Poor Willy! He doesn't look happy at all. Maybe the slots down at the Turtle Stop Casino didn't pay off like he thought. Whatever, this has the makings of a nice looking piece. It's about 15" tall not counting the feather. He'll hopefully be joined by his mate which I plan on starting this afternoon. If things work out she will have Willy's offspring strapped to her back on a cradleboard.
Took me a while to get him finally finished as we've been doing fence work. I've done figures similar to this one several times before but this time I tried a headband. I carved it out of tupelo, bent it to shape and then attached it. I like it! Woodcarving, unlike working in clay to be cast into bronze, has one major drawback or hurdle we have to deal with and that's making things look as they really are with out having the necessary supporting structure overpower the detail. In this instance the headband would have been much to fragile if I tried to carve it as it appears. The way I did it it is extremely strong and will never break unless someone drops him on his head or tries to pick it off. The back feather is not permanently attached for that very reason. People like to touch things so when we carve we have to or should take that into consideration.
To make the headband I bent one circle of tupelo and glued it. To add additional strength to the bond I glued a wood rosette to the junction. I then did another layer of tupelo for the beaded strip and glued it on. This doubel layer allowed me to do some burn detail for the beading that I otherwise couldn't do as the strip would break on the burn lines. I found that out the hard way.
Anyway, hope you like him.
