My Steampunk Pirate Cat sculpture is complete!

Well, he's finally done and listed.  He took weeks to complete, and I loved every minute of it.  Here's the finished Steampunk Pirate Cat.
 
I added feathers to both sides of the wings and baked them separately.  I sculpted a harness onto the cat and pressed the center of the baked wings into the unbaked clay on the back of the harness so I would have a prefect fit when gluing the pieces together.
 
I gave him a watch that allows him to travel through time, and after everything was baked I decided he needed some kind of stolen treasure.  So I strung together some very pretty crystals and jewelry findings to create the Time Crystal, which will make this pirate more powerful and harder to catch than ever.  I also glued a vintage pirate cap gun into his right paw.
 
I made an eye patch out of clay and fastened a gear to the center of it, then dusted it with silver Pearl Ex powder.  It sort of makes me think of the Borg on Star Trek, and it absolutely makes me think of Calcifer.  That's his blind eye and it sometimes looks silvery like that.
This piece turned out better than I could have hoped, and sharing it's creation with all of you has been a wonderful experience.  Thank you for following his progress and supporting me along the way!
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Creating wings for my Steampunk Pirate Cat sculpture

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to make wings for this piece, or how I would make them, but lately I've been quite inspired by Christi Friesen (who does Steampunk really well), and I had a flash of inspiration.  In my mind's eye I saw wings (sort of like angel wings) with metallic feathers.  My Pirate Cat could strap these wings on and fly not only anywhere, but any TIME.  I'm going to give him a time traveling watch as well.  Of course I had to go all out on these wings and sculpt and texture each feather individually.  This is the start of the wings.
 
I used a wire armature covered in clay and added clay wing shapes over the frame.  This will give me a base to attach the feathers too.  As you can see, I have several different colors of Pearl Ex powders and I used a soft paint brush to dust color onto each textured feather.  Christi Friesen's Gotta Have It tool worked perfectly for adding texture to the feathers, which I cut out with a clay cutter, then shaped by hand.  By the time I was done with one side I had cut and shaped HUNDREDS of feathers!  I think the effort was worth it to achieve this effect.
. 
The picture really doesn't do it justice, but gives you an idea of how shiny and detailed the wings are.  I'm working on the other side now that this side is baked.  I believe I'll sculpt the polymer clay harness onto the cat and bake it, then attach the wings with glue.  I don't think I want to try attaching them and baking the whole thing together- too much risk for breakage.  I'm nearing the finish line an this project, and I'm so glad you've all shared the journey with me!  Stay tuned to see the final results of all this work! ;-)
-Michelle of CreativeCritters