| MONKEY AND BUTTERFLY
(WEDDING CAKE TOPPER)
PROJECT #289
CLASSIFICATION: SCULPTURE
MATERIALS USED: PAPER CLIPS, SCULPEY MODELING COMPOUND, ACRYLIC
PAINTS
"Would it be inappropriate if I told you that
you give me butterflies?"
Preamble: I think most every couple has
specific colors or songs or numbers that hold a particularly
special meaning for them, and whose significance might not be immediately
obvious to other people upon first glance. In my case, the significance
of monkeys relates to a running gag between my then-wife-to-be and myself
involving climbing the layaway storage bins at work in a manner that OSHA
would probably frown upon. We also gave each other the proverbial
butterflies in the stomach, which I'm sure at least some of you can relate
to. These two creatures became our mascot animals, after a fashion;
in a sense, I was the monkey (clumsy, hairy, and a little obnoxious)
and she was the butterfly (small, frail, and beautiful). When
it came time to get married in February of 2006, it quickly became clear
that no other cake topper would do.
Construction: The cake topper was my wife's
idea, and was actually based on a drawing I'd made her at one point. In
revisiting the idea, I put a bow tie on the monkey to dress him up a little
(I considered a top hat, but I didn't want him to be overdressed). I
knew that the project was going to need some serious structural support,
so I started by constructing a wire skeleton for the monkey, carefully bending
the paper clips into the correct shape, and sculpting the body over top of
it. I've found that it's easiest for me to sculpt my projects in phases,
doing the body first and then baking it so that I don't distort its shape
when I move on to adding the legs and arms. I did the same with the
monkey's head, sculpting the basic head shape first and then baking it before
I went back to add the eyes and ears and such.
I scored grooves into the surface of the modeling
clay to create the illusion of fur on the monkey's body; I also added thicker
strands of clay in key places like his elbows, knees, and the top of his
head to more or less duplicate my drawing style in three dimensions.
The butterfly (whom I deliberately sculpted at a larger scale with
respect to the monkey, just to make her more visible) was sculpted as a separate
piece and then glued in place when she was done. (I though about adding
legs, but they were ungainly and distracting at this scale. Also, I
don't draw butterflies with legs, so I guess there's no reason to sculpt
them with legs.) The antennae are also made of wire, dipped in super
glue to make them a little thicker at the tips. The base for the cake
topper is also Sculpey, into which I carved our wedding date.
Painting the sculpture with acrylic paints was
an absolute must, since Sculpey tends to absorb the solvents in enamel paints,
resulting in a perpetually-sticky project that probably wouldn't be safe
to put on top of food. Purple was our wedding color, reflected in my
choice of colors for the monkey's bow tie and the butterfly's wings and
body.
Comments: A lot of people at our wedding
seemed impressed with the cake topper; my wife was particularly proud of
it and made it a point to let people know that I had sculpted it. Though
the cake is long gone, the topper resides in our bedroom now, forever
commemorating our union together. |
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