Drumroll Please...

It's a long story.  Not a joke...in fact, not only is it long, I prefer to be inebriated if I have to share it.  

The short version is: Up from the Ashes is GONE.  Fin. The End.  Bye-Bye.
It was a heart wrenching decision to close after eight years of pouring my heart and soul into my creations, but hopefully everything will work out for the best.

Good news is, I am finally putting out a shingle under my own name.
SO, soon, yes, very soon indeed, I will have marvelous new works of art to share with you, my dear reader.
Stay tuned.

~R

Yikes...

So apparently I still have this much neglected blog that is in desperate need of attention. I feel like I owe the poor thing a hug and a good bottle of wine to make up for my absence. (how do you share a bottle of wine with a website?)

So where did I go?
Nowhere. I've been right here toiling away on my wings, masks, etc, etc. Just haven't felt particularly chatty about it I suppose.

But I do have a ton of new things to show you all, so I will try to scrounge up some time to start posting pictures soon.

There have been many exciting things happening personally, including the birth of my niece in October of 2010 and my own wedding later the same month. More on that later!

Vacation!

So after three weeks of physical therapy, my sprained wrist/hand is sort of usable again. Needless to say, I can't wait until I can get back to work. I have a bunch of projects piling up on me, not to mention all the things I need to get done for my wedding. Only 108 days to go!

This is Kaylee! I believe I have shown you this design before, but this particular pair turned out so charming that I just had to share them. (Yes, they are named after the character from Firefly.) They are made with steely blue organza and are detailed with black and super sparkly silver paint. The antennae are covered with black ribbon and tipped with crystals and the back is decorated with a matching blue flower and black goose feathers. The whole effect is elegantly gothic!

Baby Blue Jays

These darling feather wings were a custom order for a photographer in Canada. I had an absolute blast painting all the feathers to look like a real blue jay. You'd never guess it, but all of the feathers started out powder blue.
These are my first baby angels, scaled down in size for infants.