Storm Finch - Original Resin Sculpture
" The Storm Finch - Birthed from a lightning bolt he rules the skies above Tomodachi Island. He does not leave the sky as this is all he knows. Up here he is safe, and he rests in the dark clouds of thunder. His flight brings the rumble of thunder to the Island and his speed pierces the rainclouds and makes them burst. He is a bringer of life of sorts, although he does not know it, as the Island depends on him for its crops and vegetation to grow."
I can not believe that I actually managed to pull this off in the end. Long has it been since I struggled so much with something. The learning curve for this seemingly minimalistic bird has been like climbing a summit. But you know what, even though I was on the verge of giving up so many times, I just didn’t. I came back and I tried something new, again and again, until today when all the puzzle pieces finally came together.
I felt something for this sculpt months ago when I first finished the sculpt. He followed me around the house, I couldn’t let go of him. He gave me comfort sitting in my hand. It was such a lovely shape to hold and stroke. Nuts right?! HAH! Well, he really is special, and I don’t know why. I rarely feel much for my own art, but this one has a special place in my heart and I hope I can develop him more as I go along and become more comfortable with resin casting.
There was literally NOTHING that wasn’t tricky about this cast. I had bubbles appearing in the weirdest of places in the wing and on his body even though I use both vacuum chambers and pressure pots. And once I managed to add enough vents to the mould I found that his legs would not carry his weight and he ended up sinking till he finally hit the floor with his beak and the legs were folded in half.
But after many different tries with adding metal rods to his legs and so on and so forth, I realized that white resin is much harder and stronger than clear resin. So even though I would have liked a clear resin I just had to abandon the idea and cast his legs in solid white resin and paint them after. So that is what I did. I think the most important lesson I have learned on this journey is that sometimes you just have to let go and follow the wind. And when I did just that, everything just worked.
I had a lot of help from Malte, who you might know as MuffinMan, Alessandro (Codec Zombie), and Carl (KoncreteHaze) when I struggled with the legs. And Malte has given me the lowdown on the resin in general and is such a fantastic teacher. So I want to thank when all especially for helping me out.
Anyway, enough jibber-jabber! Good old Storm Finch will be available for Pre-Orders from the 20th of May, 2021 @ 6.00 PM London Time! There will be a limited number of 15 Finches, all signed and numbered by yours truly. I will need a little longer than normal to complete these so there will be roughly two to three months before they will be sent out. I promise you it will be worth the wait though because they are truly amazing!
And as always they will be available from my BigCartel Store right HERE!
Preview is available now!