What's That? Polymer Clay Skull (Commissioned)

The path to this one was a bit incredible. 2013 took be down some crazy roads. I became sick, needed surgery and was fired during my recovery.  I found myself working for Greg, a guy that had worked for me years ago. It was old hat for me and I quickly fell back into place and really enjoying it. I was back in the body shop. It's a job that I trained my butt off for 20 years ago and then walked away from it to be a bigger part of my family. God works in mysterious ways and Greg's mind is one of them. He owns a couple of my really early pieces and had in mind that he wanted another. He came to me one day and asked if I could make him a skull that no one had seen before. He mentioned several different aspects and somehow the pterodactyl idea became what we settled on. He said that he wanted it to look so real that he could tell people he found it in the woods and they would believe it. If any of you know Greg, that's right up his alley. He is way too smart but definitely a bit off his rocker. I guess that's why I have always liked him. He had a few requests. He wanted the jaw to hinge and come apart. He wanted the teeth to mesh and he wanted the side to have damage as if it was attacked and the attack caused it's death or the skull was stepped on and crushed into the soil and that was how it was preserved. This was the most challenging sculpture I have done. I purchased coyote skulls to get the teeth. I had to research how to get the teeth out and how to quiet my germ-a-phobe tendencies to handle them. Heck, little Kerrigan helped me pull the teeth out. Next I had to figure out how to make a brain cavity to work around and then a stand that would support the piece, allow me to work the jaw but would not sacrifice the look from where it was sitting. The end result appears to be a hit. Greg told me that he loves it and that he's fooled a couple people already. I have had compliments from people that I would have never expected. One guy took numerous pictures and another actually came up to me the next day and said that he thought about it all night and just could't understand how I could do something like that. This was a very proud achievement for me.