Things have been moving ahead, but I've stalled to prep for art walk this weekend.  Back to the grind next week.  I'll post an update soon to get you up to speed.  Til then, my art walk display of the new piece...

Well, it's been a productive few weeks, but not in the way I was expecting.  I finished the ribs up to the bust, then stopped for a moment to take stock and figure out what was next.  I've reached a point where a lot of things are converging at once.  So far, I've been able to focus on one thing at a time.  Leg, knee, stomach, butt.  Now the bust, underarms, shoulders and shoulder blades are all sort of coming together at the same time.  While reworking the design for the four larger wires as they work through all these areas, I realized the spine was too short.  I cut those wires apart and lengthened the spine about an inch.  Then I decided to revisit her ribcage as well.  While I had been working on it, I noticed that her right side was becoming a little larger than her left.  Not  enough to look freakish, but enough that it was noticeable if you looked at it for a moment.  I had continued to fill in the ribcage, trying to even it out as I went, but I was fairly unsuccessful and it continued to fill out a little larger than the other side.  I had also been mildly bothered by her sternum.  The bends were a little off there, too.  So now as I stood looking at it, I realized there was no way I could leave it like that.  I cut the thicker wires of her sternum apart, rebent and rewelded them, then cut the wires from her ribs along the thicker wire outlining her ribcage on her right side.  I shortened those wires, rebent them, and began reattaching them to the thicker wire.  It's not done yet, but it already looks a thousand times better, and I've saved myself an eternity of looking at it and being annoyed, knowing it was off.

So this weekend, I hope to finish that and start working on the shoulder blades.

It's supposed to rain all weekend.  I predict some cello music.  I fell in love with another "new to me band" this week.  School of Seven Bells.  ::swoon::  I'll be listening to them with the rain too.

Well, it took a while, but I'm finally happy with the ribs.  I put about a week's worth of time into them, and suddenly realized I didn't like where they were headed, so I hacked them off and started over.  They were a little too literal, and weren't fitting the rest of the piece.  Since I redid them, they fit perfectly.  Still look like ribs, but stylized like the rest of the piece.  The back has also been filling out really nicely as well.  Beautiful design.  I've finally reached the bust.  Which I've also redone.  Remember a month or so back when I adjusted the lines of the thicker wires to follow the underside of the breasts?  Yeah, undid that too.

So now, looking ahead, I'm going to be focusing on the breasts, shoulder blades and underarms.  Then the face.  Ohhhhh, the face.  But first I need to dial in those thicker wires, which are now bent way out of shape and filled with chunky bends, and lock those in at the shoulders.  Oy.  Fun days ahead.

Here's a pic of the back.  Loving this compared to the way the ribs were originally.  This has been an incredibly challenging piece so far, but I'm thrilled with the way it's turning out.