Extension of "Bird of a Feather"

The 3D art class I am taking this semester has introduced new media for art creation.  My favorite assignment so far is making a low resolution figure mold.

Bird of a Feather ~ Fiber Art

My inspiration for the low resolution sculpture was an original fiber art piece called "Bird of a Feather."  This piece was created using two photos, one of a raven and the second of a detail of a feather.  Once the two photos were joined using photoshop software, I printed the image onto cotton.  Next, the raven was free motion stitched and the feather was machine stitched. The raven's wing was extended outside the frame of the original photo.

In class, we fabricated the figure using molding clay.  The mold was made from latex, a flexible material that captures the details of a clay sculpture fairly well.  Once the mold was complete, plaster of paris was used as the mold compound material.  Each plaster cast piece was painted.  I experimented with inks, oil paint, acrylic paint,water color paint, crafting wax pigments, and encaustic wax.

Ten birds were completed with different material applications. Working with various sources of media, basically anything I could get my hands on, was fun ... I was motivated by seeing the results of the media and combinations applied to the plaster.

Water color paint, oil paint, and ink on plaster

Water color paint on geso ground

Background = wax metallic pigment, Bird = acrylic paint

Encaustic wax application

My final piece was a combination of all I had learned using different media.  I love the juxtaposition between the plaster and the formalized landscape.  The metallicness of the frame's gold overtone is repeated in the wax metallic finished used on the bird and circles.

Framed landscape purchased at a local thrift shop