Works in Progress

Travels during July kept studio time down a bit, so I thought I’d share shots of art dolls in progress this week.  I’m busy working on a couple of outdoor “garden dolls” for a fall show, and building gallery inventory back up from recent sales.

Each face starts as a disk of copper that I cut from 16 oz stock, flame anneal, and hammer into shape. Cutting, sanding and polishing bring each face to completion.

annealed copper disk with face outline

Annealed copper disk with face outline

Hammering face into shape

Hammering a face into shape

Copper face after shaping and polishing

Copper face after shaping and polishing

Eyes are fashioned from copper or brass headed fasteners onto which I torch fire powdered glass enamels.  By mixing opaque and transparent colors I can achieve an infinite variety of colors.

Hands I shape from copper tubing hammered and cut to form the sculpture’s wrist, palm, and four of the fingers.  Wire brazed into a notch cut on the side of the palm forms each thumb.

Close up of the hands of "Whee!"

Close up of the hands of “Whee!”

Next week I’ll share a few more bits and pieces.