Scrap Metal Medusa Sculpture

Everyone knows the story of Medusa, at least they think they do.
Everyone sees the snakes,
Noone sees the reason why,
She was wronged,
She was punished, the man was not,
Patriarchy wasn't restricted to the earth alone, This curse is her blessing in disguise, Her protection.

What it feels like to be written down in history by those who've never known you,
To be rendered wrong,
It's the same fire that gave you life and All you remember is that fire burns.

My Utopia is where all are held responsible for their sins.
Hopefully one where Medusa's
Garden isn't full of statues in light of their wicked. This ancient statue in honour of Priestess Medusa who symbolises Equality and Justice in this Utopia.

Lots of air-drying clay and thai clay
Wire mesh
Wires
Collection of Scrap metal:- chains, bulbs, belts, cogs and wheels
Spray paint
Newspapers
Paper tape
Acrylic paint

One man’s trash is another’s treasure
I Travelled to every garage and a few watch repair shops in my city to collect scrap metal. When it comes to making a scrap metal sculpture, Anything and everything has the potential but I did look for specific items like chains, belts, pipes, nails, wires, screws, glass bulbs, cogs and gears, that could help me achieve the snakes, scales and thorns effect I'm going for.

I had a dream of me making a medusa sculpture from scrap metal, although initially I planned to make the whole sculpture from scrap metal it would've been too heavy since I could not have welded the pieces together. I planned to use one of my earlier projects which had required me to make a women's sculpture in air drying clay. This is what I used as the base for this creation. As Beautiful as she is, there is some sadness in the expression.

Previous project:-
Using Aluminium armature wire make a basic structure of the sculpture you are going for. I started to laden it with balls of clay and press them into each other to start the sculpting. My sculpting technique is to add extra then press them into the shape we want.I call it the positive negative sculpting technique.
I use pottery tools to sculpt by removing the excess clay. It's just a matter of trying to get as close to the reference pictures as possible.

I used a plastic mesh that comes with apples or pears when you buy fruits from the market. Pressing it into the clay portion that makes up the cheeks to give a scaly effect.
I used air drying clay for the bust and basic head structure but for the more detailed portions like the face and hair I used thai clay since it retains more detailing. I started to remake the face to my new idea as well as incorporating the scrap metal parts to be one with the face.

Cut three wires double the length of your neck’s circumference. This will be braided to form the base of the rose and thorn necklace that adorns her. Cut extra wire pieces and add them in between the loops of the braid. Coil, twist and bend them to be like twigs and cut the ends to a sharp point to express a thorny look.
I also made Thai clay roses.

I positioned the wires and scrap metal chains I collected to create the crown of serpents on her head. To add more detailing making the snake heads from Thai clay and sculpting tiny snakes to cover the rest of the hair. I tried to use as much of the scrap metal as possible as it was all about that mechanical look for me with this idea. Inserting metal portions to form the snakes teeth, scales and bodies wherever suited the best. I even used a broken bulb and rubber pipe to make one of the cutest snakes.

I saw this sculpture in a dream and she has red Ruby eyes, I would someday Love to use real crystals or Ruby as the eyes of Medusa but for now I used plastic white crystal and painted their bottom with red nail paint. Let them dry before sculpting them into the eyes portion.

Spray painting the complete creation with one solid color; I went with maroon colour(use newspaper and paper tape to protect details and portions you don't want to have paint). Next With shiny golden paint I highlighted the scaly texture on the snakes and cheeks of Medusa with sponge on top of the copper red spray paint. It looked extremely beautiful. Also added some dark maroon shadows to create the depth and richness of having an ancient look.

όμορφη θεά; Beautiful Goddess