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I've always wanted to say that :)

I've been working on a piece - some of you may have received phone images of the original sketch. I'll spare you the gruesome details of all the sanding and scraping and replastering and repainting and then yet again resanding and then...okay, maybe I didn't spare you.

This is untitled at this point. my original impulse was based on a sketch i made in my journal of a seed pod like structure with a vagina birthing dark branches. I've been making slow progress on it - a lot of learning about materials with this one.

The pod shape is plaster fleshed out over some crushed local newspapers and paper towels. Once I got the base of the piece in place, I made the vagina and labia part (yes, I realize it's NOT exactly accurate - yet...I have to drill a hole for the emerging branch ;) among other things.

At first, i was going to just paint the plaster but then I started to get frustrated and realized that I didn't like the look of painted plaster. It was too much like a crotch stuck on a plaster thing. That brings us to the image below (sorry, it's a bit blurry but you get the sense).

I also have some shots of a 'mock up' that Phil helped me with. It's the images with the branches. The piece hadn't been fired yet - thus the sorta 'loose lips' (wait, did I say that for real??) but you get the gist of what I'm going for. The branches will have to be painted a little darker before I insert them.

So my most recent addition to the piece is that I've put a layer of polymer clay over it - a base coat so to speak. Which is in the oven as I type. Once the base coat cools - and with a lot of luck, the surface wont crack - I'll add some fleshy texture to the piece and refire it. There are a few elements missing which I'll add to the piece during the texturizing part.

more images....in the next post ( in the new month folder - that's sorta annoying)