The Twelve Days of Christmas, part II

(continued from part I)

The first four days had seen me make four trees, six turtledoves, 6 hens, and 4 calling birds. Pretty reasonable, right? It starts to get a little crazy.

Five Golden Rings


This is what a pile of forty "golden" rings looks like. They were surprisingly difficult to make, and my hands were yellow at the end of the process.

Six Geese a-laying

Hey geese! The casual observer might mistake these guys for the turtledoves. The trained eye will spot the nest underneath the geese, a clear indicator that they are a-laying their eggs.

No, I did not make tiny clay eggs.

Yes, I thought about it.

Seven Swans a-swimming

Okay, now hold on. I know what you're thinking - "Jeff, you idiot. Why are those 'swans' red? Swans aren't red."

True. Most swans I've ever met have been white, or grayish at worst. Nope. I ran out of white clay with 21 swans to form. Now, I didn't actually form the gifts exactly in order - I started with the rings, then the drummers, the trees, the birds, and finished with the people at the end. However, by the time I had gotten to swans, my brain was pretty much fizzling. I had no time to get back to a store and get white clay, and my attempt at painting the swans was pitiful. Didn't work.

Despite this, the gift was accepted.

Eight Maids a-milking


I could only get one of them to pose, and I apologize for the poor quality of the picture. This was the best of the bunch. The maids were probably the second-hardest to create after the lords a-leaping. I eventually decided that they would be sort of sitting on stools, with a silver-ish milk pail on their lap.

Up tomorrow: the thrilling finale!

The Twelve Days of Christmas, part I

Call me Andy Bernard, because one of the Christmas gifts I gave to Calli this year was a complete* clay set of the gifts of the twelve days of Christmas.

*Sort of. There ended up being two extra french hens, and one goose a-laying is missing in action. The goose is presumed to be dead at the paws of Dinah.

Because the gift ended up being a large undertaking, I'm going to break this up into a 3 part series of posts.
Before I begin recapping the individual gifts, let's try and settle a debate. In the twelve days of Christmas, does one give a partridge in a pear tree once, or 12 times? I say there are 12 partridges, making the total gifts break down like this:

1 partridge in a pear tree x 12 days = 12 gifts
2 turtledoves x 11 days = 22 turtledoves
3 french hens x 10 days = 30 hens
4 calling birds x 9 days = 36 calling birds
5 golden rings x 8 days = 40 rings
6 geese a-laying x 7 days = 42 geese
7 swans a-swimming x 6 days = 42 swans
8 maids a-milking x 5 days = 40 maids
9 ladies dancing x 4 days = 36 ladies
10 lords a-leaping x 3 days = 3o lords
11 pipers piping x 2 days = 22 pipers
12 drummers drumming x 1 day = 12 drummers

Calli says the gifts are given just once.

She's wrong.

Tonight: Days 1-4

Partridge in a Pear Tree


Basically, I combined a generic tree shape with a small little dab of gray clay to signify the presence of a partridge. You can see one in the top left corner of the photo above, sitting amid nests full of calling birds and a bunch of canoodling turtledoves.

Two Turtledoves


These cute little guys are turtledoves - you can tell because they have beaks!

Three French Hens

Although they aren't wearing berets or talking about baguettes, these hens are most definitely French.

Four Calling Birds


Wikipedia told me that there is some dispute as to whether the fourth day of Christmas highlights calling birds or colly birds, but honestly? They're 1 inch clay figurines. Even if I knew the difference, you probably wouldn't be able to tell. I'm not exactly sculpting at Michelangelo's talent level here.


Stay tuned for days 5-8...