Well, so much for posting pictures as elements of the face came together.  I was making such good progress, and liking said progress so much, that I didn't want to stop and I've now finished the face!  I also hit a big milestone last week: the one year mark for working on this piece.  Looking back, it's hard to believe it's been a whole year.  On the other hand, it feels like forever and I can't believe I'm still working on it.  I am still incredibly happy with it though, so it's been worth every second.

When I started this piece, I knew it was going to be my biggest challenge as a sculptor yet, but I felt pretty good about the whole thing.  Except for the face.  I was completely intimidated by that one section, far more than the rest of the piece.  Sure there are details like fingers and toes throughout the body, but for the most part, it's a lot of smooth surfaces with slight shifts here and there for muscles.  That really frees up the reins for the design aspect of the wirework.  The face, however, has a lot of detail in it.  I wasn't sure if the idea I had for translating it to wire was going to work.  My stomach has been twisting and turning for the last twelve months, thinking about how I was going to do this.  And that's not even counting the years I spent planning this piece.  But after all that time spent worrying about it, it actually wasn't that bad.  I mean, it was actually pretty easy.  Well, that may be an exaggeration.  Maybe not easy, but it was a lot easier than I expected.

Using the mannequin head was a tremendous help at times and a bit of a hinderance at others, but when all is said and done, I'm really glad I used it for this part of the sculpture.  There are so many complex curves working their way through all the facial features that I'm not sure I could have done this freehand.

I decided I needed to start with something fairly central and work my way out from there.  The nose wouldn't work as a starting point because of the design (the tip and bridge of the nose are only connected to the rest of the face at one point, the forehead), so I started with the lips and chin.  I was able to move through them pretty quickly, mostly because they're soft, gentle curves.  I added a few lines in the lips to give them shape and hint at the natural lines that are there.  It looked really good.  I actually even cut two of the lines back off because I didn't need them.  I then made the little divot above the lip (I looked it up, that's called the philtrum) and the two nostrils.

With this groundwork set, I began to move outward from there, and on to the sides of the nose.  That slowed down my progress.  A lot of hard curves twisting about.  I used the thickest of the three thinner wires the first time and after struggling for a full night, I got the shape, but the wire was too thick and made the line, which should have been delicate, look a little too strong.  I tried it with the thinnest wire next and it was considerably easier to bend.  However, I've learned that heating this sprung steel wire before I use it makes it easier to bend when it cools off, but it becomes really brittle.  As I was twisting my way through all the curves around the nose, I kept breaking the wire.  I spent a few nights playing with that, to no avail.  Finally I used the medium thickness wire and wrestled with that for a few days.  It finally worked.  Those nose lines then work their way up into the eyebrows.

I decided from this point on to do one side of the face at a time, rather than matching lines, side to side, as I moved through it.  Bending the wire into the eye sockets was a little challenging, though not as bad as the nose.  When the wires meet at the outside of the eye, they erupt into swirls spreading across the temples towards the ears.  There were a lot of swirls, so that took some time, but it looks gorgeous.  I used the medium thickness wire for most of these, but made some of the swirls with the thinnest wire.

I added the tip and bridge of the nose next.  That gave the nose some profile shape.  I started with a tear drop shape at the tip, which turns into a single line running up the bridge.  It continues on to the forehead, a fairly smooth surface with a simple but pretty design, ending in a small heart centered on her forehead.  I also put a small dimple into the chin to give it some definition and profile shape, as well as fill in the open area that was left when I put in the initial chin lines.  The eyes were still just the sockets, so I added the closed eyelids.  Eventually, when the welding is all done, I'll be adding eyelashes with jewelry wire.  Finally, I added a few more swirls to the forehead, and with that, the face was finished!

The were a few unexpected hiccups along the way.  I broke more than a few welds and had to redo them.  This wire is so thin that I can't really hold the welder to it for too long or it burns through the wire, even on the welder's lowest setting, so the welds don't really bite that deep into the metal.  Then I grind the welds down so much that there's actually very little filler holding the wires together.  When I put stress on the welds by grinding another area, or trying to bend wire that's already attached, the welds break.  I tried to leave a little extra filler on them when I re-welded them, but I couldn't leave too much or it started looking chunky.  I also had to extend the face a little bit, as the mannequin head is close to human sized, but just a little too small.  I ended up shaving her bottom lip off the mannequin head to be able to extend the face a touch.  Between the weld burns and the shaved lip, this poor mannequin head has taken quite a beating.

So with the face done, there's not much left to do on the head.  I still need to work on her hairline and add ears.  That'll be interesting.  When that's done, I can make the neck and attach the head to the rest of the piece, and then all I have to do is add the hair.  I'm a little nervous about that, but not as nervous as I was starting the face.  At that point the sculpting is done and all I have to do is finish it off with the patina and cover the base in patinated copper.  I feel like I'm almost done, but I realize I do still have a fair amount of work left.

Fall Art Walk at The Brewery is coming up this weekend.  I had to take a break from the face for a couple days last week to change out about 2500 Christmas lights from the dragon and one of the seahorses.  I'm actually still working on that.  I have to clean up and organize my space too, so it looks like I'm done with the piece for the next week.  Once art walk is over though, I'm going to finish this thing!  My guess now is that I'll be done around Christmas.

As I've been working on the face independently from the body, I took the support pipe off the sculpture's base and have let her stand free for the last few weeks.  What a difference it makes looking at her without that thick pipe running up to her back.  She looks so light and free and... natural!  I'm so happy with how this is turning out.  If I can keep it up through these last few months, this is going to be a really beautiful piece.

I did skip out for a few nights over the last few weeks to see a few concerts.  The Black Keys with Tegan & Sara and Peter Gabriel.  All amazing shows.  I've been listening to a lot more Black Keys since the show.  This is a favorite.  Another that sounds great loud in my loft.