Merlin's Throne..... in progress

I wanted to try and give you all a better view of Merlin's Throne. This picture should pop up bigger if you poke it. If you recall the legends of Camelot, when Merlin was fed up with the world of men, he simply disappeared. Some say he was captured by the Lady of the Lake; in other stories, it is more voluntary. My friend wrote a story in which Merlin is brought back to modern times using his "Three Relics"....his staff, his cloak and his throne. Because Melin and his magic were based in nature, he wanted the throne to reflect that so he envisoned it almost made from a living tree. Since he is a CGI artist as well as a storyteller, he was able to draw that concept. I have been wanting to reproduce this in miniature for a while but wasn't sure how to start. I was also captivated by that tree bed and saw it again recently. So I just decided to do it and see what happened.

Sometimes, the hardest part is getting started. :-)

Here is where a ended up yesterday. After twisting the wire (like forever!) I attached the branches to the sides of the chair with brass spool wire. Then I coated everything with thinned white glue....I used Sobo (made by Delta) because I have a lot of it. It is a PVA type glue like Aleen's Tacky.

When the glue was dry, I applied the polymer clay. It stuck very well to the film of dried glue. I was working with a combination of ethnic brown Proscuplt and some old blue original Fimo, again, because I had it.


In my rush, I stuck it in the oven (which proved a bit of a problem itself since the piece, with branches, is taller than my oven), totally forgetting that it needed tree texture BEFORE baking. Duh!

So when it cooled, I applied yet more clay and textured. Below is a close up of the tree texture after the second round.

I wired in a few more branches and coated those with thick white glue (per the advice of our lovely Nikki) and that is pictured below.


Lastly is a full view of the back....while we're waiting for glue to dry.
Since I am unsure of the final position of the branches, I hesitated to cover them with clay because once baked, they will lose most of their flexibility. Painting over the heavily glued wire armature with a coat of artist acrylics would allow me to fuss a bit.

I think, for this chair, I am going to make the bird's nest on top and use it in the Alice Project as I have yet to decide on a chair for the Hatter. I have some ratty old green velvet and maybe I'll cover the back and seat. We'll see.

I also have another unfinished chair like this and will probably make another before I start on George's piece. I think Merlin's throne will require that I actually make the chair base ... and I need a little more practice making branches.

Later,

Tabitha