10-22-2008
Obviously, the colors on my rendition of the Sandhill Crane are not identical (nor intended to be) to the real mccoy. Again, in view of the fact that this is a welded sculpture / art project, and I have been leaning toward organic materials and colors, I chose to infuse brass into the top of the Crane's head - as opposed to red paint, dye, etc.
Well, here we go... winding down the challenging project and performing last minute clean-up and detailing, in order to meet tomorrow morning's deadline at the photographer's studio. Although not represented in this photo; I took the carbide blade on my grinder and carfully placed two slots near the upper part of the beak - he has to breathe somehow - right? Since the Sandhill's appear to have darkish-black beaks, I left the bluing previously created by various heating processes. The darkish bluing is also prevalent in the eye socket areas and will provide a nice shadowing effect, while contrasting nicely with the brass eyes.
You can see the dark colors in the eye sockets and the brass highlights on the claws in this photo. It was 7:00pm when I took this photo outside the shop and all that remains is to figure out where to place my maker's mark! I can't wait for Barbara (my wonderful client) to see the Crane for the first time tomorrow afternoon! I spoke with her earlier today, and she is looking forward to seeing my creation - I sincerely hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed creating the Crane for her!