Fairy Sculpture

I made the armature from three pieces of sturdy garden wire, two measuring 18" and the other 20". The head is half of a 1 1/4" polystyrene ball with a tiny one stuck in the middle for the nose.

Next step was to cover everything in tinfoil. I did this on the settee whilst watching tv.

Covered everything with masking tape and attached the head.

I wanted to create a skirt and there were two ways I thought of to do this, one was to use a toilet roll inner tube.

The second was to create in effect a wire tube and cover it with masking tape. 

I also needed some wings. I decided to go with a small pair.

I decided on the wire tube so covered it and the wings with masking tape.

I attached both to my figure.

Then out came the Powertex. I found a thin piece of t-shirt fabric which I used to cover the head and the top part of the body. You need to try and pull this back so you get the fabric smooth over the face.

I let that dry for a while and then covered the wings with stockinette.

I left the wings to dry for about an hour and then using strips of t-shirt yarn I covered the arms and the legs. This fabric gives them great texture and it's a great width to work with. I pulled the arms and legs out straight as it was easier to cover them. They can easily be re-shaped afterwards.

Again I left the arms and legs to dry for about another hour, re-shaped them and then dressed her. I forgot to take a photo at this stage. I also added more fabric to the wings.

And lastly again after waiting about another hour, I added some hair.

I found it easier to do all these steps in stages and by letting the Powertex dry for a while after each stage, the figure was so much easier to handle.

This figure was inspired by Allison Turner whom we have taken some workshops with. We were meant to be doing a workshop on this project, but for whatever reasons it didn't come off, so I decided to have a go myself and I'm really please with how she's turned out. I've named her Ellie.

I'll be back with part 2 after I've been to a workshop next Saturday, as I need to buy some of the rich gold and bronze gold pigments to colour her with.