A commission "Work in Progress" series for you!

Hello!

I thought I would share a process with you- this is Zunel, and she was a commission I did a few months ago. The customer wanted a fairy with long, Rapunzel type hair, so I saved the longest fibers I had for her. They were soft, luxurious and about 14" long. I dyed them a very pale blond. Here are the fibers I was dyeing and a spool of thread to show a size comparison.


This is what Zunel looked like finished: And here is how she started. This is a wire armature, covered with clay and baked. Notice the segmented limbs- this allows me to pose her as I am working on her. The base is alabaster.

Upper body is now done and baked. Her breasts are pushed into that position because she will be wearing a bustier later.
What a messy work area!! Good grief. Anyway, the time is getting late but I am working on her lower body now. While doing that, I am careful not to handle her face, as the detail work is done there.
Now that gorgeous hair is on, her panties and tiny ballet slippers are also done. Now the fun begins! I LOVE COSTUMING! The poor dear needs to do something will all that hair so I can get her dressed! I called this a Bad Hair Day for Zunel. The customer wanted her absolutely dripping in Swarovski crystals and rhinestones. I spent hours and hours doing the beadwork on this sculpture. I was pleased with how she turned out- so was the customer!

Her wings were silk, hand painted and then fully covered with iridescent sheer glitter. By coating the wings with a sealer/varnish, then sprinkling on the glitter while the varnish was wet, it adhered the glitter and stiffened up the wings in one step. There were hundreds more crystals added after the photo above was taken. At the very top of this blog entry, that is what she looked like at completion.

Hoped you've enjoyed seeing this progression of photos. Some customers want to see WIP's (work in progress) photos, so we snap photos as we go. Thanks for stopping by!

Deb