Creating a Coleus Mama for Alice in Sweden ~ DAY 1
By Janet Colvin (UniQueTreasures) on March 19, 2010
Alice's husband contacted me about creating a very special Coleus sculpture for her with the only stipulation being that she could watch as we created it. I am going to post the creation of this sculpture in stages. Each day as we work on it, we'll take plenty of photos and some videos. I will compile the photos and put this all into a slide show presentation, adding to it as we go along. But the articles will be only that day's work, with links to the other articles AND to the slide show. |
Click on the play button to hear music as you read this article. Alice in Sweden has a birthday coming up in June. I "met" Alice several years ago in the Coleus forum on Dave's Garden. Since then we've become friends and communicate through various programs. Alice is a real sweetheart and when her husband asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she told him she wanted one of our sculptures. Her husband contacted me about creating a very special Coleus sculpture for her with the only stipulation being that she could watch as we created it. I am going to post the creation of this sculpture in stages. Each day as we work on it, we'll take plenty of photos. I will compile the photos and put this all into a slide show presentation, adding to it as we go along. But the articles will be only that day's work, with links to the other articles AND to the slide show. Now the thing about coleus is..... there are soooooooo many colors and combinations of colors in this plant. But there are NO BLUE COLEUS! Alice's favorite color is BLUE, so she asked me to incorporate some blue into the lady. (All Images will enlarge when clicked to open)
Immediately we both decide this would be a better head than the rose. This isn't unusual for us to change gears at the beginning.
OK now what? We need something substantial for a neck to hold her head up.The copper tubing we use comes in several thicknesses. One in particular we call RIGID is used more for in the wall plumbing. The bad thing about the rigid copper is that while it's really sturdy, it's not "sculpture friendly" for bending. A friend of Connie's brought her a whole bunch of copper tubing and wiring from a beach cabin that was demolished
Connie begins to cut out pieces of copper. She heats them up to manipulate them around the head. She then cuts a circle that will go behind the flattened copper pipe for the leaves to be welded to. We have to make sure that whatever we do will support the weight of that big paperweight without letting it fall out. We have to leave a place to insert the head so add some wires, which will be "pin curls" to the brim of the hat.
The neck is securely welded to the back plate. We get the pieces welded to the back of the skull cap. We add some wires for her hair. Too many hands were needed to get videos of everything, but you can see some of the action here in the video.
Connie put a perm in her hair so she will have a full head of curls. Time to try it on for size.
We add a few wires that will be loops. These loops will hold some beaded chains I'll make to secure the hat onto her head. They will be "tied" under her chin to prevent the head from coming out of the skull cap.
This is the end result of Day 1. We are really pleased with the results so far. We've got plenty of time to get this one finished. As we complete each phase, I'll add it to the overall slide show, which you can watch at the link. The slide show will have full size photos and videos that we make as we go along. (Slide show can be seen here at Coleus Mama for Alice)
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beads and the sculpture, Coleus Mama, copper sculpture, curling copper wires for curly hair, custom creation, garden art, how to videos, one of a kind, ooak, welding copper |
![]() I'm married to a great guy, with 2 beautiful daughters and 4 incredible grandchildren and we live in Southeast Texas. |
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Comments and discussion:
Subject | Thread Starter | Last Reply | Replies |
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Coleus mama | Alicesunne | Apr 7, 2010 9:38 AM | 5 |
Love the process! | Boopaints | Mar 29, 2010 1:28 AM | 13 |
Coleus mama for Alice | Alicesunne | Mar 28, 2010 4:26 PM | 24 |