I had this idea of making a stylistic humming bird that would be sipping from a flower. As always, I start with an idea but I don't set it in concrete, because as I progress, other ideas come to me and the actual thing curves into a different direction, – always.

For the collar, I made a strip of square collets and set some 5 mm gemstones in it. I also made colorful gemstone bands to join the blued titanium feathers. For the eye, I cut a 15 mm amethyst. After it was faceted, I drilled a hole into it. I cut and set a 3 mm cabochon garnet into the center. The beak is made of titanium.

So now I was moving towards starting the actual frame.
I attach everything onto a sheet of galvanized steel. Here was the basic conceptual design.

Slowly stumbling forward. The nest cup proved to be problematic. I made six pieces of failure, before I started on the seventh one that eventually became the final one. Here are the components.

Slowly, the nest was crawling out of the ocean and onto land. Eight flowers held in place with some silver blue topaz gem nuts on top of the pillars. The lid of the nest had a hinged lid, so I had to make a catch for it. So I cut a stylistic bird head set with Sandawana emerald.

My plan was to make a stylized flower that would open for the hummingbird and then contain a precious piece of jewelry that the owner of this art work would own.
Making something like that is quite another thing, however. Here are a few of my discarded attempts.

Then I settled on an opening flower with hinges. I liked the flatness of the flower, because that gave me lots of space to mount things and also to mount the thing to the background.
I made some triangular tips at the bottom of the petals so that when the flower is closed, it would close up around the connecting 'stalk'.

Now I needed to weld up the frame.
I make my frames with a key hole slot in the back, so the sculpture can be removed easily, or tightened down so it cannot be removed.

I started to mess around with composition and size on the frame. Also adding some leaves and a spiders web that I would use eventually. With the direction set, I can add final touches to all the components

Now I opened the door to enameling alley. I made various different hummingbirds. These are all abut 20 to 30 mm in size. This is called cloisonné enamel. I pack fine gold first and the clear enamel over that and then fire it.

So now I set about designing the inside of the flower. These would be the stamens that hide the treasure. It has a push and pull lock mechanism.
I wanted something that hid the ring in the inside the flower when it was closed, and then exposes it when it opened. First some cardboard templates. I also experimented with various different backgrounds colors and settled on the blue one.

This is an interactive wall sculpture with a hidden treasure, for which I designed a gold and titanium ring with a flower and enameled hummingbird.

The silver spiders web. Check the two jump rings near the center of the web.
That is where the titanium spider brooch lived.

I used an inordinate amount of gemstones for Nest Wall Sculpture. Here are just a few of them.

I painted the frame and steel backing in matte black and gilded the inside of the frame with gold foil and added cap ends. These were made to close the ends of the frame up.

Finishing stage with the assembly of the separate components.

Nest Wall Sculpture finally ready and finished. There is a strong theme of iredescence in the blued titanium an ode to hummingbirds. 

Decorative details on nest cup viewed from the top.

Finishing touches such as gemstones and titanium birds decorate the nest cup. Eventually, I thought it came out quite nice.

The titanium spider brooch on the spiders web.