Artist – Oregon City, Oregon

Torched and Kiln Enamel on Copper for Jewelry
Hand Painted and Sculpted Hard Southern Gourd Birdhouses

I delight in having customers smile, laugh, and make silly comments when they view my art. I design in whimsical colors and prankish playful ways. I want my customers to grin like a Cheshire cat that gets it.

Ideas start from a drip of inspiration having seen a colorful item or a brief image if “a pig could fly”. What if I can turn my small jewelry canvas into a colorful story.

I forge the metal and melt the glass in the hot gas torch.

I have grown and worked with the hard gourds for years. My birdhouse gourds for the outside are English cottages with flowing gardens, whimsical cats, spotted chickens, zebras, and horses. Also, many of these designs are miniature babies for hanging in a kitchen window, a stocking stuffer, or a holiday ornament. These playful gourds are carefully cleaned, painted and or sculpted then sealed with UV sealer products. Birdhouses for the rain and sun but vacation inside from the winter cold. It is true that birds have made homes is many of my birdhouses.