Week 12 – not built on scales alone
At the beginning of week 12 I was a little tired of scales – imagine that! So I gave myself a break to take a photo I missed taking ages ago and start prepping for the yarn painted gourd cups.
This is the photo I missed taking before. While the iguana innards were sculpted out of various thicknesses of wire mesh; the body, like all my work, was constructed from recycled fabrics. The first layer (the epidermis) was made of remnants from a previous project, but the final layer (the dermis) was made entirely from this once ‘lovely’ large garment. The tag says 100% polyester, but this poly is ultra-suede – my all time favorite working fabric for sculpting. Well, this is what’s left of it….the sleeves were long and completely used up. Absolutely nothing left of them from which to take a photo.
And here are the recycled sweaters and the unraveled yarn from those sweaters which will be used for the ‘yarn painting’ on the gourds.
So now, back to scales. I’m so sick of scales, but at least only the tail was left to finish and didn’t take nearly as long as the head and neck.
FINALLY, FINALLY…COLOR! Have I ever mentioned how much I love my airbrush. It was by far the best gift I ever gave myself, although I was a little intimidated by it at first. It took me about a year after I got it to actually use it. Once I did use it though, I was asking myself why it took me so long to get it out of the box. I’m not a professional airbrush artist. So I still stick to regular brushes and artist acrylic paints for the smaller details. But for the larger areas to lay down overall color, shadows and highlights – well, nothing beats the airbrush.
Despite my break at the beginning of the week, the iguana was fully painted except for his eyes and the symbols down his back and tail by the end of the week.
Now that the long haul of necessary, but not always fun, construction is over, each new day is brighter and more fulfilling than the last.
Week 13 – bring it on!
