Gimme the Peacock

Gimme the Peacock Alex! But I like him Mom. Alex. But I want him Mom he can live in my El Camino. But Alex he's for sale. Noooo My Pretty Pretty said in the same fashion as Gollum's My Precious......... and this is how Gimme's name came to be :)

If you've been reading the blog for any amount of time you know Gimme has been on the update list for several months now. I'm proud to say he is finally Finished!
A little background for those of you that haven't been keeping up or I maybe forgot to mention. I had the honor to have been included in a treasury with this beautifult print by BestArtStudios2 on Etsy some months back http://www.etsy.com/listing/59594197/huge-3-day-sale-heartache-and-poetry-xiv
In thumbnail size it reminded me of a Peacock sitting in a tree, I knew I wanted to make one based on that print and so I waited for my Muse. She had been awol at that time. A few weeks later I joined a color challenge group on Face Book (I believe I mentioned that here a time or two). The challenge to make a new piece in the chosen colors of the week. Joining was a blessing to me, my Muse came home and has really enjoyed the creativity of the group, even during the weeks where I don't participate. When the blue and green combo came up I knew it had to be the Peacock.

As you all know I didn’t make the deadline for that week in fact it took many weeks before I was finished. Gimme turned out to be a little labor intensive, but then most works of the heart are, I think. It took two days alone just to design and graph his tail out. You can see the gradation of color from the pics but what you don't see are all the eyes woven into the color panel as well. I sat with several pics pulled up on the computer screen of Peacock tails for inspiration and they stayed on the screen until I had completely finished his tail, wire work and all.

Gimme sits on many vines of wire that I wove and twisted together forming his perch, the ends have been kissed with the torch so as not to scratch when being worn, plus it really adds to the gnarled and forlorn look of the branches. Those took some time too, I really didn't like the way it looked with the arch as intended - it just seemed out of balance to me so I reworked and reformed and reformed again until I was happy with the arch, adding wisps of copper to balance the ends of those branches that no longer ended in their original positions.

Then the final assembly of the pieces. Does he look right there? Does he need to scoot over? Is the weight balanced properly there? Does he have a good solid connection point there? Should he lean more? Hold him up is he still balanced. His tail looks crooked, scoot him over, scoot him back, lean more, less! Balanced? Wrap that into place quick before it gets moved again!

Aaaaand the chain! I worked for what seemed forever to get that chain to the length I wanted, only to realize I made it too long! In order for him to sit at that 20 inch length he needed only 18 inches of chain. Soooo off came two inches of chain!

All in all over 70 feet of wire - more than 60 in the Peacock and perch and worth every inch. When I was finished I held him up. I'm left handed and the windows in my office are to my left - he just glows when backlit so whether you choose to wear him or display him in a window he is one gorgeous Peacock :) As I'm admiring him I hear oooh Pretty! coming from the right and the doorway to my office. Can I see? Hand him to my Son. Mine! Nooooo Alex. Yes I want! He's pretty.............

Gimme can be found in my shop here
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67589619/gimme-the-peacock

Update!

everything is done - really!! I'm pretty amazed you can actually see my desk! Just waiting on descriptions lol I'm pretty proud of myself been writing, pricing and listing and it's getting there! I actually have one FULL page of listings in my Etsy shop yay!

Sooo time to sketch and plan and get going again! I have lots of great beads I've won this last year that need some love and this weeks colors are peachy coral and minty green. Doesn't that sound really springy to you? I've pulled out some shell and lucite flowers to add to that combo - we have a foot of snow coming or so they say I NEED some spring, I live in the SOUTH my daffies are poking their heads out!! A FOOT of snow?? We've already had close to a foot of snow. We just had 6 inches the other day, that's supposed to be our snow for the year! We don't get FEET of snow! I guess I'll just sketch and bead away and hope the hubs can get back to work soon - we have bills to pay. snow.......

Til next time!