November Bird of the Month: Turkey

Okay.  I don't make turkeys.  Not that I have an issue with them or anything, I just haven't yet.  But it's November and Thanksgiving means turkeys.



Now, for some fun turkey facts.

• Did you know turkeys have beards?  Males do for sure and females only sometimes do. (source)
• Alaska is the only U.S. state without wild turkeys. (source)
• Males will gobble and strut to attract the females. (source)

Anyone else know anything cool about turkeys? 

October Bird of the Month: Blue Jay

Today's bird is the Blue Jay.  This is a fairly well-known species so you are probably familiar with it.  Both the male and the female of this species have bright blue plumage (feathers) with white and black markings.  I found this interesting because in many bird species, the male is much more brightly colored than the female.

Blue Jay Ornament

Blue Jays can be fairly territorial and have even been known to chase away hawks (source).  They have a wide variety of vocalizations and have even been known to imitate humans in captivity (source).

Blue-Gene Ornament

Above I showed two different styles of Blue Jays I have created.  The first is a very simple painted style.  The second is a little character I created.  His name is "Blue-Gene."  He was inspired by my husband Eugene.  Eugene wears black glasses and likes to wear ties.  I think I captured him pretty well in bird form, don't you?

September Bird of the Month: Bowerbird

Today I have an awesome bird to share.  The bowerbird.  I learned about these birds during my first week of grad school.  They are awesome because of the males' courtship behavior.  In order to attract a mate, males will build a structure called a bower, decorate it with blue objects, and then sing and dance.  Watch.

Crazy, huh? Although I never created an actual "Bowerbird Line," I think these guys would appreciate some of my blue jewelry.  I just hope they don't steal any of it for their bowers.

Blue Flower Bracelet

Blue Flower Ring

July Bird of the Month: The Parrot

Since it is summer, my newest jewelry collection has been called the parrot.  I wanted to use a variety of bright colors and that has parrot written all over it.  There are so many species of parrots that are just covered with different bright colors.

Image Source

One thing that really stands out to me about the parrot is their intelligence.  Parrots not only have a wide range of vocal skills (check out this video) that allow them to imitate humans, but they can problem solve and answer questions.  Has anyone read the book Alex and Me?  I haven't read it yet, but it is about a parrot and looks very interesting.

Here are some of my pieces I have been working on for this collection.  There is much more color and style variation in this collection compared to my previous ones.  I'm hoping to add some parrot paintings soon.

Parrot Bangle 2- Green

Parrot Necklace 3

Parrot Earrings 2

June Bird of the Month: Northern Cardinal

Many of you are probably familiar with the Northern Cardinal.  These birds are fairly common and easy to spot.  The male of the species is a bright red and the more recognizable form, while the female is a lighter brown.

Source

Cardinals love sunflower seeds and males will even crack them open to give to the females while courting them.  How romantic!

The bright red and even the light tan have helped to inspire my work.  Here are some of my cardinal pieces.

Cardinal Necklace on etsy

Cardinal Painting-recently sold-yay!

Cardinal Necklace on etsy

May Bird of the Month: Painted Bunting

Today I will be sharing about a colorful little bird known as the painted bunting.  It has absolutely gorgeous colors and, based on its name, it seems only appropriate that is should be painted.

Painted Bunting

This photograph shows the male of the species.  The female of the species is green only.  Have you ever wondered why the male birds are always more colorful than the females? (I say always, but I would love to be shown an example otherwise-nature rocks!)  The males use their bright colors to attract the females by showing that they are the sexiest and strongest male available.  Not only does the bright plumage (feathers) show that the male is healthy enough to produce the colors, but it also shows that he is agile enough to avoid the predators that will easily spot his bright colors.  Cool, huh?  If you want to see some more examples of this, try searching for videos of birds of paradise.  Those males are crazy.

Anyway, I have had quite a bit of fun painting these little guys, as well as using their colors in my jewelry.  Here is a small painted box I did of the male painted bunting.

Box on Etsy

Here is a necklace I made inspired by the painted bunting.  As always, it is modeled by my lovely ceramic bird (I've named her Wanda White Bird).

Necklace on Etsy

April Bird Species of the Month: Orange Breasted Green Pigeon

Today's bird is the Orange Breasted Green Pigeon.  I'm normally all about the small, North-American song bird.  But hey, everyone loves a nice Asian pigeon, right?

Orange Breasted Green Pigeon

Although I couldn't find out that much about the behavior of these birds, I was amazed out how many beautiful species of pigeons were out there.  I think we all think of the normal, gray pigeon.  But there were pigeons in all colors of the rainbow.

Here is one of my paintings I did of the green pigeon.  I added some fabric details as well:

I've also been having fun playing with the different orange and greens in my jewelry.  It all started with this necklace I made for the Iron Craft Challenge and has not stopped since :)

Green Pigeon Necklace on etsy

March Bird Species of the Month: Song Sparrow

Although I have spent time painting landscapes, my favorite subjects to paint are still birds.  There are so many unique and beautiful species out there.  This is the first installment of posts on some of the species that have inspired my art.

Back when I was in school, I spent some time studying the behavior of the song sparrow, Melospiza melodia.  While I didn't much like the research I was involved in, I grew to love this cute little bird.

Image from http://www.greensborobirds.com

I love the way that the stripes on his head look almost like a little mohawk.  This bird also has a very distinct song.  The males will sing this song in order to declare their territory and attract females.  This was one of the first and only bird songs I learned and it's fairly common for me to be out and suddenly recognize the call of the song sparrow.

Here is one of the paintings I did of the song sparrow on a small 4"x4" canvas with acrylics:

In addition, I have found these species to be a wonderful inspiration for my jewelry.  While wandering the bead aisles at the craft store, I can almost see the birds in some of the beads.  Here is an example of one of my song sparrow necklaces:

It's zoomed in so you can see the beads more clearly.  The brown pearls pick up the overall sheen of the feathers while the black and white beads capture the stripes of the belly.  I'm still working on photographing these necklaces, but some song sparrow jewelry should be on my etsy site soon!