Gold double headed ceremonial staff

Hello everyone. How are you today? I didn't feel well enough to work today, so I decided to take a rest. I think I may have got flu. When I woke up, all parts ached including my head. But our beloved parrots were shouting for the second course of breakfast from a next room, so I had no choice but to get up and give them parrot bread baked loving by Mike. Scooter, Timneh Grey, shouts like 'Are you ok? It's dark! Are you ok?' and on and on. Beaper, another Timneh Grey, whistles a tune or two. They were loud and insistent. Once I got up, I felt as if I were an old tin man! All parts need drops of oil!

After a while, I felt better, so I was able to use my PC for pleasure; browsing Etsy and reading other people's blogs. Such fun! I used to spend many hours looking at photos of art blogs I randomly found. It is a bit like discovering a hidden boutique on a narrow street.  

Yesterday I went to the post office, the bank and my duty dog walks in light rain despite having a slight fever. This was the last straw, I guess. I have rested very well today. So I hope I will go back to work tomorrow. I start at 8:30. Also, I have all responsibility on my shoulders tomorrow. Mike is going to a training course for the kiln. He won the training at a pottery supply company whom we got a kiln from. The travel expense is also being paid for. It is a long trip, three hours by train. He is excited! So am I. This is the first time he has won something since we met. I hope he will learn lots and enjoy the day tomorrow.

Today I will share you with ceremonial staff I made. Between dark clouds with heavy rain there were sunny patches. I took some photos of my ceramics. One day I had desire to make the ceremonial staff kings and queens hold on their thrones. My desire was so intense that I couldn't resist, otherwise I thought I would be mad.  I have already showed you one of them, and this is the other one.  I used yellow glaze, and on top of it decorated with gold enamel. It has very good effects. The gold colour looks rich and gorgeous as I wanted. In an ideal world, I wanted to mount little gem stones in each dents I made on the swirl. But I had to compromise with red (ruby), blue (sapphire) and green (emerald) enamels. Painting them was very difficult because the enamel tried to run down before it had hardened. Three coats were needed to make them relatively flat surfaces. This really took lots of my time and effort, but I feel it was all worth it. There is nothing like this in the whole world, and I like to hold it    

Lion side has a red cabochon.

Side view

 

Sheep side

I have listed this work on Etsy today. Don't miss your chance to hold it in your hand in a royal manner!