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Monday, July 27, 2009

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 2

It's "tea time"! My last blog post featured the beginning stages of my Buster the Bee sculpture. Today, I'm showing how I made Buster's picnic basket and tea set that he's carrying to Toby's shell. Plus, I have a few close-ups of the final wing set for Buster along with a couple of flower shots.

picnic basket & tea set

The photo above shows the beginning stages of the picnic basket and tea set. Can you guess, what's what in the photo? The long strip under the teacup is how I made the teacup. I cut it out like that with wire and masking tape and then formed it into the cup with a wire handle shown above. Those two tab things with a hole in each are for the teapot. This is where the wire for the teapot handle will be inserted.

picnic basket and tea set

And ta-da! Here's the tea set ready to be painted. It took a long time to get from the first photo to the second. My Dremel tool came in very handy to clean up the surfaces of the tea set, especially for the teacups. I wanted to get the teapot and cups as smooth as I could.

picnic basket

And here's the picnic basket all painted and ready for Buster to fill with all the fixin's for tea time.

finished picnic basket and tea set

And here's the completed tea set and basket. I was very happy with how the teapot, teacups and picnic basket turned out. I wanted the tea set to look like a real little set of cups with matching teapot. I was anxiously awaiting for the time when I could attach the handle to the teapot to finish it off. I also waited in anticipation for the glaze to go on to make it look shiny.

Buster's wings

And can you guess what these are? Yes, Buster's wings that took blood, sweat and tears to make. Okay, not quite, but they were one of the most challenging pieces to make.

Buster's wings

I could not wait until I could attach this set of wings to Buster, but I had to wait until Buster was all painted before attaching them. And, yes you will have to wait too...until my next post when I feature the finished Buster piece all painted and put together. I had so much fun making this piece and it was challenging and exciting to wait and see how it all came together. Before I end today's post, I'd like to share with you a couple of close-up shots of a couple of flowers from my Buster sculpture.

ladybug & coneflower

This little ladybug was visiting one of the coneflowers for the Buster sculpture. It was real late at nite and when I walked into my work room to turn off the lamp and check on my work, here was this lil' beetle walking along the petals. Oh my, could that be the real life Lilly the Ladybug visiting one of Buster's flowers? Needless to say I had to capture this Lilly moment on film, um...digital film.

inside of poppy flower

And here's the inside of one of the Poppy flowers for the piece. I am a fan of Poppy flowers so I had to include some of them on this piece. Well, that's all for now. Keep your eyes open for my next post that will be bursting with colorful flowers and Buster toting his teaset and basket to the party.

Visit my website Lilly Bug Studio, to find out more about Lilly the Ladybug and her friends!

6 comments:

James~ClosetCreature said...

YOu do amazing work....Thanks for sharing the story! I can't wait to see the rest of the steps!!!

--James, Birdy's husband

Anonymous said...

Love the little basket. So cute! :)

pants said...

Amazing again. The tea set is gorgeous, and it's cool seeing how the pieces start out in their rough form. I admire your patience and discipline for making these kinds of creations ... I do not have it.

Christine said...

Thank you all for your comments! :-)

Kelley Pounds said...

So cute and fun! Wow--you have wonderful talent. :D

This reminds me of things my dad does. Nothing this small, but it's amazing what he can make out of the oddest collection of items! He was into making models of the full-size antique cars he refurbishes (Model Ts and Model As) for a while. Somehow he made headlamps for one of them out of thumbtacks and some washers painted gold to look like brass.

Christine said...

Thank you, Kelley! Your dad sounds very creative.