I'm a finalist, a vet sculpture maquette finished, paper sculpture work

I just found out I am a finalist for a commission in Anchorage Alaska. It will be for the University of Alaska Anchorage Natural Science building.  I am excited about the opportunity to have work in Alaska, I've always wanted to go there.

I have finished the maquette of the vet with puppy and mother dog.  I plan to do a larger water clay version of this which I will then fire in my kiln.  I spent more time than usual on the maquette as I really like the feel of the piece and may cast it in bronze.

 A detail of the maquette.  It was tough getting the hands right around the puppies body.

 These are paper hairs I have made for one of my paper sculpture cats.  Recently I decided to spruce them up.  The black and white cat needed more sprucing, I removed some of the hairs and replaced them with new.  The larger hairs are for the body, the smaller are for around the face and toes of the cat.

 Attaching a hair with Elmer's glue. I have removed a lot of hairs around the back of his head and am filling back in with fresh.  The paper I am using is Canson Mi-tientes (an art paper that comes in a variety of colors).  I am replacing the hairs on this cat as the black paper used to be somewhat "soft" in comparison to the other colors and didn't want to hold a sharp edge (this sculpture was made over 20 years ago). I just didn't care for the way it looked and decided to remove the offending hairs. The black paper is greatly improved now and is much crisper - the new hairs look much better.

 I replaced some of the whiskers on the Grey Cat, again this is Canson Mi-tientes paper and Elmer's Glue.  Both these cats are over 20 years old and have held up quite well over the years.

 bubbles in a frozen birdbath...

My new holiday card.