My last ornament ended up a little rushed. As the holidays raced in, I found I didn't have as much time to play with glass. I picked a black crested titmouse because I have several visiting my bird feeder right now. They are perky and cute.

The end result seemed a little more squat and less cheerful than the photo.

But I thought it looked fine on the tree with the others.

Merry Christmas and IO SATURNALIA!

Since I had received my order of 2 inch circle mirrors, I had to make a few more using this size. I ended my last post with the three mirrors I had made framing patterns on. Romans liked birds as do I so I decided to keep the bird theme going. I sketched out three birds--two repeats, the chickadee and wren, and a black crested titmouse. But more on him next time.

I decided to work on the chickadee first. This is the photo I was working from:

One of the biggest problems I am having is making an eye that is so small and somehow distinguished from the surrounding black. I used purple glass but I know you cannot tell. In addition, I think his head is a bit too flat but I didn't want to tear up the glass and redo it. I could live with it. This is what the ornament looked like before I cleaned all the excess glue.

He looks better on the tree.

Here he is with the first chickadee:

I turned my attention to the wren next. They are such cheeky little birds. Here's the photo I was working from.

I started with the thin branches and buff chest/stomach.

In the end I realized that this little wren, which I really like, was based on the same photo as the first one. To make it look different, I turned it on an angle when gluing the string on the back.

And here he is with his fellow wren:

And the black crested titmouse will have to wait for next post. It is the ultimate (last) ornament, with the chickadee being the antepenultimate and the wren being the penultimate. As a Latin teacher, I had to use those words. I couldn't stop myself. 

After the wren and chickadee, I ordered 2 inch round mirrors because I thought that the square ornaments looked a little awkward on my tree. My son had requested a hedgie ornament, so I started looking for a picture online that I thought might work.

I was interested in the idea of this hedgie with flowers, but didn't like the composition at the time. (Admittedly it looks fine now!)

I did like the composition of this hedgie with a watermelon slice, but didn't think a melon would work for a Christmas ornament.

So I combined the two, taking the flower from one and the sitting hedgehog from the other.

I made the frame first, then added the grass and the flower.

It took me a couple of tries to get the hedgie on because I wasn't getting the proportions correct. In retrospect, I think I made it too small. I added a little butterfly to help fill the space. It's a little more cutesy than I would like, but my son approved.

When the 2 inch circles arrived, I immediately started to edge one while I pondered what to do first.  I don't know why I chose the light blue glass, but I did. And as I edged the circle, I started thinking of water. 

So I looked at heron pictures again. I wanted one with a fish and finally found one that I thought could work. 

In the end, I think I was trying to squeeze too much into the 2 inch circle. I also didn't seem to get the glass as snug together as I thought. Sometimes the angle of the light keeps me from seeing this while I'm gluing.  Also, it looks a little chubby--more like an ostrich!

​I'm glad I included the fish, even though I flipped it around from how it is in the photo. 

But cleaned up and polished, I think they look fine on the tree, so I'm satisfied.

In the meantime, I decided it was time to experiment with more interesting borders for the circles than just a line of tesserae. So here are three new borders... what will go in these?