‘Two For Joy’ features two paper magpie sculptures, perched on a wreath adorned with hydrangea blooms. The flowers are various shades of purple, lilac, and warm pink tones.

This whimsical wall art is the only one of its kind (just like all of my sculptures).

The magpies have black and white feathers, which have a shimmery quality. Certain areas have a green, blue or purple hue, where more coloured metallic powders have been added to the inks to colour the paper. Their feathers are cut out by hand and individually applied, making each bird unique.

Magpies are associated with magic and prophecy. They represent good and bad, black and white, a duality of many things. I mostly like them because they are known to be collectors, easily distracted and enamoured by shiny things! There’s something very endearing about that.

Singular magpies can be made available, but joy is an emotion I hope to evoke in my designs, so Two For Joy was hard to resist!

Magpies have themselves a bit of a bad reputation, but I am utterly enamoured by them. The way they hop along the grass, their beautiful iridescent hues, the way their tails bob up and down…they’re the perfect blend of elegance and adorable. You might notice from the photographs that the pair are not identical. They have shimmery feathers of different hues in different places. (One has a bluer sheen to his neck, while the other has a green hue etc) They are made with the same screen printing papers so they are a matching set.