another 2020 commission titled Curious Bunnies.  ​

This tall body gourd made the perfect shaped vase for this garden rabbit design.  The entire gourd is extensively burned with lots of flowers and rabbits on both sides.  The pyrography was left natural, with only the addition on blue color on the butterflies.

I wanted to show the inquisitive nature of the rabbits, along with the diversity of a wildflower garden.  Included are poppy, black eyed susan, zinnia, iris, and wild strawberry.

Below:  detail of the flowers and butterfly.

You may not remember, but you can look back at my January post for 2020.  Here I talked about the classes I was planning and I prefaced the post with "Do you have 2020 vision?".  Wow did we all have such ideas for the year only to have them change so dramatically.  

In these next few posts I would like to share with you some of the projects I was honored to work on.  Had my 2020 gone as planned,  there just would not have been time for them and I would have to turn these projects down.  In these I met and worked with some wonderful people and was able to make their ideas come to life in these works of art now in their collections.  

The first piece I'll discuss is called "Safe Place"; it is a fully pyroengraved (burned) cannonball gourd and depicts a baby fawn hiding among the ivy under a pine tree, while a little squirrel curiously checks him out.  I called it such, because on the opposite of the gourd there roams.......

...a wolf through the woods.  Did the fawn find a good hiding place?  I think so, the wolf seems pretty unaware of the fawn's presence.  As the gourd is turned there are some other little fellas keeping an eye on things.  

This is a scene that I imagined must happen so often in real life.  Fawns are born without a scent, and they rely on their camouflage coats and the ability to lay perfectly still for long periods of time to keep them safe while mom is away.  While the wolf is a superior hunter, they are most successful when in a pack.  Although a lone wolf is capable of surviving and hunting away from the pack, having one set of eyes set this one at a disadvantage.  All the advantage this time lies with the baby fawn!