Celtic fairy sculpture for the Smooshers Celtic Challenge

The theme for the upcoming Polymer Clay Smooshers Challenge is Celtic, and at first I had a hard time figuring out what to make.  When another guild member suggested Googling Celtic Mythology I started finding images of gods, goddesses, and fairies, which is familiar territory for me.  Eventually I decided to sculpt a fairy dressed in green.  This is how she started out.

 

I wasn't just sure how I wanted to pose her, so I sculpted her in pieces and pierced holes in each limb.  After I baked the parts I inserted pipe cleaners secured with super glue.

 

 

Then I sculpted some rocks for her to sit on.  This is one way I use my leftover bits of clay.  I just blended them all together and ended up with a nice mottled gray color.  Now I could pose the fairy and decide how she would look best.  Once I settled on a pose I filled the elbow, knee, and neck joints with clay to create a solid sculpture.  I added a dress made from strips of green clay and I used green acrylic paint to give her  slippers with thin strings of clay for laces..

 

I sculpted her wings and baked them separately.  I created a millifiori  cane using shades of blue and green clay wrapped with glow in the dark clay and shaped slices into ruffled wings.

 

 

At this point I wasn't sure where to go next with the sculpture.  I felt as though it needed something else.  After a bit of  thought I checked to see what animals were native to Ireland- animals are always a good addition to my sculptures ;-) I chose to sculpt a cross fox, which I learned is a color variant of the red fox.  I liked his black mask and cross marking on his back, and I thought he'd make a good friend for my fairy.

 

I added some glow in the dark yellow flowers, gave the fairy black polymer clay hair and attached her wings.

   

And here's what the back of her wings look like in the dark.

 

This one took a while to complete, but I'm very happy with the way she turned out.  And I think the fox was the perfect addition.  I ended up learning quite a bit about Celtic mythology while I researched this project, and I have quite a few ideas for future projects inspired by the figures of Celtic mythology. 

Thanks for sharing another creative journey! =)

~Michelle of CreativeCritters

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