A collar with a head-surrounding birdcage helmet prop for an upcoming tintype. Resin, epoxy, clay, brass, acrylic, silver leaf. 2024.
The collar began as a section of plumbing pipe, turned on my metal lathe.
After shaping and heat flaring the collar, added resin-casted finger bones and began sculpting in details with epoxy clay. You may note the finger bones have two tiny pins helping hold each piece to the collar.
The birds and all the collar ornament were sculpted by hand with epoxy clay.
The top portion of the birdcage helmet was made from resin copies of a bird’s skull I found and made a mold of. After molding the thin bones, wires were added into the following castings for strength. Further sculpting was done with epoxy clay.
For the bending of the brass upright bars of the cage, a jig was made to ensure the uniformity of the bars.
A second jig was made to align the top portion of the helmet with the lower collar.
The rough fit of the birdcage bars.
The assembled birdcage helmet was primed black using an airbrush before guilding.
The slow work of silver leaf guilding.
The finished birdcage helmet prop for an upcoming tintype. Resin, epoxy, clay, brass, acrylic, silver leaf. 2024.
