What do hares and armadillos have to do with each other, you might wonder? Well, I wondered that too, but realized what happens between consenting lagomorphs and turtle-rabbits (that’s what the Aztecs called armadillos) is really none of my business.  What is my business, or, more technically, my hobby, is creating jewelry inspired by the “Hares and Rabbits” theme for the monthly Art Elements design challenge and sculptures prompted by an armadillo spirit guide that began whispering to me last month.

Many years ago, I can’t recall precisely how many and it doesn’t actually matter now that I think about it, I bought a bunch of lunar hare pendants from a talented ceramic artist.  I’ve been curating them, along with many other art beads I’ve collected over the years, waiting for just the right design ideas to showcase them.  Some people might think I’m hoarding them.  Those people just don’t understand than when you have a beautiful hand-crafted artisan bead you can’t just throw it into any old jewelry design.

I used one of my lunar hares in a necklace for last month’s “spring” themed design challenge.  At the time, I didn’t know hares would be part of this month’s theme.  When I learned I would have a second opportunity to showcase one of these lunar hares, I started pondering how I could design a necklace setting that was not the same as the one I used last month.

These hares seem talismanic to me, and while they can certainly hold their own as a pendant on a simple chain or cording neckline, I want to give them more of a statement setting.  For this month’s lunar hare talisman necklace, I used antique brass finish wire to create a long crescent-shaped station with loops for dangling the pendant and other things.  I wrapped the crescent with more brass wire and some glass pearls in shades of purple.  I was thinking of a wild berry bramble as I wrapped the wire and beads.

The ceramic hare took the focal spot in the center loop of the wire station.  A ceramic man-in-the-moon charm, by the same artist, faces the hare from one side of the crescent.  On the opposite side, I placed a pentacle charm, and for the in-between loops, I added purple lustre Czech glass leaves.  The hare, moon, and pentacle each have Czech glass flower dangles.  The rest of the neckline is completed with antiqued brass rolo chain.

In addition to the ceramic hares, I also collected a pair of bronze metal clay hares from the same artist.  Although having a pair of any beads or charms almost always makes me want to make earrings, I used just one hare as the focal for a bracelet.  I gave the hare connector a slight curve and added an indigo patina with some dye oxide.  Since I didn’t have any bronze chain, I used copper chain to complete the bracelet.  I kept the design simple, but couldn’t resist adding a couple of Czech glass flowers as dangles.  I love me some beaded dangles.

Early last month I started thinking about armadillos as the subject for a sculpture or maybe an embroidered design.  I didn’t know why I was thinking about armadillos, but I collected dozens of reference images as possible inspiration for a design.  Although I had plenty of source material, I couldn’t settle on what to make.  I just kept finding and saving images of armadillos.  It wasn’t until a friend suggested a spirit guide might be trying to reach me that I realized why armadillos were so much on my mind.  I won’t get into what I think Armadillo was trying to tell me. Let’s just say, once I listened it all made sense.

That same friend commissioned me to make an armadillo cake topper this month – without knowing how much armadillos had been occupying my thoughts.  Before she suggested the spirit guide, I thought maybe my armadillo obsession was just me tuning into her wavelength.  But she was right and the spirit was right.  But also, I made my first ever cake topper this month, and it happens to be an armadillo.  It’s shaped like an armadillo cake, so, it’s an armadillo-cake cake-topper.  How fun is that?

My friend provided a couple of photos of the armadillo cake from her wedding and asked for a topper that resembled it, to be placed on top of the cake for her vow renewals.  I think that’s such a fabulous idea.  My polymer clay sculpture is not an exact miniature replica of her actual cake because (1) she asked for moons and suns where the cake had flowers and hearts, (2) the tail is curved to fit on a round cake, and (3) I wasn’t able to exactly match the colors.  But it’s pretty close and I look forward to seeing how it looks on the cake.

After I completed the cake topper, I still felt as though I needed to make an armadillo, as a tribute to the helpful spirit guide.  I used air dry paperclay – a medium I started working with a few months ago – and a wood plaque.  As I was sculpting, I didn’t have a plan for how I would paint the armadillo.  Luckily, I had a couple days of waiting for clay to dry to think about it.  I went with a vivid southwestern-inspired color theme in shades of turquoise blues, orange, and yellow on a copper background.  The background looked a little plain once the armadillo was colored, so I added some paint splatter for interest.

That’s it from me for April’s artistic endeavors.  Well, there was also supposed to be an embroidered rabbit in a field of dandelions, but I didn’t start stitching until the last week of the month and quickly realized the pattern was going to take more than a minute to finish.  It’s thread-painting with single strands of floss and I completed exactly eight dandelion leaves over the course of 6 hours.  Rather than rush and make a lot of mistakes, I’ll keep working on it at an enjoyable relaxing pace and share it with you when it’s done.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if the spirit moves you.  This blog is sort of my version of “dance like no one is watching” except it’s “write like no one is reading.”  I enjoy writing even if no one but me reads it.  And I equally enjoy knowing someone is reading and gets something from it, whether that’s a laugh or inspiration to create.