Tuesday, July 9, 2019

short forays and model making


It's a little after 9 AM and it's already 81˚ and 83% humidity. Gonna be a hot one. Just another summer day in the Gulf Coast Plains.

The cicadas finally hatched out adding their song to the summer landscape and one of the banana spiders snagged one.


I've seen more banana spiders this year, three or four, than ever except for when we first came out to look at this house which had been vacant for a year and they were everywhere. The next year just a few and then none at all until last year I saw one. They don't seem to last long, just a couple of weeks and then they are just gone. The one that got the cicada was gone just a few days later but the husk of the cicada is still hanging in the tattered remains of the web.

You know what I haven't seen this year? June bugs. One, I've seen one when I fished it out of one of the birdbaths the other day. They usually hatch early in May and bumble around and get in the house. They are such clumsy fliers.

The baby anoles are starting to hatch and the toad that lives in the bromeliad was at home.



In between short forays into the yard to pull a handful of weeds or pull out the leftover gone by dead spring bloomers or to water the flower beds I've been working on the heron box, specifically the sculpture that will adorn the top.


I had loosely arranged the sticks to suggest a nest so the next thing was to make the egg and to do that I had to make a mold of a stone egg I had which was smaller than I wanted but the next one up was bigger than I wanted. I used liquid latex and over the course of a few days I applied 10 coats and then peeled it off the egg.


Once I had my mold I took it over to the shop/hell because it was hot as hell over there and when I finally was done mid-afternoon it was so hot that the fan blew hot air and standing there doing nothing sweat rolled off me and plugged in the wax pot and poured the first of 3 eggs. Once the wax had hardened I peeled the mold off 


and shaped it a bit and then because it was smaller than I wanted I dipped it in the melted wax until it was about the size I wanted and then shaped it again. So now I have two eggs though I'll only use one but I have an extra ready in case the first one doesn't cast well. The third egg I left in the mold to help it keep its shape while not in use.



Next is to finish attaching the sticks and cleaning it up and polish everything and then it all gets glued down to styrofoam which is what I use to make the reservoir that holds the glass while it casts. I think I'll be doing that today which means another trip over to hell.

There's a feather that goes with this arrangement that I made earlier in the year with the modeling glass. It's flat right now but I might slump it for a more natural look. I sent off the second best feather to a friend to slump it for me so I can compare.






14 comments:

  1. How in the world do you slump a feather? Or anything besides your back?
    I have a goodly plenty of banana spiders this year. They tend to live a pretty long time around here. Months sometimes.
    I took a walk this morning and then spent about an hour in the garden and cleaning out the hen house and watering the porch plants and I am so hot that I can't even believe it. I'm definitely done for the day being outside. Except for laundry. I've got that hanging on the line.
    That is going to be a beautiful piece when you're done. Don't kill yourself in the shop, though. Please.

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    1. the lady that came up with the modeling glass has a mesh form shaped kind of like a 'w' that she uses to balance the flat feather on and heat it up slowly until it starts to bend slightly. I have a piece of the mesh but have not shaped it and don't want to go through the learning curve so I just sent it to her.

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  2. I give you a lot of credit for working in such detail while standing in hell. I would be nothing but a grease spot. This box is going to be stunning - I can't wait to see the finished piece.

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  3. I love those little lizards. They are so cute and everytime I see one I'm waiting for it to sell me some Geico Insurance. ahahahahaaa. I never knew there was so much to do in order to get the finished glass work.

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  4. These eggs are amazing, I mean the whole process of getting there.

    And that toad is beautiful. Are you sure it's not one you made?

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  5. I spent less than an hour frying in the noon day sun, on concrete, just to pot up plants I'd bought. I was light headed enough to float when I was done.

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  6. Your art is so interesting and beautiful.

    This heat can be overwhelming and we have to be careful during this time of year and not overdo it. Take care, Ellen,

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  7. Raises hand - we have all your June Bugs! They LOVE our knockout rose. Ugh.

    That box is going to be so cool!

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    1. Oops - it's the Japanese Beetles that are eating the knockout rose, not June Bugs (although Mike says he's seen some).

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  8. Nature and art. You know how to live.

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  9. The box is going to be lovely, especially the egg, although the feather is good, too. It's all good. You have prettier lizards than we do in Arizona.

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  10. I thank you for introducing me to this art form. I know nothing and am fascinated by it all. The fact that you do nature makes it even more special.

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  11. That box is going to be gorgeous. I was a little nervous, but it's looking like our first (ahem) tropical critter is going to stay east of us. It's a shame it has to go anywhere, but really -- we don't need it.

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    1. truer words and all that. my neighbor across the street whose house flooded along with everyone else's after Harvey got water in their house when we got that 11" in early June. it was a close thing here, right up to the door jamb and had started to seep in a bit along one of the baseboards.

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