Raven Skywalker
When I decided to do this bust I was in the mood to do feathers. Eventually I'll have good shots, but this is it for now.
My first back story for the piece was that he wanted to be a bird and walk the sky (hence the name Skywalker); therefore he adorned himself with a cape of feathers, a head dress of feathers, plus the normal feather ornaments in his hair and ears. The feathered top knot is a real style of Indian head dress. I found an old oil painting of an Indian wearing one, and a modern day individual wearing one at a tribal meet. I don't know what tribe it originates with, but it is a real style of head dress. The cape is made-up although Hawaiians were known to wear feathered capes.
To color the feathers I tried a woodworkers trick. I allowed a steel wool pad to soak in vinegar for a day, then I brushed the liquid onto the feathers. Within less than 15 seconds, the liquid reacted with the tannins in the wood and turned the wood black. Really quite amazing. The down side was every little splash from the brush left a drop of black that had to be carved off (not to mention where the liquid rolled down the carving). It was a pain to clean up, but a very interesting affect. I wasn't able to finish the entire piece in one sitting. I went back a couple of days later and finished the remaining feathers and touched up some spots that got missed. When they dried, the new feathers were "rust" brown. Essentially there was so much iron in the vinegar solution the feathers rusted. When I put oil on the piece during finishing, the rust disappeared and the black was back. I don't know if I was happy or sad. The rust was a very interesting affect.
Since the feathers were black, I decided to give him a first name of Raven. Ravens are messengers and symbols of change. Somehow this seems appropriate since he was seeking change in his own life.
The necklace is carved in place (it is not applied afterwards). The beadwork was very hard to do. I carved off my first two attempts on the medallion and the choker went down several sizes. Each bead took a minimum of 8 cuts if you could do it in one pass. I've included a detail shot of the beads in progress. First I laid out the beads with pencil (a little over 1/8th inch -- which was too big). Then I used a knife to go over the pencil lines to score and cut the beads out. Then I used a 3 mm no. 5 gouge to cut the corners off each bead from each angle. Then I went back over the bead again, giving each cut a little "English" trying to make them look like round balls. These instructions are to help me remember should I ever again need to try this type of agony again. If I make the beads smaller, I will need to grind my gouge to be smaller.
My first back story for the piece was that he wanted to be a bird and walk the sky (hence the name Skywalker); therefore he adorned himself with a cape of feathers, a head dress of feathers, plus the normal feather ornaments in his hair and ears. The feathered top knot is a real style of Indian head dress. I found an old oil painting of an Indian wearing one, and a modern day individual wearing one at a tribal meet. I don't know what tribe it originates with, but it is a real style of head dress. The cape is made-up although Hawaiians were known to wear feathered capes.
To color the feathers I tried a woodworkers trick. I allowed a steel wool pad to soak in vinegar for a day, then I brushed the liquid onto the feathers. Within less than 15 seconds, the liquid reacted with the tannins in the wood and turned the wood black. Really quite amazing. The down side was every little splash from the brush left a drop of black that had to be carved off (not to mention where the liquid rolled down the carving). It was a pain to clean up, but a very interesting affect. I wasn't able to finish the entire piece in one sitting. I went back a couple of days later and finished the remaining feathers and touched up some spots that got missed. When they dried, the new feathers were "rust" brown. Essentially there was so much iron in the vinegar solution the feathers rusted. When I put oil on the piece during finishing, the rust disappeared and the black was back. I don't know if I was happy or sad. The rust was a very interesting affect.
Since the feathers were black, I decided to give him a first name of Raven. Ravens are messengers and symbols of change. Somehow this seems appropriate since he was seeking change in his own life.
The necklace is carved in place (it is not applied afterwards). The beadwork was very hard to do. I carved off my first two attempts on the medallion and the choker went down several sizes. Each bead took a minimum of 8 cuts if you could do it in one pass. I've included a detail shot of the beads in progress. First I laid out the beads with pencil (a little over 1/8th inch -- which was too big). Then I used a knife to go over the pencil lines to score and cut the beads out. Then I used a 3 mm no. 5 gouge to cut the corners off each bead from each angle. Then I went back over the bead again, giving each cut a little "English" trying to make them look like round balls. These instructions are to help me remember should I ever again need to try this type of agony again. If I make the beads smaller, I will need to grind my gouge to be smaller.