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More Info - Swallow Gryphon

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Description

The swallow gryphon is a handmade, unique, posable artist doll made by me, Magweno, *Carn-Dearg. :D

He has a wire armature and a fabric body which means you can bend his legs, back, tail, neck AND wings any way you like. The hard parts are sculpted in fimo, a polymer clay you can bake in a conventional oven.

Some interesting aspects... He has posable ears, which is new! Also iridescent paint on his fur, to stay true to a real swallows blue hue.

His wings are posable and fold like real bird wings! This is a technique I've spent years developing and it's still a work in progress really. I found it hard to get it working perfectly with such small feathers but it's still better than the wings I used to make. All my future winged dolls will have these wings.

The feathers have a sad story behind them. My Dad lives on a private shooting estate and one of the farms has a huge old clock tower. We used to go walking there when I was little, right to the top of the bell tower to peer through the keyhole at the room where the "giant" lived and rang the bell. I went back there last year for a visit and was sad to see the estate had blocked up one of the broken windows, which meant that all the families of swallows that were being raised in it hadn't been able to get out. They were all fledglings with little yellow beaks, the parents had obviously been able to maneuver out, but the young ones had died of starvation and become mummified. There were about ten or twenty little bodies piled up on the windowsills, strewn on the floor and up the stairs. It was so sad. I took a few of the nicer looking ones to put in my display cabinet because they are such beautiful birds, and the ones with decayed (but completely dry) bodies I took the wings and tails to use.

It has taken me a year to pluck up the courage to finally use these little bits in my work, but I'm really proud with how this guy turned out and while he might look a bit moth-eaten and sad it just reminds me of those poor tiny birds trapped in the bell tower and because of that memory and how much I cherish those little bodies in my display cabinet, I love him.

So I don't think he will be for sale or trade, but that's just my opinion right now. I only made him yesterday so he's very fresh, but in future I might, maybe, put him on Etsy.

Hey that sounds pretty gruesome but either I could collect them up and appreciate them and their sad story every day or just leave them there! And I'm a pretty thrifty person, don't want to leave perfectly usable feathers out to turn to dust...

Anyway I hope you like him, thanks for looking :)

Website: [link]
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FAQs
I do not answer questions about how I make my dolls, I consider these trade secrets and don't want to tell everyone how to do what I do. I consider it really rude to ask.

Image size
1095x2618px 1.39 MB
© 2012 - 2024 Magweno
Comments106
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tuatara-time's avatar
Ohmygod he's BEAUTIFUL!!!