War Bonnet - Putting It All Together!

Finally! Boy, for a while there I thought I'd never see the end of this project. But, feeling kind of lonely after taking my little helpers to the Airport for their return home I lit out for the workshop and really applied myself for the past two days.
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When I first started this piece my goal was to do something that would really catch the viewers attention while also displaying my carving and painting abilities. I know that might sound a little egotistic but I see nothing wrong with that. If we can't be proud of the talents we've been blessed with what's the purpose of having them. Anyway, I think I did a pretty good job.

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There is one area that I could have improved on and that's the feathers on the headress. If you look at the photo of a real headress you can see that the feathers are really seperated at the ends. While you could probably do this I think the feathers would really be weak and apt to break so that detail can be excused. I would have liked to add the plumed tips but there was just no way I could think of to really do it to where it would look good. Other than that I think I came pretty close in reproducing the headress to match the photo.

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Another detail I wanted to try was to attach some real hair scalplocks to the shoulders of the body. I was going to use real horsehair as we have an abundance of that around here. However, I think that would be just a little too much detail for one piece. Even I, the Prince of Detail, have to limit myself sometimes. But someday on some piece I will try that effect. One little detail I did add was some burnt lines to the edges of the breastplate to simulate the ties of each strip.

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So, overall I think this little project was a success and I have a vision of a Blue Ribbon in it's future. But even if the judge feels otherwise it's a winner to me and that's what really matters.

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Lots of photos after the jump to the Gallery.