I finally finished this one this morning and it’s been a struggle. Old age has given me a cataract in my right eye which is the one my vision is centered on. Doesn’t bother me that much for distance viewing but up close it’s a real bummer. Trying to do fine detail, especially painting is extremely hard to get a good focus on the brush and the surface that I’m working on. Judy and I will be getting our eyes tested shortly so maybe I can find out if it’s time to get it taken care of. Sorry to bore you with my medical problems, something I really hate to do as I’ve told almost everyone I know that if I ever start beginning my conversations with my health status to just take me out back and shoot me.
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Anyway, I really like this piece, especially the face. Every once once in a while I’ll do a piece, as I’ve mentioned many times before, that really ends up being an example of my best work. This is one of those. I’m sure you all experience the same thing the more you carve. The cup of Joe is made from copper with a soldered wire rim. I put a wooden plug inside and then topped that off with clear epoxy painted Dark Burnt Umber and then topped that off with another thin application of epoxy which I left clear. As you can see in the closeup photo in the Gallery it creates a nice effect. The cup is quite large compared to the coffee pot but as that cuppa mud is the theme of the piece that’s okay. I spent a little extra time on my watch chain by adding a fob on the end going into the vest buttonhole. I put a drop of solder on it to give it a domed look and make it sparkle a bit more. I think it looks neat. The more I look at it though the more I think it needs to be painted gold as it doesn’t quite match the chain. Why didn’t I do a full body? Because I think the figure would have been just too big to be displayed in most homes. I think this bust format displays all the necessary details in an interesting manner. I will confess that I had hoped to do a much more involved design on the apron but after several attempts it just wouldn’t happen. That vision thing again.
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So, I hope you like him as much as I do even if he didn’t get that fancy apron. Comments welcome.
