JenKiwi
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jenkiwi.bsky.social
JenKiwi
@jenkiwi.bsky.social
550 followers 210 following 440 posts
Small nocturnal bird. Artist, writer, programmer. Sculptor of tiny critters. Powered by coffee & Bueno Bars. She/Her. On FA & DA as JenKiwi & IG as jenkiwi_art. https://linktr.ee/jenkiwi
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jenkiwi.bsky.social
Snapshot of an assortment of work-in-progress sculpts (you’ll get to see the critter that sits atop the cheez-its box later, they just really need to be painted first (the gryphons also need painting but look fine in their base colors for a WIP)
A collection of miniature polymer clay sculpts sitting on a messy work table. A 1.5” box of Cheez-its sits in the foreground while a pair of bald-eagle-colored gryphons clamber on boxes of rice crispies treats and Swiss Miss hot cocoa, while a cat-ctus sits in a flowerpot facing an empty teal water bottle. Tinier cats and a pie can be seen far in the background.
November 16, 2025 at 1:04 AM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Me at the coffeeshop window all furlough
“Let me in!!” A skeleton bangs against a closed window with the blinds drawn.
November 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Happy Halloween!

Enjoy some glamour shots of the ghostly fox spirit sculpt in daylight.
A small polymer clay fox spirit in glow-in-the-dark clay perches inside a jack-o-lantern surrounded by a branch of red leaves. Seen from above front. A small polymer clay fox spirit in glow-in-the-dark clay perches inside a jack-o-lantern surrounded by a branch of red leaves. Seen from above left. A small polymer clay fox spirit in glow-in-the-dark clay perches inside a jack-o-lantern surrounded by a branch of red leaves. Seen from right. A small polymer clay fox spirit in glow-in-the-dark clay perches inside a jack-o-lantern surrounded by a branch of red leaves. Seen from behind left.
October 31, 2025 at 5:39 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
As promised, photos of the ghostly spirit fox sculpt, glowing fiercely in the dark.
Polymer clay sculpt of a ghostly fox in flow-in-the-dark clay, glowing brightly in darkness so complete that the pumpkin they’re perched inside is barely visible against a leafy background. Seen from left 3/4 view. Polymer clay sculpt of a ghostly fox in flow-in-the-dark clay, glowing brightly in darkness. Seen from front. Polymer clay sculpt of a ghostly fox in flow-in-the-dark clay, glowing brightly in darkness. Seen from right side.
October 31, 2025 at 5:17 AM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
A timely lil’ ghostly fox sculpt WIP as Halloween draws near.

Made with glow-in-the-dark Sculpey clay (which I hear is being discontinued?!? Noooooo!!), which I always struggle to photograph but nonetheless shall attempt once he’s finished.
A small, wispy fox-like critter inside an orange jack-o-lantern. The fox is the greenish-off-white of glow-in-the-dark clay. A U.S. nickel coin sits beside them for scale.
October 30, 2025 at 12:18 AM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Mom also asked I paint one of her favorite scallop shells above a bathroom window, so I stood on the edge of the tub & did my best to make it symmetrical. Works well enough; there’s a lacy curtain that will cover the very bottom of the shell once it’s put back in place.
A magenta-and-white scallop shell painted above a damaged window frame. (The shell is covering a drywall patch; I was instructed not to touch up the frame so presumably the curtain will cover that bit.) The painted shell shown zoomed out, above the window and in its corner of the grand bath. Also shown: a small selection of the shells I gathered during my visit, bc this shell basket & several more in the house were completely empty. (The combination of storm tides & supermoon made for some excellent shell-hunting earlier this month!)
October 27, 2025 at 5:02 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Final seagull, this one over a large patch above a sliding glass door. Wanted to have a little interactivity going on between him & an existing dog cutout on the same wall, so he’s a big fluffy frigatebird, aloof, out-of-reach, & unbothered.
A big fluffed-up seagull, painted on the right edge of a sliding glass door frame against sandy-colored paint to cover a big lumpy drywall patch. The same seagull, zoomed out to show the rest of the room, including a dog silhouette that appears to be looking up at them. (Also visible in this photo: the green hidden duckie!)
October 27, 2025 at 4:57 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Second room given seagull accents/patch covers. Their size & poses, even the degree of mottling in their plumage, was very dependent on the size & lumpiness of the patch they’re meant to hide, which let me have some fun varying them & giving them a bit of personality.
Right-facing seagull above the left corner of a door frame on a silver-grey wall. Left-facing seagull, beak open, above the right corner of a door frame on a silver-grey wall. Sleeping seagull with their beak tucked against their back, above a door frame on a silver-grey wall. Fluffed up seagull facing left, above a door frame on a silver-grey wall.
October 27, 2025 at 4:51 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
After 6-7 stenciled fish, I was allowed to freehand a seagull. This was a nice break from entitling above my head, but resulted in requests for MORE seagulls, so now there’s a flock of them in the house.
The first doodled seagull, quickly painted over a blotchy drywall repair. (He does not yet sport them in this photo, but I later added feet bc you could see the Lack Of Feeties when the curtains were down, although most viewers will never see this.) The second seagull, facing the first, was added bc the first was cheery & a nice decoration & why don’t we add another for balance across the slider. The painted seagull sitting atop the right side of a sliding glass door, showing some of the room decor (a sign saying “the gathering place” with many curlew/sand-piper-esque birds) that prompted it. There is also a wall clock that has been painted to match the black trim of out-of-frame furniture/frames in the room. Both seagulls atop the slider, with the blinds closed.
October 27, 2025 at 4:45 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
At some point while patching damaged walls at the beach house, my folks took me up on my offer of painting over the patches that were either noticeably lumpy or where the paint didn’t quite match the sun-faded walls, so my adventure in stenciled fish & freehand cartoony seagulls began.
A stenciled blue-and-green fish hiding a lumpy patch on a wall above a sliding glass door where hardware had been removed years prior. There is some damage to the wall near the door trim but we were instructed to ignore it bc it will be covered by curtains later. A wide shot of a room with blue-and-green stenciled fish leaping from the corners of both windows (where old hurricane shutter hardware had once been & which has now been removed & patched over). The room is messy bc storm damage to the windows/siding is being repaired inside & outside. A wider shot of the room, with the curtains set up so that the stenciled fish appear to leap from the tops of the curtains. (Yes we are using the pool table as a staging table. This is a beach rental, while we work to keep it well-balanced & keep the felt in good repair, no serious pool tournaments are held here.) An aqua-and-magenta stenciled fish with yellow accents covers a drywall patch on a sandy-colored wall above another previously-had-hurricane-shutters window. Bubbles hide places where the wall pint had chipped away.
October 27, 2025 at 4:36 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
After 2wks searching, we were pretty sure there were only 4 hidden beach duckies.

But we were all deceived, for there was a 5th duckie!

Found while moving furniture while a door & window were being worked on, so he couldn’t stay in his original room, but we found him a fitting hiding spot nearby.
A wood & resin wall art featuring the Cape Hatteras lighthouse & assorted ship things like anchors, lanterns, rigging, etc. a tiny transparent purple duckie sits next to the sculpted lighthouse. Detail shot of the duckie’s new perch by the lighthouse. He is slightly too big to be of the proper scale for the lighthouse.
October 27, 2025 at 4:21 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Soundside sunset

(w/egret)
Sunset over still, slightly brackish waters. The silhouette of a bird (egret?) stands amongst some scattered grasses.
October 19, 2025 at 11:01 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
The Flambeau
October 17, 2025 at 8:20 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Management needed a nap today so I escaped to the beach & got my first payment in several weeks!

Also please enjoy this shipwreck (the Flambeau, from 1867, which reportedly sent hundreds of stovepipe-style tophats up & down the shore for miles)
A beanie-baby kiwi bird in a straw hat sits in the sand, lit from behind as ocean waves crash dramatically over an old shipwreck behind them. My Doubloons!!! (A very weathered US Quarter, on the sand upon which it was found) A collection of seashells lined up on a piece of driftwood in the sand, with the sunlit ocean behind it.
October 17, 2025 at 8:18 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Haven’t had much fun-to-walk-the-beach weather with the storms, but when I have gone out, the amount of whelks/spiral/conch shells have been superb. Here’s one of the biggest & most intact, w/a banana for scale bc I enjoy vintage memes.
A lightning whelk (we call them “conch” shells here but properly I believe they are whelks) shell, largely intact, showing its forward spiral. Same whelk, underside. Large lightning whelk, top side, banana for scale. Approx 9” long, 4-5” high?
October 15, 2025 at 1:58 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
One more hidden beach duckie!
This one had fallen from his perch; found him while moving furniture to paint trim around the room. Might be the last remaining hidden duckie, but then again there’s more furniture to move as I paint.
A tiny transparent green tea plastic duckie sits atop a wooden folksy sign on a sand-colored wall. Zoomed out view of the tiny green duckie on the aign, against an eclectic wall display of various framed photos of doggos past & folksy/beachy art. Faces have been covered w/owl stickers but the beach house is open for seasonal rental & reverse image search pulls it up, so there didn’t seem much point in concealing the name.
October 15, 2025 at 1:52 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
"Look Monsieur, another [duck]!"
"LET ME SEE IT"

(apologies I was a hopeless Phantom kid in school & excerpts of said musical have calcified in my mental protocol-meme lexicon)
A wooden shadowbox in the shape of a lighthouse, with 12 small seasonal lighthouses in each of its sections. A hidden duckie shares the lower right-hand cubicle. Detail photo of the tiny transparent purple plastic duckie on the shelf next to a lighthouse figurine.
October 10, 2025 at 12:05 AM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Found another Hidden Beach Duckie!

(At this point last weekend, I began looking for more hidden duckies while doing cleaning/repairs, bc this is the coolest thing summer guests have done in a while & I was curious how many made it all the way thru the season vs how many went home w/earlier crews.)
A trio of white-framed beach-themed shadowboxes full of shells/sand/wooden beach chairs/umbrellas/boats/lighthouses, against a sand-colored wall. A tiny transparent plastic duckie is visible perched atop the lowest frame. A closer snapshot of the frame with the tiny duckie on it. Detail close-up of the tiny transparent plastic duckie atop the shadowbox frame.
October 9, 2025 at 2:01 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Spent time doing beach house maintenance last weekend since the rental season is over. Walked into the den & was like “hm, something is different here.”

Computer, Enhance.

Enhace!

ENHANCE
A set of large triple windows, seen from a dozen feet away/across the room. At the center of the top window is a diecut-wood-word-art things that says “LOVE”. There is the barest hint of something inside the “O”. We move closer to the center window & focus on the “LOVE” art. Yes, it looks like there might be something in the “O” after all. What is it? We move closer to the “LOVE”, standing directly in front of the windows (okay yes I AM standing on the back of the sofa at this point, I’m short, it’s fine) & holding the phone aloft. There is definitely a transparent something in the “O”. Behold the mighty wee clear duckie and the center of the “O”! They are one of those 1cm plastic favors you can order by the dozen. They are very cute & will remain where they are.
October 8, 2025 at 7:30 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Update: the skeletons have spread across the yard & are now climbing up the sides of the house.
A number of plastic skeletons appear to be scaling up the sides of a pale-brick house, lounging about the second-story widow’s walk & in window frames.
September 24, 2025 at 5:37 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
TIL there are jellyfish in the Severn. (Okay ~technically~ this is where College Creek transitions to Dorsey Creek, 1/2mi before the latter flows into the Severn. But still. Jellyfish. In the river.)

All my Waterways Sci peeps prob like “yes kiwi they are brackish-tolerant species”
A cluster of small translucent jellies blorp along in greenish riverwater.
September 23, 2025 at 5:56 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Unclear whether the arborists are coming back for the rest of the tree or whether this is sufficiently less cursed for their purposes.
A spindly hundred-plus-foot-tall dead tree soars above a hilltop cemetery. Most of its branches have been removed recently.
September 23, 2025 at 5:26 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
Aforementioned skeletons. There are more of them today.
A giant plastic lawn skeleton appears to be erupting from the lawn in front of a house, waving at passersby. A plastic own skeleton appears to struggle up out of the ground. (More accurate to say he appears to be failing to float, as his hips & torso remain below ground while his limbs flail for purchase above.)
September 23, 2025 at 5:23 PM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
WIP tiny foxies! Added a ramen fox bc I have many small teacups & somehow had only made ramen noodles (dragons or snakes) before.
Four small unfired polymer clay sculpts of cartoony red foxes. The two in the back are standing on their hind legs holding a pitcher and a teacup, while the one on the front left is sprawled on his back & the front right is lounging inside a teacup of ramen noodles. A U.S. nickel coin sits next to them for size comparison.
September 5, 2025 at 4:18 AM
jenkiwi.bsky.social
These downtown sunflowers have now gotten so tall they seem to be attracting Lilliputian special forces.

(This angle does not do justice to the true scale of these titans; they’re probably over 12ft high w/a 3in diameter stem; picket fence is 3ft high.)
A towering sunflower soars above an urban garden’s rose bushes & picket fence. There are at least two small G.I. Joe style action figures lashed to the sunflower’s stem approximately 4-5ft above the ground, posed as if they are climbing it Jack & the Beanstalk style. Detail shot of the two small action figures climbing up the sunflower’s stalk. They are surrounded by sunflower leaves over a foot in diameter.
September 4, 2025 at 6:14 PM