Sooo... still had a lot going on these last few weeks.  Went to Coachella with some friends and their massive, beautiful project, then came back and installed a sculpture I sold at the art walk.  Both great things, but they sucked up some time.  Things have finally settled down though, and looking ahead at my calendar, it looks like my schedule is finally back to normal.  Hoping to get back on track.

I have made some progress recently though.  I've almost finished the bust completely.  One small section on each side of the chest that moves up into the shoulder is still open, but other than that, they're done.  I finished out the two thick wires of the clavicle, crossing over (as well as defining) the shoulders, and ending at the shoulder blades.  Yes, ending.  I am now down to just two of those thicker wires that started at the feet and have wound their way through her entire body.  That's great news for me.  The more you bend steel, the harder it gets to bend.  That's because when you bend it, you're rearranging the atoms.  The more you bend it, the less the atoms line up and the harder it gets to bend.  This is called work-hardening.  Well, these wires were the thick, less malleable wires to start with, and after twisting their way ten feet through her whole body, they had so many bends in them that they were nearly impossible to work by the end.  I'm hoping the two remaining thick wires, which still need to curve their way through her shoulders, will still be workable by the time I'm finished with them.

So now that I've pretty much finished the bust and  begun defining the shoulders, it's time to look ahead again.  All that's left are the shoulders, arms, head and hair.  The head.  Ooooh, the head.  Still not sure how that's going to work.  Still many challenges ahead, but I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.  Hard to believe, when I step back and take a good look at her.  I'm coming up on the seven month point.  Probably another four months or so to go.  She's almost here.

Well, after an incredibly hectic and scattered few months, I'm finally starting to feel some peace sinking back in.  Summer's on its way.  The days are getting longer and it's starting to warm up.  Have I mentioned how much I love daylight savings?  Thoughts of my annual pilgrimage to the Black Rock Desert have begun to surface.  I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel with my sculpture.  Life is good.  This song really spoke to me this last week, as things began flowing again.  Justin Vernon of Bon Iver with The Roots doing a stunningly beautiful version of his song Perth.  Feel the peace sinking in...

Hm.  Took a look at the piece when I got home from my day job last night and realized the breasts were a touch too high on the body.  The torso looked a little too long.  Decided to drop the breasts about an inch.  Fortunately, that top wire on the ribs that they were attached to was still only attached by one weld, so they weren't too hard to remove.  Just took a little reworking, getting the angles right, for their lower placement.  Looks much better.   Onward!

Alright, I'm back in action!  I took a few weeks off to help with a friend's Coachella project and prep for the spring art walk here at The Brewery, then taxes and recon at a potential clients house.  Busy busy busy.  All good stuff though.

Well, it's been a while, so let me take a second to get you up to speed.  I finished the ribs.  Really glad I shrunk that larger side down a bit.  Not only do both sides match now, but the side I shrunk even has a little sexier shape to it.  I laid in one final line at the top of the ribs to denote the underline of her breasts.  Her torso is looking really good.

I took the two thicker wires at the sternum, brought them up to the neck where they veer off into the clavicles.  They'll curve around a bit on the shoulder and probably end there. 

I took the two thicker wires at the top of the spine and started curving them out towards the shoulders, then down and around, shaping the shoulder blades.  Since the shoulder blades press out from the body, there's a real nice three dimensional quality to that area.  When they're filled in, it's going to look great.  The thick wires continue on through the bottom of the underarms to the front of the body.  They're going to follow that tendon along the front of the underarm, up to the shoulder, where they'll outline a few muscles at the top of the arm and end there.

So that's where I left off going into art walk weekend, with her back finished (minus the insides of the shoulder blades), and the front of her body done up to the underline of the bust.  I had her displayed nicely for art walk, and people seemed to get a kick out of seeing an unfinished piece.  I got a lot of great feedback and it gave me a little boost of inspiration, seeing how excited people got about it.

Now I'm back in the saddle.  This past week, I've been working on the breasts.  Pretty tricky curves.  I found myself at an all night grocery store at two in the morning a few nights ago, feeling up various citrus fruit.  Awkward.  I found a perfect grapefruit though, and brought it home to help shape the breasts.  I started with the nipples, then swirled my way back and forth down through the underside.  I finally connected both of those to the body today, and they look great.  Smallish, with a nice curve to the underside.  And I like the nipples.  I had been trying to decide between a spiral, or a more minimalist loop, and I ended up going with the spiral.  

So this week, I work on filling out the breasts.    I'll probably only get a few days of work in, since I'm heading out to Coachella Thursday night and need to start pulling out my camping gear and getting prepped, but I should be able to get a little more work done.  Once Coachella is over, I'm hoping to be back to a normal work schedule. 

Oh, and I've hit the six month mark.  I just looked back at my first blog entry, and I had predicted this piece would take about 4 to 6 months, realistically thinking it would take six.  Now, I'm guessing I may still have six more to go.  Didn't see that coming.

This song has been in my head all week.  It comes with a preemptive apology...