I had fun creating this piece of dark artwork. It was a departure from the more complicated sculptures I usually work on.
Run afoul of this bad egg and your head could be decorating his Easter basket!Here are a couple different views of this rotten character.
I got some more work done on my bad egg character this weekend. After drawing a machete on thin basswood I cut it out and covered it with Apoxie clay. When it cured I sanded it smooth with wet/dry sandpaper. 
Next I painted it with acrylic paint and set it aside to dry.
Here a piece of Apoxie clay to form a hand has been added to one of the characters aluminum wire arms. Gently pressing the soft clay against the handle of the machete will create a hand that perfectly fits.
When the clay hand had cured I glued the machete in place with Zap a Gap.
After adding fresh Apoxie clay to the hand I sculpted fingers gripping the machete.
After setting the hand aside to cure I textured the base of the sculpture and worked on the characters shoes.
After the arms are attached I can begin painting!
I began by making a cardboard template of the shape I wanted for the sculptures base. After tracing it on to a piece of plywood I cut the base out and drilled holes for my characters legs.
Next I cut 4 steel rods for the arms and legs. After embedding the legs in my egg character I bent the arm rods and ground one side of the rod flat.
Then I inserted the arm rods in brass square tubing which I had filled with Apoxie clay. Flattening one side helps prevent the rod from coming loose and turning once the clay cures.
The photo shows the styrofoam egg covered in mache with the steel leg rods mounted in place. It is temporarily mounted on the wood base as it dries.
After the egg dried I marked the location for the arms.
I cut an opening for the arms, packed the hole with Apoxie clay and pressed the square brass tubing into place.
Now it was time to cover the mache with Apoxie sculpt clay. This provides a much more durable finish than mache alone.
I have more sculpting to complete on this after it cures later this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll have some new work in progress photos of the bad egg.
I decided on making crab cakes for dinner. Generally I use backfin or lump crab but since claw meat was on sale that was what I went with. I keep my recipe fairly simple because I don't want to over power the flavor of the crab.
Ingredients 1 pound Blue crab meat
4 unsalted Saltine crackers crushed
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise
2 small scallions chopped
1 Tbsp red pepper chopped
1 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 Tsp Hot sauce
1 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning Extra virgin olive oil (for frying)
flavored bread crumbs (for coating the crab cakes) Preparation
After checking over the crab for cartilage or bits of shell I add the meat to a large mixing bowl. I sprinkle the Old Bay seasoning, scallion, red pepper and crushed cracker crumb over the crab. In a separate bowl I mix together the rest of the ingredients which I then spoon over the crab. Using a spatula I gently turn the crab to mix it trying not to break up the chunks of meat.
After letting it sit in the fridge for an hour or so I form the cakes. I usually end up with about 7 cakes. The cakes are then pressed into flavored breadcrumbs and fried in extra virgin olive oil 4 or 5 minutes per side till they are nicely browned.
With the crab cakes we are having scallops and shrimp which were marinated a few hours in garlic and oil with a few dashes of habanero pepper sauce.
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