End of Morning Sunrise

A Special thanks to this weeks Guest Host Amitua Maulik.

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My post for today's Sky Watch Friday is of catching the very end of a beautiful Sunrise and how it progressed.

Catching the very end of a beautiful colorful sky

North East view

Close up of NE view

View from the South West

Mountain Fall Colors

Today's post is of some Fall colors here in the mountains of North Carolina that I captured while going on a trip to Lake Toxaway which is about 45 miles from here.

We have some great colors here too but I wanted to get some photographs of a different place with a different perspective than we get here, as one can only photograph the same location just so many times before it gets boring to the viewer and yourself.

I am putting in only three photographs today but I have many more from that short trip that I will use at a later time. Click on any of the photographs for a more "Up close and personal" view.

Geometric Designs and Gems

Gourd Art # 108

Today's post is of another Gourd Art I just finished after working on it for the past two weeks.

The Gourd is a nice Big one,finished it stands 13 1/2 inches tall and is 12 inches wide at it's widest part, and did manage to give me quite a challenge to create it.

The Gourd is not fully round, as most gourds are not, and has a somewhat bulbous shape which lends it's self to a storage type gourd (to keep things in it).

I started out by first drawing on some Geometric Designs and then wood burning the designs in, and then cutting the diamond shaped pieces of top grade Lapis to be inlaid into the upper boarder portion. There are 22 diamond shaped pieces inlaid into the upper boarder and then a boarder around each piece wood burned in and colored with a special Sliver paint.

I then proceeded to color in all the Geometric Designs with leather dye, then there was one slightly bad spot just below the upper boarder in the gourd, so I designed another Geometric Design there and cut another piece of Lapis to be inlaid in that spot where it was pitted.

The next challenge was the top that I had cut off, it had some deep cracks and gouges in it,I filled those places and then drew on a ribbon type design, wood burned it in, then colored with leather dye.

Finished Gourd Art

View from the top

The troublsome top before

Showing top after

Signed bottom

Sky Buzzard

A Special thanks to Colleen Walton for being today's Sky Watch Friday Guest Host.

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Here is my post for Sky Watch Friday

High flying Buzzard in a Blue Sky

Another shot of him in another part of the Sky.

Buzzards are not the most beautiful of birds I know, but I like to watch them soar effortlessly riding the air currents and updrafts from the mountains here.

Buzzards can soar for hours upon end by riding the air currents, catching updrafts,and soaring high up into the sky until they become mere dots in the sky.

Dramatic Sunrise Skies

Thanks to Kcalpesh Ajugia for being Sky Watch Host .

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I woke up the other morning to some very Dramatic Skies, so out the door I went, camera in hand to capture some of the beautiful visions.

View to the North as Sun came up


View to the East


View to the North West

After the dark clouds rolled off into the distance and "Grandfather"(Sun) had climbed the mountains the day turned into a beautiful sunny day.

The mountains are coming alive with Fall Color now and soon we will have some glorious colors to show you on our posts.

New Gourd Art #107

Today's post is of a new Gourd Art I just finished, it is a full 3/8" thick after cleaning and sanding and stands 15 1/2" tall and is 8 1/2" wide.

I followed my "Creative Voice" from the gourd telling me what it should be, and this is what the result is, a Navajo woman making a pot to put some of the harvest in during the "Harvest Moon" you see over her head.

The "Harvest Moon" is cut from Iridescent Mother of Pearl and inlaid into the gourd, ground and sanded flush with the gourds surface and polished.

I also cut 6 star shapes out of Turquoise and inlaid them into the gourd,ground and sanded flush with the gourd and polished, then a boarder drawn on and wood burned in and filled with Brown leather dye.

The back side of the gourd is a young Native man with his fire and seeing a Thunder bird rising from the fire. The Thunder bird I made by cutting 8 pieces of Turquoise and inlaying them,sanding and flushing to the gourd and polishing.

I used a very light yellow inside the gourd to light it up a little, and with the top off it appears as if a nice warm fire was burning within to light the evening.

All designs are first drawn on with pencil, then wood burned into the gourd and color added with leather dyes and some paint, even the boarders are wood burned in and colored with leather dyes.

You may click on any of the photographs to enlarge for a better view.

Front View of the Gourd Art

Front view with top off

Close up of the Navajo Woman

Back side of Gourd with Native man and Thunder Bird

Close up of Thunder Bird made of Turquoise

Close up of one of the 6 Turquoise Stars on the top
Note: Several of the Turquoise Stars have flecks of Gold in the Turquoise.

The Moon Experiment

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Here is my entry for Sky Watch Friday

Moon lit Sky Experiment #1

Moon Lit Sky Experiment #2

I have always admired other photographers shots of the moon and the details they seem to get, so I thought I would try and see what pictures I could get with my small knowledge of photography techniques.

Today I am posting two versions of the same Moon Shot for your viewing pleasure and to show how my experiment with this project came out.