Pretty as a Peacock

So it has taken me a little while to recover after the hectic craziness that is Dragon Con, but I have finally got back to sculpting. I had a few requests for commission pieces at the beginning of October that I had to work on but with those done one of the first new pieces on my list was a Steampunk Peacock. Oooooooo :)
As always I start with the general shape of the bird, hand sculpting it out of polymer clay. Then I made some polymer clay canes for the feathers. A cane is comprised of two or more colors that you stretch and press together to make a rod that can then be cut to make several polymer clay "stickers" if you will, to be added to your sculpture.

The large tail feathers were canes that I press together and then stretched out to make a teardrop shape. 

After my canes were finished I flushed out more details on the face and body of my peacock.

I made some legs and feet for my sculpture and then started to add the small cane feathers. I placed each of them one at a time, smoothing the tip after it was placed. The end result was a fun array of black/white and green/yellow feathers covering my peacocks back.

Metal jewelry pieces were then carefully cut to the desired shape and added to the piece. Thus the Steampunk Peacock was finished and ready to brighten up anyone's home. :)

I hope you enjoyed and learned alot from my blog. This beautiful piece is available on my Etsy store, but there is only one so make sure to check it out. :)

Thanks for reading!

~Caralyn