A tattoo design, commissioned to fit either wrist of ankle.

The father of the commissioner had a knotwork dragon tattoo on his chest. After he fell ill with cancer, him and his wife decided that they would get unwound dragon tattoos when his journey was over. Sadly, he passed away in December 2008.

His daughter wanted a commission as a tribute and remembrance piece. She already had a peacock tattoo, and the animal meant a great deal to her. She wanted a tattoo with the two creatures intertwined.

I suggested an unwound dragon design, to signify that his journey was indeed over and that he is free. She liked that idea and so I set out to play.

The end result, a very tightly designed tattoo, in traditional styling. But where you can clearly see the dragons head should be following the pattern, and laying itself down to the design like the peacock, you can see the creature raise it's head and starting up with an almighty roar.

'Saoirse' written at the bottom, which is Gaelic for 'Freedom'

pain.
I have the flu :(

Things are being resolved privately, and therefor all things surrounding this matter will be kept between the two of us.

I do wish to thank everyone for their support and wishes of healing to us, it is a very tough situation on us both

Yesterday I finally finished up the red tailed hawk for the school of falconry. I had some troubles with touch-up paints not gripping and damp in the workshop, but finally it is done. I'm sure it'll get a good place in the falconer's home, as he seemed really pleased with the outcome;
This was the very first bird falconer John Carmichael owned and flew by himself. This male red tailed hawk could not have ended up with a better falconer if you ask me.

Since the School of Falconry, run by John, supplies me with most of my raptor birds they have a contract with me. And during a specimens pick-up at the beginning of this year John said that he would like his first bird back.

I started thinking, and thought it would be amazing to see this bird 'fly' one more time. Though an older timer, with worn tips and uneven feathers, it is ever the impressive creature to behold.

It will hang in the hall-way of the school of falconry, high above the doorway.

A close-up can be found here

While there, I picked up some specimen John had saved up for me; 2 Peregrine, 1 female Goshawk, 2 Buzzards, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Raven, 1 Long-eared owl, 2 Kestrel, 10 wood pigeons, 1 Pine marten and a Mink.

After all were logged and put into my freezer I set to work on 5 of the wood pigeons for personal consumption. I filleted them, and frozen the breast meats for later. They'll make a grand dish ^.^ . Some bits and bobs were given to Oscar, whom immediately stuffed them in his 'food-tent' and looked quite proud of himself.

Before heading off back to Ballyholme again I spotted a framed drawing. I asked John about it, and he said it was going to be throw away. He asked me if I wanted to have it, and I didn't need to think twice about that one;



The image reminded me of John James Audubon’s work, which I had in mind for workshop decoration. I have one of those extra large sized books of his 'birds of America', and was thinking of getting a few panels enlarged and framed... but this is even better!

It became all the greater when John told me it was an old veteran of the first world war, suffering from shell-shock, that drew it. It even has the tag, with the almost un-mistakable font, on it;



I will proudly display this piece in the workshop :)

Melissa at Dark Divas Reviews has been kind enough to review our Halloween Sip, "You Speak In Memory", and has given it 4 divas out of 5!

Click here to read the review and leave a comment.

Because I like to torture myself, I set out to do a bit of a redesign in my CPshop, and go all CSS on my thumbnails (I've never been crazy about the normal ones) so this is what I came up with. Knock on wood it seems to be working the way i want it to.

As always, click for the larger files :)

Noble steel body braid, with two fine silver (99.9% pure) terminals. One is a black leopard, the other a barn owl. Both are based on Celtic styling and each features two rainbow moonstone eyes.


'The Loving Gaze' is a one of a kind commissioned bracelet, featuring two naturally stylized wolf heads. The body braid is made of noble steel, and the terminals are fine silver (99.9% pure)

One wolf has emerald eyes, the other aqua-marine. Eyes are 3mm each. Heavy patina sets out the detail on these heads.