I haven't written a blog for quite some time now so I thought it is best to update you all on what has been going on with my work. Firstly my website will be undergoing a few changes in the next few days so if  pages and photos suddenly start appearing or reappearing or the website seems a little all over the place it will be down to that, but  it will be only temporary.

Otherwise I have been working on my own sculpture designs and comissions and I am currently preparing some slideshows of new sculptures that I have been making over the past few months, so watch this space. 

Daisy was a commissioned sculpture of a British Bulldog who was very dear to her owner.

I have posted some photos of the sculpture in progress including some finished shots. I hope that you will enjoy them.

The two photographs below were my main reference images, and I combined both of them into one for the sculpture. Photo #1 was used for the face and photo #2 was used for the body with Daisy's paw  sculpted in a slightly raised pose.

   
Photo 1                                                           Photo 2

As with most sculptures, the character of the piece starts to become apparent once the face is taking shape. From the lump of clay, the rest of the dog starts to appear.    

Early stages: Pastel is painted on to the face before  baking                                                                                                                                                                         

A semi cured and unfinished Daisy

The clay that I used for Daisy was Super Sculpey III polymer clay in flesh colour. Her legs were sculpted over wire armatures and her eyes are made from Tiger Eye rounds. 

Finished Daisy photos

The photos below show Daisy sitting on a 1:12th scale sofa

 My work will be featured in 150th issue of  The Dolls' house magazine available from October 7th 

Miniature Sphynx cats

A pair of my miniature sphynx cats will be on display at the annual Royal society of miniature painters, sculptors and gravers exhibition at the Mall Galleries London, between the 11^th  and 23^rd of October 2010. Admission is free

Original Polymer-clay sculpture 1:12th scale

Body length – 17.5cm including tail and head crest

Width – 18.5cm including wingspan

Eyes - A grade carnelian stone/ other  materials

This is one of the first of my mythological sculptures that is now finished 

There are a few more mythological sculptures that I am still working on. This sculpture took about 5 months to complete and it has so many feathers I lost count, although I wrote it down somewhere probably.

                                                                               Early stages

Brief history about the phoenix

The story of the phoenix (fire bird) originated from the Eastern Mediterranean (Greek mythology) although there are many countries that have their similar versions of the phoenix.

According to legend the bird was so magnificent that the Phoenicians named their country after the bird (or maybe they named the bird after their country?).

The phoenix has a lifespan of at least 500 years although some say 1.461 or even 12,954 years. At the end of each life cycle the phoenix builds a nest out of spice tree twigs, settles into the nest and with a single clap of his wings, sets it afire. The mature bird dies in the conflagration and as the flames die down a young phoenix emerges.

He is supposedly linked to the peacock family (hence my use of peacock feathers ;-))  and is closely related to the sun and is the size of a large eagle type bird.

Descriptions of Phoenix plumage vary so I used my own interpretation on it.

                             Peacock feathers were used on the head and neck

                             the fiery wing and tail feathers are coque feathers 

The beak is about 2.3cm long so getting a beak that long and thin without it distorting was turning out to be quite difficult until I got the hair dryer out. Once I made the beak I heated it up the just enough with short blasts of air to stiffen but not set the clay fully (polymer clay needs heat to harden) then I put the sculpture it in the oven. 

The beak was painted black first and then I used gold metallic and red acrylic paints and sealed it with varnish

 The talons are posable and he can grip things or sit on a perch. the claws are made from acryilic.

Thank you to all of you who have shown an interest in my phoenix

It is now sold

I was hoping to have the rest of my mythological sculptures finished by the end of 2010 but due to commissions and other commitments I am postponing work  on this project of mine for the time being. I will keep you updated

Message added 15/10/10

Just keeping you all up to date with a few of the sculptures I have been working on so far.

1:12 Grey crowned crane

 
I saw these birds in a wildlife magazine a few months back and really wanted to try making one myself.

This bird sculpture is 8.03cm high, life size ones are around 100cm - 110cm (3.3 ft tall) and interestingly enough are the only cranes that can roost in trees. They come from South Africa originally.

These birds have eyes that face forward but are visible from the side as well as head on. It wasn’t easy to get this angle in  miniature scale for some reason; it took around 3 hours to get right because the eyes kept bulging at one stage, which isn’t a good look really.

The crest is made from some mallard feathers I collected from a park, just for those of you who aren't sure what a mallard looks like here's a photo

The rest of the feathers are a combination of some I dyed myself and some yellow cockatiel ones I got from a pet shop.

Pet shops are a good place to go if you want to collect exotic bird feathers; and can be washed and sterilized at home with antibacterial spray and put in an oven on low heat to dry.

Now for the legs, I don’t just use wire on them anymore like I used to. I didn’t like the way the wire looked bare so I use liquid latex to cover the wire and finish the toes off with claws. 

Unfinished Crane

Claw