bye-bye babies

Well, off they went, our last two little boys, with an adorable family.....sigh. This is Allene with her two grand-children. She came for one of the puppies and left with two!!! Her daughter and grand-children had a little bit to do with that....but, we are actually thrilled with her decision because Angel and Corky loved to wrestle and play with one another and then would curl up together to sleep. That's why Allene took them both. She wanted them each to have a playmate and dog companionship. I've always thought dogs who are pack animals are happier in pairs. I think they are going to have a charmed life, wintering in South Carolina and summers back in Ann Arbor.

In spite of how good we feel about the match it's been a sad couple of days around here. Lucy the mother of the pups has been looking for them ever since they left, a concern Allene and her family had, and that I didn't realize would be an issue. We've been giving her extra attention and treats.

Thw reason I wasn't more prepared for her worried behavior I remembered, is that we have always kept at least one puppy from every litter, or a close family member or friend has kept one and they visited every day.... so the mama has always had at least one puppy to be with....and so have we. It's a little pitiful around here right now as we get used to having all three of them gone.....poof, did it ever happen? Thankfully, our friend took one, so we will be able to watch him grow up, though they live an hour away.
We just got the final wholesale orders out the door and down the road and now we are in full swing for the Ann Arbor Art Fairs in mid-July with the Charlevoix Waterfront Art Fair in mid-August close on Ann Arbor's heels. (Don't worry Lisa, we're working on your small flower, which will be gracing your garden soon....)

The pieces shown above and below are mini-sculptures heading for Somerset Gallery in Ocean City, Maryland
Mini-mermaids for Somerset Gallery in Ocean City, Maryland.

mini sculpture

The mini's are hand-painted table top size sculpture. Shown above are mini flowers, fish, cats and leslie suns.

Singing the blues: flowers for Garden Argosy in Sarasota

The great thing about painting these flowers is the total freedom it offers us to play with the paint and color them imaginatively and vividly. When I have these on my table in front of me it is absolutely impossible to be gloomy. Painting them is sheer enjoyment.
Spring is bursting out all over and these flowers have places to go, people to see, homes to engrace. This particular crop of tiny flowers and a whole bunch of other great work is making its way to Garden Argosy in Sarasota.

Send Flowers

The flowers that never die, a spectacular garden that can keep on growing. Buy an entire grouping, add slowly to your collection each year, or just buy one outstanding piece and enjoy it for many, many years to come. These flowers offer a breath of springtime, a touch of summer all year round and are suitable for indoor or outdoor placement.
Flowers are sold in 5 sizes: large (6ft. plus), medium (51/2 feet tall), small (4.5-5ft. tall), tiny (3.5-4feet), and tabletop (12-18 inches).
All flowers come with a hand-made, mosaic (using hand-painted glass) concrete base.

small pieces

These are examples from our tabletop line of sculpture, all hand painted and one of a kind. A little bit of purplebabydaddies goes a long way.

Fall-Winter (2006-2007) Work by Markel and Leslie

Mini flowers and wall pieces

We are well known for our standing sculptures, which we still make and sell, however we have added mini sculptures and wall pieces to our repertoire.

Having our store in Key West and serving a traveling clientele who we shipped to regularly, alerted us to the fact that pieces that easily fit in a suitcase like the mini's and smaller wall pieces do, were an attractive alternative for easier, more economic transport, .
Our customers also requested pieces for the wall and more affordable pieces, which is why we have developed the mini-size sculptures for a table-top. All of our work is available for sale without the stem and base, with a wire added for hanging indoor or outside on a patio, pool, or deck wall.

The top photo shows a collection of the mini flowers that we do, and a mini cat at far left.





Also shown, in middle photo above, a wall fish. They come in sizes from tiny, 9 inches to as big as a customer wants. The one shown is approximately 24 inches long.
Bottom photo- Wall sun by Markel. This one is large- about 30inches x 30 inches. We also do these much smaller and much larger.

The mini's

This is a new item for us. Mini sculptures, each one original, hand-painted by Markel and Leslie. They replace the paper print line that we once did and that were approximately the same size, 10inches- 24 inches tall. The prints were xerox copies of our original work which were flat, applied to metal and then embellished.
We like these a lot better and they are all original.
Retail prices range from $65 - $95.




This is a wall sun by leslie, 16 x 16 inches, and available in a range of sizes.

















Mini- sun by Markel.
Mini cat

Mini flowers and fish

mini flowers with bug and mosaic base: $85

wall fish: $45( 8-10inches)-$300 (60inches)

shown: orange fish- $175

blue/green fish- $145

Small Fish and Mini Cats

We have added small standing 3-d fish to our design line that come with a mosaic base. They retail for $225 and up for larger sizes.

The mini cats retail for $75.