♥ Have you ever looked at something and your heart melted away in a bliss? That happens to me with this Cocker… 

♥ English Cocker Spaniel black and white with the sweetest eyes ♥

Today I am wrapping and packing this guy to send him home in the USA. Since the first minute I wondered if it was right to sell him but honestly I cannot keep all my works, and that question pops up in my head time and time again with too many of my pieces.
I do not just work the clay out to make a cute little dog to sell, I treat my pieces as I would treat my real dogs, or shall I say my real puppies. I have that feeling when a new litter of puppies is born and I see them being born, take care of them and make sure they grow well. It is exactly what I do with my sculptures, and they normally need two months to be ready to go home, so, yes, CALL ME NUTS, but that is the way I create my work, the attention that I put onto each one of them and the expectations I have of them when they arrive to their new homes.

This is the second English Cocker Spaniel I create, the first one is a portrait I did last year for, someone I may call friend now, who lives in Belgium. And there is another piece on the queue.

Another awesome part of my work is that many of my clients turn into friends. We connect through some passion, our dogs!

I often share similar concerns with my buyers, I as an owner, breeder and exhibitor and student of dogs breeds for 20 years, can relate to many concerns about breeding pure breed dogs. I was touched by the brief story I learned from the person who bought this piece, for her in USA is been hard to show her dogs on the conformation ring due to the natural tails, for those of you into this sport would know what I am talking about. I was one of the first in my own country to start showing dogs with natural ears and tails and that crashed me in the rings for long, also because I cared about breed type in a functional way, two points that made my life hard, but I kept up, and eventually did things my own way and turned out great! We often times do not find support or we find it overseas. We shall rely on that support and keep going on for whatever we stand for.

This sculpture found a home for having a natural tail! HA! I am glad!

I sculpt my pieces both natural and cropped/docked.

I think there is a reason for having them both ways, I often sculpt both looks natural and docked. Why? because I think I believe we are still free to chose what fits better our dogs. The were reason for some breeds to have docked tails, and that is due to functionality. Some breeds still damage their tails a lot if left naturals, and hence I believe is better to dock. Being extreme in any stand point doesn’t serve, and as a pure breed defensor who stands on the side to support freedom to buy a dog or adopt one or rescue or whatever it may be I also think one is left to decide the rest as long as well being and wise responsible decisions are taken.

 
Love,
Barbara
Are you interested in having your own sculpture? Contact me applerainart@gmail.com