Monday, April 25, 2011

oh little babies...

so i only made one thing today because i was a bit distracted by the NEW BABY CHICKENS!!!

a "be gentle with yourself" ring
with glorious prehnite with epidote


and a snippet of the desiderata on the back.



i couldn't really concentrate on what i was doing because these girls have moved in to the shop:
they are red comets, known for being very docile and sweet and prolific layers.

they are so sweet. whatever one does, they all do...

so darn cute, i can hardly stand it. just peeping away at me all day while i worked.

hazel, like me, is smitten.

although they are quite difficult to tell apart at this point, we have come up with five names to be assigned when it is convenient. rosemarie, lucille, florence, doris, and penny.


they're already eating out of her hand.

and then they all fell asleep in a sweet little huddle and i didn't want to wake them up with my hammering, so i let them rest. i guess they'll have to get used to it, but i'll give them a few days. they will live in the shop (with the heater on and their little heat light) for about a month until they are ready to move outside.

when i wasn't fawning over the sweeties, i was also experimenting with new, non-sterling silver, not outrageously expensive metals. this was intended to be a brass flower shape soldered to a nickel silver backplate with a sterling bezel on top. it didn't work. but i will keep trying. with silver now at $47.65 an ounce, i have to start looking into alternatives. how do you feel about it? if i made one of my pieces and everything was exactly the same except i used nickel silver instead of sterling silver would you still love it? or would you feel like it was a cheap ripoff? i'm just not sure, i would love some feedback from you on the subject. i've also started a couple of projects with copper that i will share with you soon.

and i'll just say it again, anyone with chicken advice, feel free to dispense!

3 comments:

C said...

Kristi,
It looks like you have done everything right with the chicks. I did post information for you on my blog.
Also, my bracelet arrived and I LOVE IT. Thank you, you are the best.
And I vote for copper. But I will pay for silver because it is the best.
Thanks
Cynthia

kristi smith said...

well, sue you are right; they're unbearably adorable. and yes, a friend of ours is building their coop/yard and the entire thing will be enclosed with chicken wire so that they will be safe. and, i appreciate your honesty about the nickel silver. i agree... i think i was just trying to convince myself that it could work...

and cynthia, thanks so much for your oh-so-informative blog post! i am glad to know that at least so far i am doing it right.

Emily said...

Chickens are so much fun! We lost a bunch of our chickens last fall to a fox so we just got a new batch of babies today! I'm trying to think of some advice for you.....oh, make sure the water dish you put out for them is not very deep because they can drown :( And, this little tidbit of information is kind of gross but you gotta keep an eye on their bums and if they get a lot of dried poop caked on their little poop holes ya gotta wash it off otherwise they get all clogged up and get sick. I'll think of some more chicken advice to tell you on Monday. You can hang out with our chicks so you don't miss yours!
As far as input on the nickel silver...I wouldn't mind it as long as it looked the same but if it looks weird then I'd rather pay more and have the real deal. hope that helps!