Dang!

Okay I know I said that I hoped to be finished with the phoenix by the end of the weekend and it's the end of the weekend and I'm not finished. Yeah but anyone knows who knows me and my sculpture knows that there was no way I was going to finish. On the other hand I made a lot of progress. I had also hoped to stay under the 20 hour mark on this sculpture and unfortunately I am at 20 hours. Okay so yesterday I was able to finish out the body but had to remove it from the base to do it but I would have had to do that anyway to put the feathers on.






Today I began to put the feathers on. I am using Netflix packages because they are red. You know the end that you have to pull off to send it back. It is going well but slow.




I was able to complete one of the more complicated areas (the feet).



Oh well actually they are not complete because I am going to use the inside wrapper of gum to do the actual feet and beak an the glue that I was using did not stick well to either side of the wrapper. I kinda expected that on the foil side but thought the other side that is paper would stick well. It didn't. I think that the paper must be waxed or something so I will need a different glue for that part.

Phoenix Rising

I added the longer feathers on the wings (pin feathers?).




Then I started to add some thickness to the wings.




Only put in about a half hour on this piece as I was tired from working on the GWS base all day. I hope to get this piece mostly finished by the end of the weekend.

Working on the Base

I don't know if you noticed but the base when last we looked was clamped to the stool it was sitting on. That was because it would tip over forward if it wasn't. So in order to correct that I added an extension on the front.



I hoped this would correct the tipping problem, and it did nicely. However then I needed to move the front edge forward to the new front edge. So I had to clip the rail and re-bend it.





I also needed to add a little piece to the front rail because now it is a little longer than it was.




Abby felt it came out well.



Oddly my beginning cartoon of the base started very close to this final proportion and I made it thinner to clean up the lines. I should trust my first instinct.



Lastly I began to cage out the base so that I can cut small pieces of sheet to skin the base. Did not finish.

Okay so I broke my rule.

So for the past three years I have been following the "you can't work on one piece if you are working on another piece" rule. I instituted the rule to keep me from a terrible habit I have of continually starting sculptures and never finishing. Now I don't start new but I just never finish the one I am working on. That said as I had been working on the base of the GBS and as I weld in my driveway because I don't have a 220 outlet in the garage so I take it from the laundry room and my cord is only four feet long and as it has been raining a lot lately, I decided to work on a couple of cardboard pieces that have been waiting.

I worked on the wings and crest of the reuse phoenix. I have to say it was refreshing to make visable changes in only a couple of hours.

Here is were I started:






And here after a short time in the studio: