Hairy Cat Sculpture

This cat is a portrait of my friend Joy's cat Belle. The challenge with this sculpture was the long hair. I used Angora rabbit (from Tulip) and llama (from a friend) to make her coat. I really enjoyed this challenge/opportunity and am pretty pleased with the outcome.

This is my favorite because I think I really captured her sassy swing.

10 year old Belle with a flash in her eyes.

This was the pose I used, except I changed the turn of the head and let her front paw touch the down.

This is really probably more close to my sculpture.

What the Flock?!

anThese little sheepies were commissioned by a grandmother for her grandchildren because she has sung them a song about little lambs since they were born. They are keepsakes. One of them will be making a trip to Japan for her newborn granddaughter, Cherry Blossom. I just love creating critters for people!

 

Midnight Run

Well, that bouncing and jumping and running about turned into a midnight escapade about our country neighborhood. At about 12:34 am there was some rather urgent knocking on our door. Since our area is currently experiencing break-ins, I grabbed a weapon and headed for the door with Ken steps behind me. I turned on the light and found the young couple who live across the street from the paddock where my newest Jacob Sheep are grazing. They were smiling which was a good thing as they told me that my sheep were out. They had heard noises on their deck and front porch and were on the phone with the sheriff when they saw that it was two of my sheep -- ON THEIR DECK?! We tried to corral them but they were frightened and running (the sheep, not the neighbors). I apologized profusely and they said, "No big deal, this is actually quite an adventure!) The sheep ran over closer to my house, so I put my other ram and two ewes in the barn so the two rams wouldn't meet and went back to sleep. This morning I called all my neighbors to have them look around for the sheep and I took my son to school. Ken called me on my cell to say that our next door neighbor saw them grazing in the pasture area where my other breeding group had been. I got a bucket of sweet feed and some broccoli leaves and they followed me right into the pasture and there they will stay. I switched my other breeding group over to the other pasture. They are older and hardly ever pronk/dance around the pasture. 
Never a boring day (or night) on the farm!

Sheep Show-offs!

Imagine these 3 sheep (yearling ram [Kingsley] and two 8 month old ewes [Paris & Diva]) bouncing around the pasture, back and forth like they have pogo sticks for each leg! That is the show I saw this evening at about dusk. I found mySelf laughing aloud as they made laps around their pasture. What a delight!

A Grouchy Winnie-The-Pooh, maybe?

This is my newest creation: Grizzly Bear. He won 1st place in the Professional Fine Arts Sculpture (other media) category at the Dixie Classic Fair. 

Many thanks to Virginia Weiler for the excellent photos!

The After SAFF

It's taken me this long (over a week) to recover and write about the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair! Whew!

Of course I spent almost all of my time in the barn with the sheep and primarily the Jacob Sheep and other Jacob breeders.

This is the class of 2010 Jacob Ewe Lambs as we're leading them in. Eight total.

Here are the judge's top 5 placings. Wiggle Hill Diva and I are 4th and proud of it! Noah and Farmgirl's Eloise are 7th. Eloise was good with that but Noah would have liked the money that comes with higher placings. The winner was Never Winter Parfait shown by Zach Staines.

On Saturday, the Juniors showed. Noah and FarmGirl's Eloise took first in the Jacob Ewe Lamb class and the Jacob Fleece class. Noah showed Perfect Spot Chelsea in Jacob Aged Ewes and took 1st -- stiff competition, too... NOT, she was the only old lady in the class! Eloise went home with Linda Bjarkman to join her Patchwork breeding program.

Here are the Jacob breeders and friends having dinner at a wonderful Mexican place Friday night after we've unloaded and fed our sheepies. There were two unexcited young men, the one on the right and the one hiding from the camera on my left. They were only slightly more excited once they had their prize money. We talked about bloodlines, fleeces, rams, parasites -- your typical dinner conversations. I learned so much!

All the fiber in the sales areas was beautiful, too. Especially the Alpaca fiber that Jenny Bennett from Harmony Wool Alpacas had for sale!

I had so much fun with my new and old shepherd friends and the sheepies!