Skip to main content

Entomological Elements - Mixed Media Sculpture


Entomological Elements hung in Timeless Textiles Gallery. 
My latest big piece of work is "Entomological Elements" - let's call it EE ... It is a mixed media sculpture in response to the theme "Elements" for a current exhibition by the Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists. If you a regular reader of this blog or and Empress Wu Designs Facebook follower, you probably know that my thing is "stick dolls".... dolls made with sticks. EE is just an extension of those , with a piece of local driftwood as its base.

EE is also  a celebration of the natural elements depicted by insects from different parts of the world.
 EARTH- Common Black Ground Beetle (Pterostichus melanarius) - Europe/Eurasia
AIR - Blue Ulysses Butterfly (Papilio Ulysses) - Australia
WATER- Golden winged skimmer dragonfly (Libellula auripennis) - Central/North America
FIRE - Scarlet Fire Beetle (Pyrochroa coccinea)- Europe

Common Black Ground Beetle - close up : Wilma Simmons 
Blue Ulysses Butterfly - close up : Wilma Simmons 
Golden winged skimmer dragonfly - close up : Wilma Simmons 
Scarlet Fire Beetle- close up: Wilma Simmons 
Materials: Paper, paper clay, found driftwood and twigs, fabric, thread, wire, paint and sealant.






Techniques:
The head is sculpted from polymer clay and paper clay and twigs. As shown, I sculpted a fairly basic head in polymer clay and cured it before adding features and the twigs from the skull with paper clay. Once the whole piece was dry, it was then covered in cheesecloth ( or kitchen muslin) and painted with acrylic paint and attached to the drift wood. I prepared the driftwood, first by washing it, and then placing it in the freezer for about 48 hours (to get rid of any of the real bugs and beetles).
The beetles were made from foil armatures covered in fabric and bound with sewing and embroidery stranded cotton , with thread covered wire. The butterflies are machine stitched with wire as are the dragonflies although their bodies are a similar construction to the beetles.
The fabrics used are both commercial and hand dyed cottons


 “Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. 
Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.” 



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Is it a mutant? Is it an alien? It's an octopus - or is it?

Have you ever thought how strange a creature the octopus is?  This week's fascination started when I asked the question, "What colour is an octopus when it's underwater?"  The answer is  "any colour it wants to be " -  An octopus' coloration depends upon its surroundings.  An octopus possesses the ability to alter its coloration depending on its immediate environment. This defensive technique protects the animal from predators and entices prey to come close to the animal . ((from  https://www.reference.com/pets-animals/color-octopus-be94f74fcdc74ebe)    . Why did I want to know the colour of an octopus? Because I wanted to draw octopus tentacles as mermaid hair for my art journal! Then, I began to think it might be considered a little too weird and even perverse to give a mermaid octopus hair.... Facebook friends assured me that this was not so, citing Medusa and her snake hair as a precedent, and even one friend said that she thought it was l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes  - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary.   Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's  Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers).  This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach.    Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stitched Faces

I   've always enjoyed that imperfect line of  "not quite in control' free motion machine stitching....  I think it really suits creating portraits , giving them some character and even a quirkiness that hints of personality plus.  These ones below are from my " Red Cheeks" series from a couple of years ago, and are amongst my favourite stitched portraits.  The current Stitch Club ( textileartist.org) workshop, by  Batool Showghi has inspired me to stitch more this week. Batool , of course, is in complete control of her machine stitching and her works are exquisite and they tell a moving story.  ... " Working with paper, print, paint and stitch, her textile art bears witness to displacement, silenced women and the damage that authoritarian regimes impose on ordinary lives. Batool’s mixed media wall pieces are incredibly striking, but her artist books truly set her apart. Printed imagery of family photographs, birth certificate documents and her o...
Post a Comment
Read more