Well, I've finished the second hand.  All that's left now is the face, the hair and the patina to finish it.  I meant to write when I finished the arm but things have been pretty crazy with Burning Man coming up.  The forearm was trickier than I thought it would be, mostly because of the twist in the arm, and trying to match the design and size of the first arm, given that twist.  It ended up looking pretty good though, and it's at a nice angle, with this elbow dropped considerably lower than the first, and the forearm canted slightly forward.  The difference in the position of the two arms gives it a very natural and realistic movement that ties in well with the positioning of the legs.

I started the second hand next.  I had already made the fingernails and bent the outlines of these knuckles when I did the first hand, so I had a pretty good jump on it, but I still needed to make the wrinkles of the knuckles and then attach each of the finger segments.  Since the first hand was bent forward and the second hand is bent back, that meant the wires leading to the first knuckles of this hand didn't flow out of the arm like the other, due to the wrinkles created by the bent wrist.  I attached those first knuckles and moved on to the palm.  I found myself once again working with the stiff thinner wire and it fought me the entire way, right down to the last weld.  I didn't use my friends suggestion that I mentioned a few posts ago, of trying to heat it up first, because I'm not sure of what the side effects of doing that are just yet and I wanted to make sure the hands matched.  I will use that trick when I move on to the face though.  When the main lines of the palm were finished, I started building up the meat of the fingers and attaching them, starting with the pinkie.

These fingers are also in a different position than those of the first hand, so it was fun getting them into the right shapes.  As I had hoped, the positions of the fingers add a graceful elegance to her pose.  Admittedly, the hands aren't as dainty as I had hoped them to be, but she's not really a dainty girl to begin with, so they fit her body fine.  Alas, when all was said and done though, I realized that the fingers on this hand are a touch too long.  But I saw that coming.  It all started with the pinkie.  I wanted to make it curl in and touch the palm, and in doing so, I extended the length between the first and second knuckles a little too far, and as I worked my way down the hand, that length got a little longer, finger by finger.  By the time I got to the fourth finger, it was getting a little out of control, so I actually already shortened a few of them, but I need to shorten all four fingers one more time to make myself okay with it or I will see it every time I look at the piece.  No biggie though, could be worse.  It'll maybe add one day of work.  It's just the one segment of each finger, so I can cut along the welds (three per finger), shorten the wires, reattach and grind.  Easy enough.  But for all intents and purposes, they are done and it looks great.

So now, as far as sculpting, all that's left is the head and hair, but I'm taking a break before I dive into that.  I leave for Burning Man in one week.  It's time to pack and I'm super excited.  I've been working on this piece, daily, for over ten months now.  By far, the longest I've worked on any piece.   Calander-wise anyway.  As far as straight hours, I'm probably pretty close to the same as the dragon, but I packed that into 5 1/2 months, working 80 hour weeks the entire project.  This has been ten long months of working on the same piece, day in and day out, and to be honest, I'm getting pretty burnt out.  Granted, the majority of the piece is done now, but with the amount of design and detail in what I have left, it's easily going to be the most challenging bit of sculpting I've ever done.  Bad time to lose my juju.  But now I get to take a break, go out to the desert, recharge, get inspired, get motivated, then come back here and finish this piece.  The timing couldn't be better.

Burning Man changed my life in 2001.  It started me on my path as a sculptor, and has been a huge part of my life ever since.  It's my new years, birthday, and Christmas all rolled into one.  It's how I mark time.  When I look back at any of the last eleven years, I see them measured between burns rather than being bookended by new years eve parties.  It's when I reflect on what I've done in the past solar cycle, and what I want to accomplish in the next.  Friendships, relationships, projects, life events... all tie into burns, or fall in between them.  I sat at the base of a massive sculpture called Bliss Dance one night two burns ago, marveling up at her, and decided it was finally time to do my nude.  It had been smoldering in the back of my mind for over four years at that point, but until then, I wasn't ready to tackle it.  But as I sat there that night, I realized that the time had come.  I came back to Los Angeles completely inspired.  Over the next few months, I thought a lot about the pose as I finished up a few other small projects, and finally took my first few steps towards starting the project.  I had one fairly large setback though, right out of the gate, and ended up taking a step back.  False start, and I lost my momentum.  Before I knew it, it was time to head back out to the desert.  At last years burn, I was really disappointed that the year had passed and I hadn't bent a single piece of wire for this piece yet.  I reflected on the failure and fears that made me take that step back and then let those fears be carried off with the playa dust.  And, as always happens out on the playa, I got inspired.  Really inspired.  Fired up.  I came home and had one month til Art Walk.  I took that time to prep for art walk, but also to find and hire a model and photographer, shoot the model, start the design and start figuring out the base.  When art walk ended, it took me one week to start bending wire.  Now the year has passed, I'm heading out to the desert again, the piece is almost finished, and it looks even more beautiful than I had hoped.  It's been a struggle, no doubt, but I am thrilled with the way it's turned out.  What a journey the year has been.  I'm so excited.

So now as I leave you for a few weeks, and I leave my metal lady here, waiting for my return, here's one more picture.  This is what she looks like tonight.

I've been hearing word from friends who are already on the playa that it's incredibly dusty this year, one of the worst in memory, with heavy windstorms.  So I leave you with this...