Thursday, December 18, 2014

The Nest Weaver

It has been a while since I updated my blog or created a new piece. This is a mixed media piece created with ivy wood, armatures, paper mache, Paperclay, Sculpey and found objects.
 She is called The Nest Weaver
An armature is attached using wire, screen and foil

Paper mache is applied to imply the tree's roots, tiny clay faces are embedded

The face is attached, created with sculpey, and branches are attached at top of head by drilling small holes. Black gesso base coat, and about 5 washes of acrylic paint are applied to integrate the elements.

The nest, woven from grape vines is attached with small amount of Apoxie Sculpt and the owl, created from a pinecone and Sculpey, is attached the same way. Another lighter acrylic wash is applied, then the piece is sealed with acrylic matte finish sealer.

2 comments:

Lili said...

Thank you, Patti, for sharing the making of this wonderful piece. Can I ask you a couple of questions? When do you use paperclay as opposed to sculpey; Ditto with papermachier? What is the first layer you used with the papermachier--it looks like netting? Is it metal or cloth? Thanks again, Lili McGovern

Unknown said...

Hi Lili, generally I will use paper clay when it is not practical to bake the piece, as paper clay air dries. Paper mache I use when I want a very textured look, as in the tree roots. The mask is sculpey, but the hands are paper mache over a wire armature attached to the wood "arms" The owl is paper clay, as I embedded pine cone pieces into it, that would not bake well, and attached it to the limb t o air dry on it's own. the roots are paper mache over wire armatures, with some metal screen as well