So happy!

The gourd is finished, the glue is dry, and I still can't quite believe I did it. No glue holds the pieces together right now, but I think the weight of MerMomma's body is putting some stress on her anchoring arm - I don't want it to crack again, so perhaps I will end up gluing her permanently to the gourd after all.

I am rapidly using up my stash of Yadeno mohair. Does anybody know where I would be able to get some more??

Merbaby has a Bed

I have worked every spare minute on this project this week - it feels so good to be on a creative roll again!   Here is my little Merbaby, wigged and painted, in her finished gourd bower.

The gourd was embellished with apoxie sculpt, then painted. The interior is lined with a velvet cushion, silk and velvet pillows, and micromarble embellishment. I love the way the colors turned out.

Here is a close up of little Merbaby. I see now that her wig is a little messy, but the glue isn't quite dry so I won't try for a tidier style until all is stable.

Now I am wondering if she needs a little blanket. Does she look cold to you?

I took me 3 days to sculpt MerMama's hands and they still aren't quite what they ought to be, but I want to finish this project some time in THIS decade, so I have declared them "good enough" and attached them to her arm wires. I still need to sculpt her arms and tailfin and give her a wig and headdress, but I am on track to get that done soon too. Woo hoo -- getting closer!

An Ambitious Project

I started this project about 2 weeks ago in answer to a challenge to do "something" with a gourd. I have had this gourd in my house for years... so long in fact, that I don't even remember why I bought it. Sigh...


I began by cutting the off the top to form a vessel shape, then lined the inside with apoxie clay and painted it with a coat soft black acrylic. I followed that up with 2 light washes of Lumiere's Pearl White, then dabbed in some Pearl-Ex in blues, greens, rose, and interference violet to make this mother-of-pearl look. For once, a paint job turned out EXACTLY the way I wanted it!

The bottom of the gourd will be lined with cushions made of charmeuse and silk velvet in pale blues and greens to become a cradle for this little sleeping merbaby. I've never sculpted a baby before, and I figured that such a simple pose would cause me the least stress. Plus, it's cute.

Even working from a reference photo, it took me a couple of tries to get the face right - those little features are tiny!   The tail was easier, and I am just about ready to do her tail fin and paint in the color details. She will get her hair last. What do you think... blonde?

And finally, wrapped around the back of the gourd and peering in at the sleeping baby will be an adult mermaid. This is what I have of her so far -- sorry for the awkward pose in the photo, but she doesn't sit or lie well naturally in her present state. I plan on sculpting her tail tonight and putting her in her final pose to make sure she fits around the gourd.

I've always wanted to do a tableau, but I never had enough confidence in my skills (OR my attention span) to try it. This challenge gave me the prompt I needed to at least begin. So far, so good.