Glitter Queen – a behind the scenes view with Ralphie

Ralphie the Bunny with the work-in-progress Glitter Queen sculpture

Creating the Glitter Queen “Caroline”

Hello, it’s me, Ralphie the Bunny, here to give you another peek at one of Christine’s creations. Today I will give you a glimpse into Christine’s studio showing how she created her “Caroline the Glitter Queen” sculpture. For the glitter queen she used a burned out flood light bulb and hand-sculpted over it with Apoxie Sculpt. The beginning of our tour starts when Christine was almost done sculpting the piece. She made a flower bouquet for the queen to hold, so we will begin at the stage where she is going to permanently attach the flowers to the queen’s hands.

Attaching the flower bouquet to the glitter queen

Attaching the bouquet to the glitter queen sculpture

In the photo above you can see how Christine secured the flower bouquet to the queen’s hands. She filled in the area between the flower stems and the hands with Apoxie Sculpt, so the flowers would stay securely in place on the sculpture. Since it takes a few hours for the Apoxie Sculpt to harden, Christine propped up the flower bouquet with a small piece of Styrofoam and polymer clay. This allowed Christine to work on other projects while the flower bouquet was being permanently cured to the glitter queen sculpture. Can you imagine standing there holding the flowers in place for eight hours?

Glitter queen work-in-progress

The glitter queen in the studio

This photo shows the queen in the studio as she is getting painted and closer to completion. As you can see, the majority of the queen is painted and her crown is attached. However, there are more details yet to be added as you will soon find out.

Glitter queen sculpture with tulle wrap

Silver trim or sans silver trim?

Now the queen’s face is painted on and she is wearing a tulle wrap. Also, a heart with the initial “C” has been added to the queen’s glittery crown and she is now wearing a pair of delicate pearl earrings. Another finishing detail that was contemplated was a piece of silvery trim to encircle the base of the crown? Hmmmmmm…….silver trim or no trim?

Glitter Queen shown in progression from beginning to end

The glitter queen in three stages

Wow…..here is “Caroline the Glitter Queen” shown in three stages of the process to complete her; the gesso stage, the hand-painted stage, and the finished stage. In the last photo you can see that she is now completed with all of the finishing details that a queen needs, such as a jewel necklace and a crown adorned with pearls. Did you notice the surface treatments done on the queen?

Glitter queen before and after antiquing gel

Before and after the antiquing gel

Christine wanted to give “Caroline the Glitter Queen” an aged look, so she used some gel stain to transform her sculpture. She used the gel stain color, maple, by DecoArt to antique the surface of the glitter queen. Using the gel stain certainly makes a difference. One other surface detail given to the queen is the glittery shimmer of the queen’s dress. A “Glitter Queen” without a glitter dress would be such a disgrace, wouldn’t it?

I hope that you enjoyed seeing how “Caroline the Glitter Queen” was created. She now lives in Utah in the home of the real-life “Glitter Queen” named Caroline.

About christine

A watercolor and sculpture artist and avid crafter/designer. Working creatively with my hands is what gives me joy and contentment and makes me want to get up in the morning.
This entry was posted in Handmade items, Lilly Bug Studio, Sculptures, Work in progress and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Glitter Queen – a behind the scenes view with Ralphie

  1. Patty says:

    WOW!!! What a project. You’ve Got It. How do you come up with all your ideas? I think it is amazing how you can come up with all the different things you can create. Lots of talent. She looks like a Glitter Queen. What did you mean she lives in Utah? When did she move?

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