| I started with a drawing I had in my sketchbook and made a copy the size I wanted the piece to be, slightly larger than the sketch. |
| Cut a paper pattern for the basic wooden body. |
| I had some pieces of flat polished stone that I really wanted to use as the tail, so I decided to drill the holes for mounting those first. If they broke then I could go ahead and cry and drop the whole idea before I committed any more time or materials. |
| The holes drilled fine, so I cut the body out of cherry. |
| Got to have good eyes! I hammer shaped copper circles and played with different things for the pupils. Here I'm trying on some rounds of blue glass. |
| Maybe....but these little millefiore bits are much more interesting. |
| Each eye gets about 5 layers of high fire enamel to make the textured surface pop. I also polished up a couple of WW2 brass coat buttons to use for the iris. |
| Next, I cut and textured two pieces out of brass that go under where the tail fins will attach. |
| And back to the eye work. Nothing will be attached to the wooden base until most all the pieces are formed. These decorative parts are also cut from brass sheet with a jeweler's saw. |
| There are many ways I could have formed an easier mouth, but I liked this piece of bronze stock for its color. This was a solid ring I cut in half and began carving into lips. Fish have lips..right? |
| Lips in process and eye accessories being pierced and textured. |
| My apologies, no pics for these steps. This is a folded leather section glued to the top part and nailed down with brass and copper tacks. I also added a brass support on the back to affix the stone tail fins. I decided at this point to go ahead and attach these pieces as their placement would determine the size of some of the other bits. |
| After trying a variety of things I didn't like, I cut and formed a piece of thin copper for each side to cover the raw leather edge, and glued them in place with the vise holding them tight. |
| Copper edge secured, along with a repurposed nickel shoe toe I used as the headpiece. A fitting for the eyes and lips meant a bit of carving on the wood to make the lips fit well. |
| I selected a nice hefty brick sized piece of granite for the base and bent the base rod to conform to the underside of the wood. |
| Hammered heavy copper wire served well as supports for the side fins. The fins themselves were made from some found metal speaker covers. The perf metal gives it a really nice look! |
| Checking the look and fit. |
| I trimmed down the speaker covers to fit the wire supports and attached them with ever so tiny rivets ( I try to use glue as little as possible ) and check them for fit on the gills(?). |
| Three of the lesser fins I wanted to make out of carved bone. It has a very warm feeling to it. I attached paper patterns to each piece and first cut them with my jeweler's saw, then used a variety of dremel bits to carve them into shape. Do this with a mask in a well ventilated area! Even so, my studio smelled like a dentist office for a week. |
Lips attached. Sneak preview. Eyes attached.
