Feejee Mermaid and Stuff

One of the few problems with how much time my jewelry business takes up out of my day is that I don't have as much time to create full sculptures as I would like. So when someone commissions me to make a sculpture for them it's great, an excuse to spend time on a big project instead of the usual hour or so a day I spend on personal projects (which is why those always take months to finish).

My latest commission was a Feejee Mermaid. The original feejee mermaids were taxidermy fakes in sideshow carnivals (P.T. Barnum supposedly had the original but it was lost when his museum burned down), they were made with paper mache, the upper body of a jevenile monkey, and the body of a fish. I based mine on a dogfish and (loosely) a juvenile rhesus monkey. I sculpted the mermaid from polymer clay. To make it a bit more fun and interesting I added spines and rabbit fur to the head and back. After painting the whole thing was put in a large glass jar and submerged in the same resin I use for my Perma-Pets.

Her happy owner has named her Salma. If you're interested in requesting a custom sculpture or any other custom work drop me an email or contact me through my Etsy shop.

I've also been working for the past 6 months or so on a piece I'm tentatively calling the Coral Siren. If you want to see more of my works in progress follow my WIP blog on Tumblr it's where I post quick snapshots of what I'm working on when I don't want to write a full blog post.

In somewhat unrelated news I'm trying to pick up extra cash since I need to move when my lease is up in May. I like the place I'm living but I can't afford it on my own and while my ex-boyfriend and I are still good friends it's a little awkward living together. So to that end I've joined Fiverr which is a site that lets you set up little mini jobs that you can do. So if you are looking for someone to make an Etsy banner, proofread your listings, design a business card, or edit your product photos for you you can hire me to do it.

Wholesale and Custom Orders

I LOVE to make custom jewelry and sculptures. If you have an idea for an octopus hairclip or a Cthulhu sculpture or anything you think I could create for you please check out my page on custom work.

If you own/run a store, boutique, or aquarium gift shop and would like to sell my jewelry I have a page dedicated to buying my work wholesale. Go here for more information or take a look at my linesheet below:

Flamboyant Cuttlefish Perma-Pet

Finished this custom Perma-Pet last week and it's now on it's way to it's new home.

Commissioned Sculpture Update

This commission has been giving me headaches lately. I don't know why such a simple pose is giving me so much trouble but it is and I feel guilty that I'm not further along than I am.

Been Busy This Week

When I'm stressed I work even more than usual, it gets my mind off things. My uncle is in the hospital and this are just generally awful with that. So this week I did quite a bit of work.

First some jewelry stuff. Here's the list:

• Green Trilobite Necklace
  
• Blue Trilobite Necklace
• Round Ammonite Pendant
• Teardrop Ammonite Pendant
• Blue Trilobite Earring Drops
• Green Trilobite Earring Drops
• 4 Watermelon Cuttlefish Earring Drops
• Watermelon Cuttlefish Pendant
• Jellyfish Earring Drops
  
• Faux Fossil Fern Pendant
• Wire Wrapped Faux Stone Pendant
  
• 8 little polymer clay cabochons
  

Second, I've been working on the sculpture commission some more and it still looks all rough and weird but it's coming together some more.

Update on the Commissioned Sculpture

Here's a little update on my sculpture commission. This is the sort of messy, ugly looking stage that I hate showing but just wanted to show everyone reading that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth and have made progress on this sculpt.

The body and neck still need a lot more filling out and you can see that I've constructed the basic shape of the drapery. I've left a lot of room to be able to build up the folds, under a very thin layer of clay is some wireform mesh. I love that stuff, it's you've never tried it, wireform mesh is made by Amaco and is a very flexible fine aluminum mesh that you can cut and shape really easily (heavy duty scissors will do the trick). Great stuff for fabric, wings, and other thin areas that need support.

Started on New Commissioned Sculpture

So I've begun my latest commissioned sculpture, Mike is a wonderful client to work for since he really didn't specify anythign more than final cost and that he'd like a full figure (he already has a bust I created for him). Things are still very rough right now, only an armature but I have an idea where this is going to go. I ran across these gorgeous stock photos on DeviantArt by Lockstock while browsing for reference photos last week.

I'm going to be doing a combination of these two poses and all that lovely drapery, it's size is 1/8 scale (a little over 8 inches). Here's the armature, it's mostly aluminum wire though the weight bearing leg also has a piece of much stiffer steel wire reinforcing it and helping anchor it into the base.

It doesn't show that well in the photos but the fingers have some extremely fine beading wire wrapped aroudn the fingers and then secured with a little super glue. I always have trouble getting clay to stick well on fingers and when I saw this wire I thought it would be perfect, it's really not much thicker than a hair or piece of thread that's how fine it is. Since I'm going to be doing so much detailed drapery in this sculpture I made the arms so they can be removed, the head can also be removed to make working on it easier.

I used a little aluminum foil for bulking and then covered it all with Sculpey Ultralight which after baking is much more secure than just foil and I can write on it. You can see the center lines I drew on the chest and head as reminders of the positioning I want.

To support the drapery I'll be using some wireform mesh, it hasn't been added yet because I had to order more (probably won't arrive for at least another week, a few things are backordered) and I also think it might be easier to get some of the torso roughed in before adding the mesh.

On A Roll and Paintbrush Cleaning Tip

My sales have been picking up lately which is really great. However now I need to make some more jewelry to replace the pieces I've sold.

I'm also solidifying an idea for my commissioned sculpture, I'll share it once I'm happy with my plan. Now I need to order supplies, I'll be doing that this weekend.

Got some a cool new sculpting Squidoo lens to share Introduction to Sculpting in Polymer Clay.

Tips for all of you who paint with acrylics. Get some Dawn Power Dissolver it clean brushes beautifully, even ones that have paint caked in them of you let them soak in it for a while. I cleaned up all my brushes last night and even managed to salvage a few I thought were done for. I have no idea if it will work for paints other than acrylic but it's worth a try and if it doesn't work you can clean pots and pans with it (works great on those too, I cleaned my countertop grill with it today and that is usually pretty tough).