MY STORY I live in a country almost surounded by the sea. For a good part of my life, I have been a seaman, but only very few times I have seen a figurehead to ornament a prow.
Nevertheless the boat of my dreams has always had a figurehead under her bowsprit.
It's beyond reason to believe that a piece of curved wood gives life to a hul. But something very deep in our DNA, or in the secret land of fairies, makes most of us believe that a figurehead brings life to a boat.
I don't know how I came to love the art of figureheads!
I guess that somewhere by the sea,(a cave,a rock,or maybe an old shipyard)there is the spirit of this art which like a godfly she mounted on me.
For some time now I have been working on clay sculptures and fusing glass,but, deep in my heart, I have always wanted to make a figurehead.
I believe that a mermaid in the corner of my living room is like a fish out of sea,so I had to wait for the real thing.
By chance or due to the sea fairies,I came across a man that builds a hul in a shipyard nearby. He told me that he is planning to sail on her to the coast of Santorini island in the summer. I could, from the very beginning tell, that above all he loved old ships. Business came second...
For some time now he has had a small place where he builds miniatures of old ships, in full detail,but one day he desided to bring a big one to life,(27m long). He made the drawings and with the help of a shipbuilder he starded to give life to his dreams.
As I told you he likes details, so among other things he desided to equip her wiyh a real cannon and a figurehead.
A friend of a friend......or simbly the sea fairies, told him that somebody -me- could possible make one.
So here I am confronted with my dream!!! And, as you may know, it is one thing to have a dream and another to make it come true.
The first thing I did, was to open a dictionary, where I found that "figurehead" stands for "akroploro"-the greek equivalent... And having found the key word...abracadabra, here I am into the "magic" e-world of the net, where a genie revealed to me the web pages of an artist who masters the art of making figureheads and is kind enough to share the secrets of his craft with us.
Click here to see the same webpages.
Having him as a guide and my godfly as a spur I started to work on my dream.
My plan was to work on her in my spare time, However, I very soon realized that it was imposible to do so. The figurehead was everywhere, in my dreams when I was sleeping, in my thoughts when I was awake, so I desided to work on her full time.
But, alas, even good fairy tales come to an end, and so did my venture. I showed her to the captain and he liked her, but most importantly she made a good impression on his wife. My doupts and stress turned into a gentle breeze that gave life to the sails of my dreams and having now my own webpage I hope that the genie of the internet will cross my road again. I look forward to having the honor and joy to adorn my next prow.
In the beginning I meet the happy owner to discuss about her and his dreams.
Then we take the dimensions and I'm making my first attempt to create a small sculpture of his dream. Usualy I use a piece of clay and it does't take long to see the result.
The next step is to buy the timber, cut and glue it. As soon as the glue has set, I start to work on the outlines, based on the demensions I have taken from the clay sculpture.
There is a poind after which the figure, who is enclosed in the timber, starts to guide my hand helping me to bring her out.
: From now on with a piece of sandpaper in my hand I caress her body like a lover for days. Then I apply three or four coats of epoxy and when it's dry, It is time to paind her according to tradition.
At the end, here comes the grate momend of putting her in the prow where from she wiil be looking for our course, watching out for danger and most importantly bringing our dreams to life.
MY PHOTOS
Clicking on the photos you can see a larger version
Shortly I will display more photos.
MY THANKS
BON VOYAGE
MY ART
The baby in the cradle
The clay model
The wood sculpture
The figurehead.