I have started a commission piece, my first in many years, and my first animal out of recycled plastics. It is an enlargement of an endangered tree frog. It is commissioned by another artist, Joyce Dallal. She is working with a group called the Disappearing Frog Project, based in Charlotte North Carolina. My sculpture is to be a gift. I have made an articulated skeleton/armature for it, and am in the process of adding on the form. So. I am going to be posting the process here.

here is the wire model

Here is the articulated skeleton, made with modified PVC fittings and InstaMorph.

Here is what I have so far, not bad for Day 2 on the project. Recycled kitty litter containers. I am growing attached to those eye sockets, even though the whole head is a bit large. I have to stay with 18 x 18 x 18 inches to fit on the pedestal. Given that these tree frogs are about the size of my thumb, I have had to make a proportion scale. My 12 year old daughter showed me how to do it mathematically...5 cm =6.5 in. 5cm/6.5 in x 3cm/x for example. It works out nicely. Measuring off a Turbosquid model of a frog skeleton on the computer screen, and a video on endangered species.