My husband and I had a dream of building a cabin and having some timber, and I knew that I wanted an owl on the newel post going upstairs to the sleeping quarters.

So I borrowed Dad's old foredom and I created a screech owl.

And when I got done with that, I loved it.

And so I thought, Oh, I got to do another one.

And I ridiculously picked a great horned owl because there could not be a more complicated project to pick for your second bird.

And I did that.

And when I finished it, I thought, Well, what does an artist mean?

Like what?

What path am I on here?

What do I need to do with this?

I don't just want to put it on the mantel and forget about it.

So I got online, found the word world carving competition, and Ocean City, Maryland, bought myself a ticket, flew out there myself, entered it, and I won.

And I knew at that moment that I wanted to be a master carver.

And that was what I wanted to spend my time doing.

And it took me 13 years.

But I got there this past spring.

The heart of what I do and the root of what I do is birds of prey.

I guess.

As I grew up and matured, I realized what else was in nature other than me just having fun right out there with all the things that are in that just in a split second you could miss or you could see an eagle might fly over and I might miss it.

But if I'm paying attention and for 3 seconds I might get the most awesome view of the day.

And those things are overlooked by a lot of people.

And for me, they make it all worthwhile.

Welcome to the studio.

Come on in.

This is my wall of inspiration and all my reference photos.

The process of creating a bird really starts with a lot of study, a lot of understanding, the loft of the feathers, the feather groups, knowing the bird, what I would start with.

It would be a profile and an aerial template, the square block of wood.

I would have put one on the top, one on the side, make sure they were lined and cut it out.

And the band saw it.

Depends on how big the bird is, but I might take a four inch grinder out on the patio and rough in the rest of the shape and my goal is to get to something round where I can start to imagine where the feather groups are going to be placed and then start to block those in.

I'm just going to come in underneath each feather and.

I'll just go back and forth until I get that the way that.

I like it.

So it's just a constant refining at that point to get everything the right shape and the right the right dimension.

Then I would take the wood burner and I would go back in and do each quill and then each barb on every single feather.

All I'm.

Thinking about is one feather.

At a time.

Then I would come in and do layers and layers and layers of paint.

It's the ultimate challenge for me.

You're taking something hard that is square and boring and basic and bland and turning it into something beautiful, lofty and completely different from where you started.

And it looks real.

It's it's believable.

It's not just close.

It's there.

One of the greatest compliments someone can give me is I just wanted to blow on it because I thought the feathers would move.

The very first question that people ask me when they see pieces, usually they're silent for a while and I'm explaining the piece and then they say, How long did that take you?

And I think what's important about not only the number of hours when I give them a response, depending on the piece, is that they understand the determination that it takes, because the next thing they ask is how many hours can you sit there at a time to work on the piece?

And I find that in my carving community and I've seen it in other artists as well.

But I think that that's what makes us unique to a degree, is that ability to really sit for hours and do each barb on every feather, knowing that in the end it's going to make it or break it.

I'll frequently come back out after dinner at night and be here till ten.

I just love it so much.