Buying a house in rural New Mexico has been rewarding (mountain views!) intimidating (ever look outside your kitchen window and see a bear?) and sometimes surprisingly expensive (new water storage tank, repairing our hot water heater and fixing a wood stove pipe)

To celebrate our move and to help with the repairs, I’ve decided to do something a little wild.

I am having a 4 DAY BOGO sale!!!

This Buy One Get One Free offer will apply to all categories of Magic Zoo jewelry. (Yes, even the 14K gold pieces.)

But it is a very short offer… it starts today, Wednesday July 26 and ends this Saturday, at midnight July 29. FOUR DAYS ONLY!

Here’s how to get your free Magic Zoo jewelry:

1. Choose an item(s)to purchase and put in your cart
2. For every item you order, choose a second (must be the same price or less.) REMINDER: DON’T PUT THE FREE ITEMS IN THE SHOPPING CART, OR YOU’LL BE CHARGED FOR THEM!
3. Type the free item(s) of same or lesser price into the comment box at check out. (comment box is under #4 – Order Confirmation)
4. The free items MUST BE THE SAME PRICE, OR LESS, THAN THE PURCHASED ITEM(S)

The Buy One Get One Free Offer is only 4 days long. It starts today, on Wednesday July 26 and ends at midnight on Saturday July 29.

Think of it as Christmas in July! Get a jump on your holiday shopping, and help us get that water storage tank!

Your Animal Loving Artist,

Merry

I don’t have a dog, let alone a pit bull, but many of my neighbors do. Luckily, I’m not afraid of them; probably the rambunctious Dalmatians who shared my childhood home have something to do with that.

For instance, while jogging last week, I noticed an older man with his pit bull just a little ways down the trail. She (yes, a female) was straining at the leash, anxious to make some kind of contact with me. I asked the gentleman if I should go the other direction so I didn’t upset her, and he said “No, she’s fine.” Then she escaped from her collar and dove for me.

Did I experience a moment of panic? Yup. I admit it. Especially since he shouted at her. If he’d said “Don’t worry, she just wants to lick you” I would’ve been fine. But his surprised reaction, his voice tone…that’s what set me on edge.

And my fear wasn’t  because she was a good-sized pit bull. I like to think that a strange dog escaping her collar and bounding with unknown intention directly towards someone might create a little bit of concern for most people.

But of course I needn’t have panicked. She may not have had the best doggie manners in the world, but her intentions were purely sloppy friendship. She climbed up my legs, licked my face, wagged her tail wiggled her butt. You know, all those happy canine mannerisms. But what what I found interesting was the relief her human expressed. He was worried! Maybe he himself had bought into the “dangerous pit bull” idea circulating around. I may never know. I haven’t seen them again. But if I do, I’ll go right up to her and give her the petting she obviously was asking for!

I recently designed 2 new new pit bulls…they’re still at the caster, but by the time this is read, it may be on my website, so take a look and let me know what you think of them.

Being an artist who loves animals, it’s sometimes difficult to figure out what design to make next. My customers have suggestions, and of course I have my favorite ideas. But how to categorize all these thoughts in terms of what should be done first can be a little tricky! For example, I’ve wanted to make a platypus design for a long time, but in 27 years of working as an animal artist, perhaps 2 people have requested this little critter. Should I make one just for my own pleasure? Maybe! I’ve done that before, and once in a while it actually becomes my version of a “best seller.”

What do People Ask an Artist who Loves Animals to Make?

On the other hand, by survey most of my customers want me to make more dog designs. I like dogs, and they are lots of fun to make (some more than others). So I try and divide my creations and throw myself a bone once in a while (no pun intended). As an example of this, I just designed a kiwi bird. How many people have asked for this? I think probably none. Part of the appeal of this little bird traces back to a dear friend of mine who lives in New Zealand. Of course, that is the kiwi bird’s native home, and the inhabitants of this island nation are also known as “kiwis.”

Another recent design I created that had its roots in my own desire for plain old creative fun was the Florida zebra butterfly. I can’t wait to see this one painted in the gorgeous yellow and black stripes. This particular critter lives in my backyard, and as I’ve not seen zebra butterflies anywhere but in Florida, it holds a special place in my heart.

Being an Artist is Fun!

I must say that being an animal jewelry artist is spectacularly fun. Imagine being able to sit down at your desk whenever the mood strikes and turning a lowly blob of clay into a hamster, a tiger, a lion or a sloth. Speaking of which…or all…I just created new designs of all each of those guys. I’m currently on a creation rampage, and in the past 3 or 4 weeks have made about 50 new designs. FIFTY! That may be a record for me. Or maybe not. Back when The Magic Zoo sterling silver and painted pewter designs were coming out, I created new ones day in and day out. And many of them are still featured on my website.

I figure I have another 15 or 20 years of designing ahead of me. At the rate I’m designing now (and honestly, I’m not sure that pace will continue) I would have about 600 new designs every year, 9,000 in 15 years. But don’t hold me to it.

If you would like to see some of my newest designs you can click here. Today is August 3, 2016, and by the middle of September, this page will be bursting with new designs. So check back later! And let me know what you think of them.

Guinea pigs have been pets in Europe for centuries! Some evidence discovered just a few years ago points to this…a guinea pig skeleton was found in the backyard cellar in a district of Belgium (which at one time had been part of the Spanish Empire.) With radiocarbon dating of the bones, it was revealed that this little piggie lived at the beginning of the 17th century, just after the Spanish made their discovery of South America. The fact that the guinea pig was buried on the property indicates it was an affectionate human companion.

Flemish guinea pig paintings from the time show multi-colored guinea pigs, obviously pets. The wild cavy, of course, is a brown color.

It makes sense. These little guys are so cute, so companionable that they have been winning the love of humans for a very long time.

I have never had a guinea pig for a pet, but so many of my customers have them. And I’ll bet my guinea pig jewelry is up there with the top 10% of popular items I create! This surprised me at first, but then I learned some interesting things about guinea pigs. Like:

• Guinea pigs make excellent family pets
• They rarely bite
• They are fairly long-lived for rodents (5-7 years)
• They make some very cute sounds, described  as humming and purring
• They respond well to handling

The stewardship of guinea pigs sound like a wonderful way to introduce responsible pet care to a child. Of course, you as the parent would need to oversee this and make sure the guinea pig was being treated properly. But since they are so gentle, they might be a good start for a child old enough to actually keep the cage clean, feed the guinea pig and so on.

So it makes sense that guinea pigs have been pets for so long…I can imagine a Renaissance era maiden holding a little guinea pig in her hands, perhaps inducing it to take a bite of some delicacy. And it’s kind of humorous imagining a painter sitting at his easel, trying to capture a little piggie as it moves around. I’ve seen at least one painting from the 1600s with a couple of little guinea pigs in a central position. (They were black and white)

It has been postulated that it only took a couple of guinea pigs brought back from South America to be the parents of all the little pets in Europe that resulted. But I imagine more than that had been collected by the travelers. I like to think they were given as gifts by the people of South America, and that they enjoyed a pleasant journey across the water.

Who knows? Maybe that guinea pig you now have as a pet had “ex-pat” parents in Europe, and their progeny ended up back in the Americas, to be bred once again, and become the great great many great grandparents of that little guinea pig you cuddle today!  If you do like the little guys, stop by The Magic Zoo and see what guinea pigs I have come up with, and also make a suggestion  of what you would like to see me make in the future!