I am in 2 minds about sharing these photos of my works in progress -- I am so pleased with what I have accomplished so far, but I just can't give a viewer an idea of how much is left to do to these pieces. There is still a long way to go.

For one thing, the whole surface will be getting several more coats of paint and then more embellishments, but these photos will give you an idea of where I am going. I have already adjusted the folds of the stockinette draping based on what I see here in 2D, so taking them wasn't a total waste of time.

The piece to the left "Freedom - Leaping Calf." It is going to be my signature piece. It will hang in my studio, and accompany me when I do anything like a craft show or demonstration. Unfortunately, everything is still wet and shiny, so you can't really get a good idea of the wealth of texture on the surface of this canvas. Ignore what is left of the black writing as well as the colors of the draping -- it will all be painted over in the end. (I find that my calligraphy skills aren't up to the challenge of the design of this piece, so I cheated and used a fancy font on the computer. Sigh...)

Look hard -- you can see the capital "B" which begins the quote. I cut it out of cardboard and coated it with modeling paste, so it is quite dimensional. There is also a stylized sun in a celtic knot design stenciled in modeling paste in the upper right.

The second piece is more experimental in nature. I am using it to practice on. The "hills" are finger painted in using a modeling paste that has had little glass beads mixed in. It is softer and a little less dimensional than the other paste, so I may add another layer to make those hills stand out from the surface a bit more. This particular angel is my favorite body shape. I couldn't use one of my own original sculpts for the face though, because they are all too big. I had to resort to one of my Sculpey mold faces. I wish it had a little more "life" in its expression, but oh well. I can see I am going to have to sculpt some smaller faces if I want these pieces to remain entirely original.

I am dying to get started on my "Inner Gypsy" themed piece, but I already have requests for works revolving around other people's signature verses, so that one may have to sit on the back burner for a bit. Who knows... I may get some commissions out of this. That would be nice...