Grandmother Bone.....

I started sculpting this piece early last year, but stopped before the head was completed....can't remember exactly why, must have been distracted by other projects. I went back to it in January after watching 'Young Frankenstein' (a favourite!) and being inspired by Marty Feldman's 'Igor' ("it's pronounced eye-gor") and his wonderful hump and popping eyes. After I had re-worked her left eye, the rest of the piece just fell into place. I also had in my mind the old junk-yard woman from 'Labyrinth'.....I wanted Grandmother Bone to be a collector as well and to have her clothes made up of bits and pieces.

The fabric part of her costume is linen, which I have distressed and 'rusted'.....the rest of it is made up of silk cocoons, mulberry bark, feathers, beads and dozens of individually sculpted little bones which are tied all through her costume. There is a real part of a bird skull on the top of her staff. I'm pleased with how her clothes look 'nest-like' and the fact that she reminded a dear friend of mine of a vulture sits really well with me. She actually makes me think of a bantam chook that's been in one too many scuffles.

The wip photos at the bottom show the head as it was before I 'popped' the left eye.

That sounded really gross.....sorry.

Here's the little poem I wrote for her:

"Grandmother Bone,

face like a crone.

fearsome to all

as she wanders alone.

Indeed she's a sight

with her hair all a-fright

but, she's lost all her teeth

so she really can't bite!"

Till next time.

"Wilbur"...

Last week I completed one of the individual projects I have going at the same time as working on the "deadly sins" project. It was a lovely feeling to finally complete a piece after so much preliminary work on a range of other things. This little guy is Wilbur, and I like to think of him as a gentle soul, contemplating one of the tiniest miracles of life.

He has been sculpted in polymer clay on a wire armature and painted in my usual way with acrylic paints. The photo at the bottom with magenta skin is the undercoat color I use for almost all of my skin tones.

The tree-trunk base that he is sitting on is also sculpted from polymer clay, as are the 'fly agaric' toadstools. The dried fungus and snail shells are real. All of the fabrics and fibers used for Wilbur's costume have been hand-dyed and are completely hand-sewn. His shoes and his back-pack are sculpted and painted by hand.

So, now it's on to the next one....quite different in theme, but should also be challenging and fun. WIP pictures as soon as I can.

Till next time.