How To Make Glasses

Sgt. Buffalo

Here's the latest one.  Turned out great.  Really like the color and believe it or not there are about 6 different colors on that face!  I tried something new on this one.  Instead of trying to carve the characteristics of a Black's hair I used some model railroad ballast glued on with acrylic medium and then painted with a light wash of black.  Perfect!  I didn't apply it to his eyebrows though.  I added the glasses as a Sgt. in the army at that time would have been along in years and those little extras really bring a figure to life.
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Lots of photos in the Gallery and your comments are always welcome.

Eyeglasses – How To Make Them

I've received a number of requests on how to make eyeglasses so I thought  that is one video I think we could crank out for you at this moment.  I didn't hold anything back on this one....you get to see all the problems that occur when old fingers try to do delicate work.  It's really not as difficult as I make it look.

The important thing to remember is to make sure you choose the right sized wire for the figure.  Also, as I point out in the video, use silver solder as it's much stronger than normal electrical solder.  The last thing you'd want is for your welded joint to come apart once you've given or sold your carving.

So, have fun and don't burn your fingers….or the table top like I did.

 

Stretching His Rope - Part 5 - Finished!!!

Yipee!!! Hooray!!!! Whoop-di-do!!! I finally finished this project!!!!!!!!! I guess you can tell that I'm happy to get him off my work and paint tables and into the Gallery. Just in time for the Kansas City Show. And, if I don't sell him there, I'm thinking of putting him up for auction.

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I've covered painting before so let me explain how I did the rope. I went to Lowes and bought a coil of pre-twisted galvanized wire which uses 4 strands of, I think, 20 gauge wire. I cut a length of it to match about 30 feet in scale with the figure as that's how long a lasso would be...about 36 inches. I removed two of the wires and chucked one end into my drill and the other clamped in a vise. Running the drill in reverse as forward would untwist it, I ran the drill until it looked like rope. Next I coiled it around a 2 inch cylinder and then dropped it into a plastic cup filled with enough gun bluing to cover. Once it darked up I removed it and set it aside to dry completely. Once dry a lot of the oxidation comes off on your fingers so to stop this from happening I give it a spray with Deft to anchor it down cause I don't want it to dirty up my carving while I'm threading it through the hands. To complete this step I bend and tie a honda on one end using some thread and a drop of superglue.

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Now comes the fun part.....Before proceeding stop and figure out just how that rope would go through his hands. The best way to do this is to get a length of rope, make a loop and assume the pose you want. Ask for help from the wife or someone for this step cause the last thing you want to do is to thread that rope only to find that you did it wrong. Those hands are fragile!!

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Now, assuming your Cowboy is right-handed insert the rope into the hand so the honda hangs out the front. Loop the rope around, up through the honda and back into and through the hand. Then its over his leg and into the hand from the front continuing to make the loops until all your rope is used. You can click on the photo above to get a real closeup of how I coiled his rope. Now that rope is going to be pretty springy so you're going to have to be very careful bending it as you go. Once you get it just like you want it use a few clothes pins to hold it all together while you mix up a little epoxy to hold all those loops together and in position. Don't worry about the right hand, that loop will hold without any glue.

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Now it's time for some paint. Using a color called Mudstone lightly dry-brush the rope until you get the color coverage you want. Ideally you want the dark crevices to remain dark with just the top of the rope colored. I get some paint on my brush then brush most of it off on a piece of paper before applying it to the rope. Takes a few times to get everything covered but it's not that hard to do if you take your time.

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Now you can anchor him in place on his base and check for final touch-ups and your through. I'll bet you will fill just like I did....Thank God that's over!!!

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More photos in the Gallery and comments welcome as usual.