Bird Charms!

This year I started to make a variety of carved accessories that I call: bird charms.  These items vary from actual charm, to pendants, keychains, pins, and brooches. I created these out of my own desire for accessories to wear myself and then it grew.

Its been really interesting making these because I've learned a lot while researching and through trial-and-error, of how to design these items.  Each item had its own challenges and I tested the items myself and learned about any flaws they had first hand.  Here are a few I've made so far:

Summer Tanager brooch, holding a berry which is a real ruby.

This bird was actually the second Summer Tanager I made, the first one was just a simple charm but the dimensions of the bill and size of the head needed to be larger. I think its a really unique and charming piece of jewelry. 

Mouring Dove pendant, with a brass ring so it can be worn as a necklace.

The eye is a german glass eye, and painted with acrylic paints.  I use Martha Stewart Craft Paint for all my birds. 

White-eyed Vireo pendant with a custom made glass eye.

This was made with a Prairie Warbler charm, but that piece was sold.

Green Heron keychain or bag charm.

This one had a screw hook attached to the back of the birds head and then attached to the keychain hardware but this is not as secure as I like.  Im currently testing an alternative, which can be seen on the Black-bellied Whistling Duck below. 

A variety of bird charms/pendants:

(from right to left)

Eastern Bluebird, Purple Gallinule, Fish Crow, Barred Owl, Least Tern. 

This photo washed out the color a little bit, the last picture does show more true to color.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck keychain. 

This is the new style I'm testing where a wire goes through a hole in the back of the birds head.

This seems to be a lot more secure, but I do need to find a cleaner way to attached the bird to the ring rather than with just twisted wire (which actually isn't that sturdy).

A group photo of all the charms in this post for size comparison. 

I always try by best to make my birds accurate to their life size.  I research their sizes from data collected through field work, so they are usually down to the millimeter. 

Carolina Wren Carving #8

Yesterday on my Instagram I did a throwback to my 8th bird carving which was done in June of 2010. Its a Carolina Wren that I would see in my backyard when I lived in Houston, TX.  I would hear it sing often, as well as its mate, and sometimes it would sleep tucked under a metal bracket of the back patio.  I put up a small bird house for it in my shade garden full of native grasses and wildflowers, but it never nested there.  I gifted this Carolina Wren to my parents and it sits happily on a shelf in their kitchen with some of my other carvings. I went to visit them for Memorial Day and when there was a break in all the rain, I decided to take some pictures.

This bird was one of the few that have full wire feet; something I would do when I first started carving. After the wire feet phase, I used molded pewter feet but I wasn't really happy with them, especially for the tiny birds like warblers. Currently I have switched back to using wire, but only for the leg (tarsus) portion of the leg.

Carolina Wren, carved in June 2010

Carolina Wren bottom details. On all my birds I sign with my initials DKK and the month/year.  I do record all the exact details in a journal I have that includes where I saw the bird, what it was made of,  and the exact date I finished the bird, plus the name of the person of the person who purchased the bird from me or who I gifted the bird to. 

Black Skimmer chick Carving 102

The Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) is a common bird in coastal areas of Florida. These birds are often seen at beaches resting on the shoreline with other terns and gulls, or skimming the water with their long lower bill. They nest on sandy beaches and create a small depression in the sand to lay their eggs.  The eggs, usually 2-4, are cream colored and have various shades of dark spots on them, making them difficult to see on the sand.  The newly hatched chick is also quite camouflage in the sand.  An interesting fact that I've read from Sibley's Guide to Bird Life and Behavior is that these birds are the only bird, with a cat like eye, which is thought to help them see through the glaring of sunlight on the water. 

Here is my carving of a Black Skimmer chick.  Its carved to be life-sized of a recently hatched chick. They grow very fast into adult size birds; the parents only feed them for a month from hatching.  This bird was carved with basswood, painted with acrylic paint, and a german glass eye.  During the carving process I tried the feathering wood burning effect but I didn't like it. Something about wood-burning feather texture makes the birds look too rough to me, when birds look so soft and smooth. So I like to use painting effects instead. 

Black Skimmer chick / hatchling carving.

Carving #102. Carved in 2017

Black Skimmer chick / hatchling carving at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park, in Dania Beach, Florida. Im not aware if any Black Skimmers nest in Broward County though they can be seen occasionally at this beach.  In Florida, Black Skimmers are more common on the Eastern portion of the state - the Gulf Coast, Lake Okeechobee, and also around Cape Canaveral. 

A selections of bird magnets

Hello on this rainy spring day in South Florida!  Theres been a lot of showers and storms coming from the Caribbean and its a good day to be inside and working on projects. One of the things I work on besides from my bird carvings is making what I call "flats".  These are flat pieces of wood carved into a semi-relief sculpture of the bird it represents.  Once they are carved and painted, they can be framed, turned into magnets, pins, keychains, and other accessories.

Here are a few sets that were made into magnets:

Golden Yellow Warbler (Cuban ssp.) and Florida Prairie Warbler

These 2 birds were seen together in the mangrove forest of Key Largo.

A custom set of 4 warblers:  

Black-throated Blue Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Chesnut-sided Warbler, 

and Black-throated Green Warbler.  

A variety of birds from my summer collection last year. 

Ruddy Turnstone, Common Yellowthroat, Cooper's Hawk (a small male), 

Bobwhite (the darker Florida subspecies), Black Skimmer. 

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Least and Pectoral Sandpipers

Today I just wanted to share two pictures from my Instagram account @pondcypressstudio.
The first on is of three Least Sandpipers and one Pectoral Sandpiper.  All were carved in 2015. Both photos were taken at the South Skyway Pier rest area, in Tampa Bay, FL.

A trio of Least Sandpipers in different positions.  All are standing on carved shells from native species. 

Pectoral Sandpiper.  Though these birds migrate through Florida but this particular bird I saw in Sitka , Alaska.  Its base is painted with the algae that was abundant on that coast but in this photo its being covered by a piece of drifting sea lettuce. 

Birds of Samar, Philippines

My Mom is from the island of Samar. Which is a large island in the central portion of the Philippines.  I have been back to her hometown, near Calbayog City, and each time I've gone, I look for birds.  I have to say, the first time I went in 2001 when I was 16 years old, the habitat of the surrounding neighborhood and farmland was different.  There was less trees, it was wetter, and hunting of the wild birds was a common sight (I would often see kids carrying slingshots walking along the road). During 2001 I did see a lot more waterbirds than this time.  More kingfishers, different types of herons and egrets, ducks, and crakes.  The past two times I've gone its been significantly drier, with no water in the rice fields; each time I've gone is in May.  This last trip I noticed a lot more birds than before.  I don't know if its because Im a better bird-watcher or because many of the trees are maturing, areas of abandoned farmland as the younger generation has less interest in farming and spend more time using their phones (which is not a bad thing). Im definitely happier seeing kids on Snapchat than using Slingshots!

This last trip I saw a lot wider variety of birds: whistle ducks, large flocks of great egrets, large-billed crows, various species of doves, glossy starlings, shorebirds, terns, a parrot, 3 species of swifts, pacific swallows, and a lot of other colorful small birds.

I decided to carve three types of birds from this trip.  All seen around my Mom's house.

Olive-backed Sunbird - Cinnyris jugularis
The first I saw everyday. Its a colorful active bird much like the hummingbirds back home. It sings a lot and moves around the fruit trees looking for nectar, I mostly saw it in coconut palms and mangos.

Red-keeled Flowerpecker - Dicaeum australe
I saw this bird a few times, singing from the tops of trees, It had a striking and clean black and white pattern with a bright red spot on its belly.

Pygmy Swiftlet - Collocalia troglodytes
This bird was not as common. I would see it with the much more abundant Glossy Swiftlet. It was easy to spot though, because of the white spot around the rump. I was bird watching from the roof top so it would be at eye level or below as it flew through an open area of trees and over the rice field. I didn't get a picture of this little bird. I have a terrible time photographing swifts.

Throwback Photoshoot

Today I just wanted to post a few pictures that I took a year ago for my Instagram page. Enjoy!

Hand carved and painted eggs in a domed cake stand (Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Mottled Duck, Great Egret, Boat-tailed Grackle) and a Black Skimmer chick carving in a smaller cake stand. Both cake stands are from the Martha Stewart Collection at Macy's. 

A Buff-bellied Hummingbird and Ruby-throated Hummingbird carving. Both sitting on wooden finials painted an aged gold color. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a common hummingbird here in South Florida during winter time. The Buff-bellied Hummingbird has been a resident for a few years now in Miami at a small park planted with lots of nectar plants. The gold vase is from the 2007 Martha Stewart 1800flowers.com collection.  I gave one to my good friend in Houston to put at her restaurant but one of the customers broke it. 

A carving of the brown form of the Eastern Screech-Owl. This bird is a resident at the Green Cay Nature Center and Wetland in Boynton Beach, FL.  It has a home in a Sabal Palm near the path, but I haven't seen it except for the original time I saw it before carving this bird. I hope it hasn't been scared away and people are being respectful of it while observing it. In this picture its surrounded by Tropical Pitcher Plants, Nepenthes graciliflora and Nepenthes robcantleyi. The base is a wooden finial painted in an ombre tone of the stone block its sitting on.