Birds on the wire at Manchester Craft and Design Centre

When the weather gets brighter I always start making more tropical designs. I'm rather seasonal with my inspirations. I decided to design parrots and toucans, to bring some colour into the studio.

Meet Emilio, the Toco Toucan, who can balance on your finger. I was so pleased he balanced, I was tempted to walk around with him all day.

I designed eight different types of toucan. They're not all finished yet. I am having such fun making them.

Sawyer, the Keel Billed Toucan, with his snazzy beak and bright yellow neck.

Groot the Green Billed Toucan.

I also made a little herd of baby toucans!

Freeman, the baby grey breasted mountain toucan.

Rocket, the baby green billed toucan, sat on a little floral hoop.

I decided to make some giant hoops to hang from a big, long wire at Manchester Craft and Design Centre, where my studio is based.

I covered some hula hoops in brown paper and adorned them with twigs, flowers, butterflies and a load of birdies. It took ages to put them together, but I had a lovely time assembling big things. It made me feel very summery, despite the gloomy weather we've been having outside.

There are four of them in total. The lovely Kaylee from the staff team helped me attach them. And by 'helped' of course I mean she mostly did it single handed, whilst I idly held on to some ladders she was teetering on the top of. As the clumsiest person alive I didn't relish the idea of scaling the ladders myself! Luckily for me Kaylee is super agile and super generous with her time. :) Thank you, lovely lady.

Wilbur, the Kaiser-I-Hind Butterfly.

There aren't just toucans in this happy little menagerie. Here's a selection of cockatoos I made. Here's a close up of Dougal, the Black Palm Cockatoo:

Jared, the Banksian Cockatoo, with his happy little speckled face.

Mortimer, the Umbrella Cockatoo, with his snazzy plumage.

Golden Conures and Red Spectacled Amazons, which you can see here amongst some toucanets (which I didn't realize were real things until I did my birdy reasearch.) Toucanets are beautiful and come in such jazzy colours. I made an Emerald Toucanet (Michonne), a Saffron Toucanet (Galadriel) and a Yellow Browed Toucanet (Jolene).

You can see the display at Manchester Craft and Design Centre, in the Northern Quarter. There is some information about it here: http://www.craftanddesign.com/on-the-wire-kapers-tropical-rainforest/

There are also more in my studio, which I plan to add to, to keep the happy promise of summer in my little menagerie.

Right, I'm off to finish my Chestnut Mandibled Toucan and my Gang-Gang Cockatoo. :)