To date, I've made—let us say—10 tiger heads, of which 6 were created in the last year. So I'm still ramping up on this bead, and was ready for something a little less demanding. —One of the other sculptural animals I saw demonstrated, along with a snow leopard, in the Loren Stump class I took lo those many years ago, was a round rat. Most of the interest in that bead therefore came out of the head, eyes, ears and tail. That was the starting point for these little bunnies.

Easter bunny ears. The best one is styled front and center, which is not an accident: I especially like the way its ear came out. At a rough guess, the beads are 3/4 an inch long; the wires are standard tierracast shepherd hooks, and should give a sense of scale. Hollow, effetre, trailed, 12apr09.

I wanted to make some thing cute, with a touch of elegance, but not "cartoony", which just doesn't appeal to me at all.

I started with a round, hollow bead made in white glass; then tried using a 1-1/2" lentil pattiwacker to press. Too difficult—using a curving motion with a standard marver while rolling the bead on the torchtop marver worked ok for a starting shape. Wiping glass forward to add the head had the extra benefit of laying down an ear. After laying down more for the ears, I sometimes used a small brass stump shaper to put creases behind the head; a tungsten pick for the eyes, and ruby glass to pull the nose out. I also pulled the tail to a point, usually both before and after flattening it. As I got better I flattened the front feet. One of the rabbits, I made with back legs instead, but found on the whole that the body could be left plain. In all cases I marveled at the goopiness and long working time of white glass, which, once I got used to it, I loved.

Originally I thought to add a bit of easter-ish zing with a bow. Too difficult; also a flower around/near the neck was too busy near the head—I stuck it on the rump instead. The bunny destined for f2tE, who doesn't have pierced ears, was slightly bigger and got a different colored flower, because I only had about 2" of the other cane, and I needed it last.

In fact, the bunny ears proved to be so popular I had an adult request for another pair, though I'd like to get ’em smaller. Oh, and the wizard wants one for his windowsill. In any event, they were a little easier (and definitely faster) break from the more demanding tiger heads, while still allowing me to practice my sculptural skills.

beads, photo 12apr09, post 13apr09.

Update, 20130404: here's a related page.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.