Fly Free
This post is dedicated to my best friend.
Thank you for believing in me and giving me complete freedom for this project. It's like giving a toolbox to a racoon.
CONCEPT
I took inspiration from our talks about personal freedom and breaking free.
"Flying beyond the fences our parents never had the courge to look over."
So I knew it had to be a bird. I didn't want a small bird, something more imposing, something that makes its presence known. But not an agressive bird, like a hawk or eagle. I chose the egret. It's a migratory bird, its large, elegant, imposing but it is a gentle soul.
I wanted it escaping from somewhere. It was obvious I needed a cage, I was thinking on how to design this. Then I thought about color scheme and that's when it hit me. We both love the azulejo tiles. I know you would love the color scheme and style. But what if instead of a drawing or painting of the egret in that style, the bird escape it's own painting, breaks the cage above it and flies free?
LET THE FUN BEGIN!
First I needed a sturdy frame to hold everything in place. Preferably metal. So I used the frame from Ozzys old hammok, the one that he outgrew. It has that additional thing that sorta makes it look like a musical instrument but it didn't bother me.
I traced both the inside and the outside of the circle onto a piece of packaging cardboard and marked off where the gap is. This is very important because the frame isn't perfectly round. I don't know if it was made that way or Ozzy's fat ass distorted it.
Then I cut along the exterior edge. I gently cut just the top layers of the cardboard on the interior edge leaving a lower layer that I could glue to the fram later. I stuck painting canvas on it with double sided tape because I was worried that the moisture in glue would warp the cardboard. I had to do this twice cause I fucked up the first time and forgot to leave the piece of canvas that coves over the enge of the gap.
How do you center a circular pattern into a very irregular circle and not make it look wonky? You use the compass wrong, that's how! I had to put the needle of the compass on the outer edge and the graphite part on the canvas and followed the edge that way. Once my technical dilema was solved I painted a blue pattern similar to what you'd see on a nice decorative plate. I used the shimerry metallic blue paint hoping it would be reminiscent of the glaze on the azulejo tiles.
So far, so good! Now to handle the cage part. The plan was to build it out of gold wire. It would look really good with all the blue. But any wire I'd tie to the metal frame would slide around. First I had to wrap the frame in some thread. I wanted a darker smoother blue yarn but all I could find in town was this shimmery crochet yarn. It had to do. It's a bit fuzzy but it gets the job done and hopefully the glue will calm donw the fuzzyness.
Next was the gold wire...that didn't go well. The wire I had was too thin and it looked crinkled. I couldn't get it to be nice and smooth. Ozzy loved it tho. That wire is his favourite thing now and he will yell for it if I hide it. It took a few days of hunting around town and on the internet until I decided I'll go textile instead. (I almost ordered soldering wire for this)
I got another crochet yarn, less fuzzy this time. I got it in white because now I had to try and starch it with clue and THEN paint it gold. Making the cage wasn't too hard, it would have been easier if Ozzy didn't try to EAT it. The glue-starching worked...almost...it's kinda flimsy but I can work with it. What I didn't expect was that the moisture in the glue was enough to make some rust from the frame come throgh the yarn.
Very stylish. I had to do this so the end would strach to the back of the circle and I could cut and hide them later.
To paint it gold I first had to put it on the big easel...because otherwise I's end up painting Ozzy's nose too. He wasn't pleased about it and guarded it for a while. To my dismay I discovered that unlike the beautiful shimmery blue paint, the gold one was actually transparent with gold glitter in it. So I first had to paint the cage yellow and then make it shiny. It's not exactly the elegant metallic golden cage I envisioned but hey, life goes on.
To build the skeleton of the egret I used gardening wire and painters tape. I also added some little hidden silver wires to help at attaching this thing to the back. All these materials made for the perfect storm...or salad...for Ozzy. He wanted to eat it so bad. He will try to eat any piece of tape, metal wire, elastic or wire he will find. He is a menace and I always have to keep these things hidden. So when I built this he kept trying to climb on me to steal it, sang me the song of his people and then boycotted me for hiding it by laying on my workbench.
This is the best picture I could take of the bird skeleton with Ozzy actively trying to snach it from me.
#occupytheworkbench
With all that hidden it was time to make the feathers. First I had to paint some papers in a blue gradient with the same paint I used for the background. When they were dry I folded them the same way you would make a paper fan and cut feathers from both side. Oh and I went in with a blue coloring pencil in the edges of the "fan" so the feathers would have a mid line.
I think he really wanted blue whiskers cause he kept popping his head out through my easel.
This picture of Ozzy sleeping under the papers drying on a sock rack looks a bit like a surreal painting.
[Update: March 31st] Work advancing slowly.
This thing is taking shape but I have to work at night and be very very quiet about it. The slightest rustle and Ozzy wakes up like a sleepercell and tries to break down the door...or his own molecular structure to turn into something that can come in under the door.
It looks like a car hit it.
[Update: May 4th] I didn't do any updates because the work advanced so slow and sporadic. I'm writing this as the bird is being sent.
As I mentioned in the last update, Ozzy wanted to eat it. I tried to work at night but that didn't work. So then I tried to do it at day, standing up, holding the bird in one hand and the glue and feathers in the other. All the while Ozzy was scratching up my leg to GET TO IT.
He obviously sat under the easel when I asembled the whole thing. And then he started doing sneaky things like pretending he's paying atention to something else but then trying to bite it while I wasn't looking. He managed to bite the beak and a feather. Sorry if they're crooked. I did my best to fix them.
He also participated in packing the box for delivery.
Ending thoughts
This was my first papier mache project and I loved making it. However, I'm not atempting anything like this again unless I have a workshop or studio that's away from Ozzy.
GLAMOUR SHOTS:
CARA PHOTODUMPS CONNECTED TO THIS PROJECT: