A squirrel sitting up on its haunches with a nut held in both front paws, raised to the mouth. Back curved, head tipped forward, ears pricked - it reads as an animal in the middle of doing something rather than an ornament of one.
The tail is the piece. Lengths of wire cut and fanned into a full bottlebrush plume that arcs up behind the body, open enough that light comes through the gaps and it throws a real shadow. The body is worked in a dark oxidised bronze-black with a hammered, mottled surface. Ears, paws and haunches are each cut and shaped before being welded on. The nut is picked out in warm orange, which is what pulls your eye straight to the hands.
Every tail is fanned by hand, so no two sit the same way.
16cm nose to tail, 15cm high, 6cm wide.
Good on a shelf, desk or hall table, and better still outdoors - on a wall top, a patio step, or the edge of a raised bed where the tail silhouettes against planting.
