Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts WIP Done!

Talk about a journey! I've never sculpted a horse head before but had looked at my goose neck gourd knowing it was destined to be one. I started out with a vision of the head looking like carved stone, with a base that had a tooled leather look to it along with an oxidized copper background for the tooled leather. Sometimes things don't always end up the way I start and this was certainly no exception.

After adding the floral flourishes, I realized that it wasn't quite the way I had envisioned, so I decided to blend the top and base together. So I thought I would try a bronzed look with a leather look base. After putting the first layer of the bronzing technique on, I had another thought come to me. So I tried burnishing the floral design with an antique gold, which really made the bronze too pink or well just not right.

I was getting discouraged and had all sorts of wild ideas running through my mind. After antiquing over the bronze to give it some definition and a more realistic look, I took some Champagne metallic paint and dry brushed over the gold. It toned down the gold and changed the whole feel of the piece. So I'm done! No more fussing, and lot's of lessons learned. I would really love to do another horse head or two, using my previous ideas but in a different way. Now I need to come up with a name. We've jokingly titled it El Caballo de Calabaza, perhaps that might stick!