The painting of George Proudfeather is completed and I’m just in the process of creating a nice base for him to sit upon. I’m so happy with the way that the bead-work and bear claws turned out.
I ended up laying the bear claws on the bear fur collar and “connecting” them with what I imagine are glass beads that George and his clan received in a fur trade. George seems to be pretty happy with the outcome of that trade.
I used a bit of epoxy on all of the beads to brighten them up to be glass-like. They really stand out from the other earth tones that I used in the overall piece.
I should also mention the wrapped pony-tails. I was originally going to do these as deerskin but on second thought felt that the jacket had enough of that material in the overall carving. So I took an aggressive carbide tool bit and lightly buffed the wrap just enough to lift the wood and make it “furry.” I dabbed some various browns and a bit of autumn orange to give it a hint of perhaps a fox fur. I think that it turned our pretty reasonably.
A mahogany base ( from wood from an old soccer trophy of mine ) has been fashioned and is just in the staining/finishing stages. I’ll get that completed early this week and then I’ll be on to my next project.
