10 years ago, I put up my first hummingbird feeder. It wasn't long before a few birds showed up to eat. They nested nearby, and raised a flock of babies before flying south for the winter. The next year, the parents and their babies, now grown, returned to my feeder, and again raised babies.



Hummingbird Babies



Each year the birds have multiplied, and returned. This year, I put up 11 feeders and fill them each day. It takes about 2 gallons of sugar water each day to feed them all. There are lots of wild flowers and gnats they feed on as well.
In the morning, when all the birds come off the nests, there are clouds of birds at my windows. The noise of their fighting and the whistling of their flight fill the air. It is raucous, and lively.

When I was looking for a name that I liked for my new Etsy page, I discovered the metallura hummingbirds of South America. There are 9 types of metallura, and I loved all of their names: firethroated metaltail, coppery metaltail, viridian metaltail. Many shop names that I liked were already taken, so I was surprised to find metallura free to use. Look how beautiful this viridian metaltail, (metallura williami) is.



Metallura Williami



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The Way To Enameling

I love buttons! They are such an ancient work of art.

I have been a professional seamstress for over 30 years. Many of my customers provide the most wonderful vintage buttons for the clothing items I make for them.

Realizing that my own button box was rather sparse, I started looking on eBay and found many treasures there. I spent a lot on bolstering my button collection!

I soon discovered that what I really wanted to do was to make my own buttons. I bought some odd cabochons, like the dinosaur bone, at an old rock shop in Southern Utah and some silver. I found a jewelry teacher to teach me basic soldering and bezel making. .




Dinosaur Bone Button


I thought that the first buttons came out very nice, for a beginning jeweler. I was pleased, but they took a very long time to make; 5 hours or more makes them hard to market.

One day my husband found a small enameling kiln on craigslist and asked me if I wanted it.




Paragon Kiln 8x8x4”

Sure! But what could I do with it? I started researching contemporary enameling artists online and found the most beautiful work I had ever seen. I was hooked immediately.

I spent another small fortune (for me) buying enameling supplies, tools and lots of books.
My first piece was a button!



My First Enamel Button


And then another and another.
Instead of 5 hours, I am now making them in a fraction of that time. Almost instant gratification! If I don't like a result, I can enamel over, or grind part of it off, and the layers make it much more interesting.

I still pay the bills by custom sewing, but my heart is in the kiln. By offering my art on ETSY, I might be able to keep up with the cost of supplies, and eventually be able to work more in fine silver and gold.