TA DONE! Bird Watcher

A year ago this week I blogged about my foray into the longest yard sale, showing my “treasures” – go here to see why I chose to repurpose the wall pocket … Irene – Bird Watcher.

One serendipitous moment led to another and my wall pocket was joined with Irene an amateur Bird Watcher.

This is Irene – Amateur Bird Watcher, a year later.

13″ tall x 5 1/4″ wide at the flowers

Irene donned a bonnet made to resemble a flower bush, tied it under her chin with raffia, hid in the garden and waited patiently for birds to “not notice” her.

Materials:
Body:  Vintage Wall Pocket – painted and glazed ceramic
Head and Birds:  Sculpted and fired white stoneware clay
Nest:  Antique barbed wire from Texas, sphagnum moss, bottle cap tin, acorns, green moss, wool roving
Paint:  Casein paint, sprayed on glaze

Notes of Interest:
–  I’ve never painted with Casein paints before.  Her face paint was put on three times and removed before I remembered my days from painting doll faces on procelain.  I put down the foundation colors and then dry brushed the highlights and cheeks.
–  The hairline crack was to the back of the wall pocket.  I fortified the entire inside back and the hole to hang the pocket with Apoxie Sculpt (a two part expoxy molding compound).
–  Irene was adhered to the pocket via regular two part expoxy (guaranteeing a hold of 2 tons)
–  Any space between her body and the pocket was filled with Apoxie Sculpt, sanded and painted to match her body prior to adhering the green moss with E6000 glue.  Apoxie Sculpt is amazing – you couldn’t tell the difference between her painted clay skin and the Apoxie Sculpt after I had painted it.

Here are a few more pictures of Irene.  Click on them to enlarge.

Work table.  I tried gouache paint first because I had a wide range of already mixed colors. But I liked the properties of Casein better.  It takes on a beautiful sheen when buffed.