136 Thorns

I thought after almost three years of changes, redo’s, mistakes, and experimenting with new techniques 136 Thorns is an appropriate title as I near the completion of my latest sculpture – Cowboy. It has clearly been a labor of love. These thorns are the tips of toothpicks that I primed and painted to be inserted in the rose vines circling Cowboy’s horns. Each vine had to have a hole carefully drilled in it for the thorn. After all were in place each thorn was meticulously touched up with paint. Indeed there have been many thorns along this path of fabrication. I had not originally planned to make thorns on the rose vines. It occurred to me towards the end that they would be an appropriate addition. As an artist if I feel something is needed in my work that will contribute to the overall effect then I do my best to create it. Here are a few more details of this sculpture that were a labors of love (thorns).

The roses and leaves were hand carved and are delicate and easy to break. Experimenting with different types of wood I found the the softer woods wouldn’t hold up as well as hardwood and easily broke. Maple trees are abundant on our property so their wood was a good choice for the roses. I found that hardwood is more difficult to carve than soft. Cowboy’s teeth were each hand carved maple as well.

After experimenting with paint I decided that I didn’t like brush strokes so I chose to airbrush each leave and rose with primer and then acrylic paint. The effect was softer and mimics the real thing.

Getting the horns correct was difficult because of the curving and tapering aspects. I redid the horns several times until they fit the image in my mind. The vines around the horns also took several attempts. I found that bamboo would bend nicely when steam heated and made great vines.

After carving the vines each was attached to the horns with glue and tiny screws. The final stages of the green vines required a special masking tape so that when they were airbrushed the overspray wouldn’t land on the white horns.

The skull presented its own challenges. While Bass wood is soft and an excellent carving wood it is too porous to support two heavy horns. So a better support had to be fashioned to hold the horns.

At first I tried thick oak dowels and didn’t think it would be strong enough so I replaced them with a threaded steel rod which supported the horns nicely. So these were some of the issues with creating this piece. Each was eventually worked out and completed to my satisfaction. Only a few little things need to be done. Stay tuned for pictures of the finished piece.