Dragon Heart

Well, in a spurt of unexpected productivity, I fired another kiln-load of silver tonight. Here's the second Valentine-themed pendant. I'm still on a dragon kick (at least in theory - I haven't made any more headway on the "Here Be Dragons" necklace), so I thought a little dragon's heart pendant would be appropriate. Once again, I hand-carved a stamp block for the rough cut dragon scale design. I made the heart design by filling a heart-shaped depression with opaque red resin. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm not generally a big fan of heart jewelry - I often find it to be a little insipid - so I wanted to create a strong, almost masculine-looking pendant.

In Norse legend, Sigurd the Dragon Slayer ate the heart of a dragon and gained wisdom and the gift of prophecy. I understand that in other folklore, a dragon's heart bestows strength. For my own part, I simply wanted a heart image that was unusual but still conveyed a sense of romance and the fantastic. I might make the heart a little larger the next time, but overall, I think it turned out pretty well.

This is probably the last new work I'll have to show for a few days. Although I did fired a kiln-load, all of the other pieces are for a contest entry. With the new year upon us, several annual contests will be open for submissions soon. Although I know that my chance of actually making the final cut in any of these is diminishingly small, I also feel that at least entering this year is necessary for moving forward with my work. Once again, I'm astonished by how time consuming all of this is.

On other fronts, the Short One and I practiced our Greco-Roman wrestling holds at great length today over a variety of issues, such as putting on the winter coat and boots. Ever since the SO arrived, I've felt that there should be an official Baby Olympics with various categories like swaddling, bathing (with the 50 meter dash that often accompanies being lifted out of the tub), the diaper change (while we would never win any time trials in this category, I've always felt that the SO and I would have been a shoo-in for the freestyle event), etc., etc. I don't know about you, but my day just seems filled with small athletic events.

Thanks for stopping by!