If you're into puffins, you'll fall in love with this Cyrano de Bergerac of the puffin colony. He's got a very noticeable honker, and an exceptionally big heart! Inspired by an award-winning photograph by Megan Lorenz, this nesting doll has an enchanting back story. Here is how Megan tells it: "Perched precariously on the edge of a cliff desperately trying to overcome my fear of heights, I watched this Atlantic puffin pull a wild iris from the ground and walk along the cliff toward me. He stopped for a moment giving me just enough time to capture him with blue sky in the background before he dropped the flower over the side where his mate was waiting at the burrow entrance. I've always been crazy about puffins and was thrilled to capture this once in a lifetime moment. I invite you to enjoy this whimsical puffin nesting doll as a souvenir of this incredible experience. Add this very original wildlife nesting doll to your collection! The 1.5" long 3-D Beak, purple iris dangling from his mouth and large size makes this a special piece to display in your home. Open him up and you'll find the whole flock: one has a fish in the beak, one incubates an egg, and two more enjoy a moment in the grass. A group of puffins is often referred to as a circus and now you have your own circus to bring you a smile every day." Canadian wildlife photographer Megan Lorenz won the 2015 Windland Smith Rice International Awards Grand Prize with her photo titled Making Amends. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to Canadian photography.
Production Techniques: Hand Painting/ Decoupage. This nesting doll was carved in the Upper Volga region, the Russian center of nesting doll carving. The carved pieced were assembled, doll inside a doll, then delivered to the Golden Cockerel workshop in St. Petersburg, Russia. Our artists first hand paint the background, then apply various detailed elements, such as faces, which we print on a very thin vinyl adhesive. Such elements are reproduced original works of art we make specifically for nesting doll design. It is the artist’s magic brush that blends the two forms of artwork together into a unified piece. Finally we baptize each doll in multiple layers of non-toxic water-based lacquer to make a marvelous matryoshka that will delight children and collectors. The bottom of the largest doll gets stamped with Golden Cockerel’s “Made in Russia” mark of nesting doll quality, initialed by the artist, and dated like a true collectible. We can only hope you will give it a good home.