Swallows in my Rafters

Back a year ago when I was doing the marquetry for my Birds and Bees reversible box I experimented with a couple of different ways to do the birds on the sides. One of the ideas was to cut them from one veneer and watercolour dye them and another was to cut them from one veneer and just sand shade them as in the monochrome technique. (like this piece)

In the end I decided on traditional marquetry and set the trial pieces aside. ….. which brings us to last winter when I was doing a tidy-up around my little shop in Green Valley. I came across these little panels and thought they were too nice to just junk so I put them where real swallows would likely want to go anyway …. in the rafters of my shop.

I think they look quite at home there and they are no longer cluttering up the bench in my too-tiny shop.

Thanks for looking :-)

Paul