. But the legs aren't hollow, so the wires would show unless I re-wrap the legs to disguise them, which would make the legs much too thick. And that still wouldn't solve the problem of where to put the illuminator. which would need to be the size of a small flashlight in order to light up several dozen strands of filament.
Sigh. Can you see my dilemma?
I finally gave up on the fiber optics idea. It didn't seem worth the trouble and expense just to make the crown light up.
But it wasn't a total loss, because I discovered that the fiber optic filaments are the perfect size and stiffness for the crown.

So I cut the filaments into about 50 4-inch pieces, and painted them with glittery metallic gold nail enamel. Here they are, drying.
My next puzzler: How to attach the filaments to the head?
The solution I came up with was Polymer clay. I shaped the clay into a small mound that would fit inside the top of the bird's head. I stuck the painted filaments into the clay, and arranged them into a somewhat symmetrical spray. Then I carefully removed the filaments, and baked the clay to harden it. Then I glued the filaments back into the holes in the clay, and set it aside to dry.
Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph this part of the project, but it worked really well. So I'll recreate it for the other birds and add photos later.

I cut a hole in the bird's head and removed some stuffing to make room for the clay/filament crown apparatus. Then I stuffed the crown piece into the opening, and held it in place with glue and upholstery thread. And then I covered the edge of the opening with more lace pieces.

Here's the bird with its new crown.
​Whew, I'm glad that's over. Now I can finally move on to my favorite part: the face.

For the head, neck and shoulder detailing, I decided to use motifs cut out from some heavy guipure lace left over from my previous career as a ballroom dance costume designer. ​​Continue reading to view more.

I played around quite a bit with the positioning of the lace pieces until I was satisfied with the result. I then glued the lace to the bird by painting the backs of the motifs with Mod Podge Matte, another product that I have come to love. It works as a glue, glaze and sealer. I'll be using a lot more of it before I finish with this bird.
​Up next, the dreaded crown.

More on making the crowned crane
​Crowned crane, getting started
​Crowned crane, Part 1: Making legs
Crowned crane, Part 2: Building the body
Crowned crane, Part 3: Feathers
Crowned crane, Part 4: Neck and shoulders
Crowned crane, Part 5: The dreaded crown
Crowned crane, Part 6: Finishing touches

With the basic body structure completed, it's time to add feathers. These are a lot of work. Continuing reading to see how they're made.

I used my embroidery machine to make the feathers, using this process:
1. I downloaded feather embroidery designs from ​Urban Threads.
2. I used Embird embroidery software to resize and simplify the designs.
3. I then hooped two layers of cotton print fabric with a sheet of Sulky Ultra Solvy stabilizer sandwiched between them.
3. I loaded the hoop into my embroidery machine, and stitched out dozens of feathers.
4. Then I cut out the feather shapes, leaving the edges raw.
5. I soaked the feathers in warm water to dissolve the stabilizer.
6. I let the feathers dry.
7. I brushed the back of each feather with Aleene's Stiffen Quik. (It comes in a spray bottle, but the sprayer is hard on my hands, so I find it easier to pour the liquid into a plastic cup and apply it to the feathers with a paintbrush.)
8. I let the feathers dry again.
9. I pressed the feathers with a steam iron. I left the gray feathers flat, but I curled the ends of the long red tail feathers with my fingers while they were still hot from the iron. After cooling, they retained their curled shape.

I then pinned the feathers onto the body, moving them around and repinning until I was satisfied with the placement. Then I hand-sewed the feathers to the body using strong upholstery thread and a long doll needle.

Here's the crane with all its feathers stitched into place.
​Up next, the neck and shoulders.

​More on making the crowned crane
​Crowned crane, getting started
​Crowned crane, Part 1: Making legs
Crowned crane, Part 2: Building the body
Crowned crane, Part 3: Feathers
Crowned crane, Part 4: Neck and shoulders
Crowned crane, Part 5: The dreaded crown
Crowned crane, Part 6: Finishing touches

I've made some progress on my trio of crowned cranes since my last blog post on Feb. 3, 2019, about making legs. With the legs done, I now turn my attention to making the bodies. Continue reading to follow along.

First I drew the pattern. I started by looking online for a side view of the bird, and then traced the outline. I then made oval gussets to widen the back, head, and belly.

Here's the bird after all the pieces have been sewn together. I left an opening in the underbelly for stuffing.

I stuffed the bird with polyester fiber fill.

These are the finished legs from my previous blog.

I spread some white glue on the tops of the legs, and jammed them into the leg openings on the underside of the body.

After the glue dried, I stitched up the opening by hand.

For extra support, I added a wire exoskeleton.

The beak was made from a pair of triangle fabric pieces, which I stitched together, stuffed, and sewed to the head.

I shaped the mouth and nostrils with hand-stitching

Above are the three birds in progress.

I then painted the beaks with metallic platinum-colored acrylic paint.

I used a black marking pen to shade the mouth and nostrils.

Finally, I covered the wires with strips of fabric glued in place with Mod Podge Matte, one of my favorite products. It's like working with paper mache, but with cloth instead of paper.
The bodies are now complete, and ready for their feathers, which I'll describe in my next post.

​More on making the crowned crane
​Crowned crane, getting started
​Crowned crane, Part 1: Making legs
Crowned crane, Part 2: Building the body
Crowned crane, Part 3: Feathers
Crowned crane, Part 4: Neck and shoulders
Crowned crane, Part 5: The dreaded crown
Crowned crane, Part 6: Finishing touches

How on earth do these huge birds balance on those long, skinny legs? More importantly, how do I reproduce them? Continue reading to find out.

I start with 16-gauge wire, which I cut into eight 12-inch lengths.
​Next I cut two 4-inch-long pieces of 7/32" brass tubing, and two 3-inch pieces of 1/4" tubing. I put the 1/4" pieces aside for now, and thread four wires through each of the other tubes, leaving 1.5 inches of wire exposed on one end.

Using small pliers, I bend the wires into toes.

The claws are made of polymer clay. I knead a small amount of clay and roll it into a long cord, which I cut into eight roughly equal pieces. I shape the pieces into claws, and push them onto the toes.

I bake the clay according to the directions on the package, and then let it cool. After baking, the claws are quite hard, but they slide off the wires easily, so I glue them in place with gel Super Glue, and then stand the legs upside down in a tall glass for 24 hours to let the glue cure.
The next day, I clamp the toes into position and squeeze some glue into the tube. This will help keep the wires from shifting around.

To create the leg joint, I thread a large-hole bead over the wires and glue it in place. Then I add the 1/4" brass tubes on top of the bead, and glue again.
While the glue is drying on the upper legs, I paint the claws with nail enamel, and then put the legs back into  the glass to dry. After the enamel dries, I add another coat, followed by a coat of glitter polish, and then a clear top coat. Between each coat, I let the legs dry upside down in the glass.

The next day I coat the legs and toes with Mod Podge, and then wrap them with floral tape. The toes need to be wrapped in multiple layers to make them stronger. I add more Mod Podge between each layer. When finished, I let it dry overnight. The next day, I paint the wrapped legs and toes with acrylic paint, and let dry. Then I add a second coat of paint, and let dry again.
To add texture, I like to wrap the legs with colored string, yarn, fabric strips and/or embroidery floss. To do this, I coat the legs and feet with Mod Podge, and then take a piece of string and wrap it around the leg from the top of the leg down to the bottom, then out and back on each toe, and then back up the leg. Then I add more Mod Podge, and wrap again with a different color string. When done wrapping, I paint the entire leg with Mod Podge, and hang to dry overnight.
The next day, I touch up the claws with a final coat of clear nail enamel, and let dry. And that’s it! The legs are finally finished and ready to be attached to the body. But I’ll save that for another blog.
You may have noticed that this process requires a lot of drying time. It can take a whole week to finish a single pair of legs. I find it helps to make several legs at a time, so that while the tape is drying on one leg, I can be painting another, and so on.

Here you can see three pairs of legs in various stages of construction. From left: Wires encased in brass tubing; Wrapped with white floral tape; Painted with painted with metallic bronze acrylic.

And here are the same three legs, all finished and ready to be attached to bodies. But that’s for another blog post.

​More on making the crowned crane
​Crowned crane, getting started
​Crowned crane, Part 1: Making legs
Crowned crane, Part 2: Building the body
Crowned crane, Part 3: Feathers
Crowned crane, Part 4: Neck and shoulders
Crowned crane, Part 5: The dreaded crown
Crowned crane, Part 6: Finishing touches