The Gecko has landed.......

8/29/2020

Well, as promised, the next 10 canes/veneers, and....................I've finished the gecko!

I decided that if I was going to wait until I'd done all 100 canes and vaneers, the gecko would be finished in 2021, and with 20 done, I had more than enough to complete her. I'll go through the next 10 canes/vaneers first, then explain the steps to finishing the gecko. I can't keep calling her 'the gecko'. I love my gecko, I've sweated and sworn over her, so she needs a name...........
Quick aside, I've just looked on google for some ideas, and up pops 'adorable girl names ending with o'.......does that mean that there's a site for 'non-adorable, awful, or dated' girls names! Just saying.
Anyway, I liked Bobetto. So, Bobetto the gecko it is.

These are the next ten, the first four being vaneers and the rest, canes. I won't go through every one, but will just say that number 16 was inspired from the amazing building Jon Stuart Anderson recommended I look at (Carson Pirie Scott building in Chigago), and number 17 was inspired by the horsebox photo I took at the carriage driving event, shown in the last blog post. Talking about carriage driving (as I do a lot), I don't know if many people know that this has been my hobby/passion for the past 40 years. My father and I have driven a team of four ponies every Summer since about 1980. We used to share the driving, he'd drive one event and I'd be navigator, and we'd switch at the next one, but at the age of 75 he gave up and I've done the driving ever since, with dad on the back of the carriage as navigator. Anyway, this year I had the back operation, so couldn't drive. Dad, being dad, decided that he would drive, just a pair (2 ponies), but still, at the age of 85 this is quite an undertaking. The event lasts three days, with dressage on one day, a long marathon on the second, and an obstacle/cones course on the third. To say I'm impressed with him is an understatement, he drove brilliantly, and my sister, nephew and friend did all the hard work while I swanned around giving orders. Here are s few photos, then I'll get back to clay, honest!

I love the photo of Zebedee, being attended to by three humans after he'd finished the marathon....... our ponies are well looked after!

This is the vaneer I'm most pleased with. I started with four colours, made into Skinner blends, with the light in the middle, and very narrow. i then cut pieces off each of the blends and assembled them as shown, making sure the light part of each piece matched up with the next piece.

I then cut the sides into a wavy pattern with varying widths, and finally edged it with a very thin strip of white then black. Here is it on Bobetto. You can't see much of it, it's at the front under the black and white spots, but when I make something else, I think I'll make it the centre part as I wish I'd used it in a more prominent place - but I'd covered it in foil and forgotten about it - oops.

Number 12 was a bit of an experiment, and could be improved upon I feel. I basically cut circles of two different colours, cut them into quarters, and assembled as shown in the photo on the left below.

The photo above shows a triangle cane I made for fun with some of the remaining canes I had on my work table. I love doing this, sometimes I end up with rubbish, but other times I get a lovely cane that, as in this case, I can use.

Finally I'm going to show you a few photos of the sun and moon circle I made. I've seen other people make incredible canes of these, but I only wanted one slice, so thought I could do a better job making just the one vaneer rather than a cane. I started by making the design, and not worrying too much about the detail, which I was going to add in later. At first it didn't look much.

As you can see, I have the basic design, the shape of the moon, but there's no definition. I outlined the moon, and then outside, with black and white clay, which in hindsight was not a good idea as it broke, become messy, and I'd have been better back filling later.
Backfilling means making lines and indentations in the clay when it's raw, curing it (cooking it) and then filling the lines in with clay and curing again. So, we have a sun and moon design which I'm fairly pleased with, but can see a lot of room for improvement.

So, I put it on the gecko, then made the marks round the moon, a few dots, and also put in the moon's face. Once cured I backfilled with black and the whole thing became alive. However, I really didn't like the outside edge, so made a blend of yellow, orange and red, rolled it very thin and cut out circles of clay which I put round the edge - hiding the horrible bits! I'm actually very happy with it, and as all things, it's a learning curve, I'll know how to improve it next time.

I'm going to end with a few photos of Bobetta in progress, and some final photos of her finished. I've already started another project, which I'm thoroughly enjoying, and will share with you in the next blog. I'll also do the next 10 canes/vaneers for that, so, hope you enjoy looking at the birth of Bobetta.