Huge Butterfly and Turtle Recycled Art Sculptures, Mixed Media Collage "Junk" Art

I have lots of pieces in the queue to blog about but today 

I'm sharing my latest giant, recycled art sculptures.

Giant Sea Turtle Art

A customer saw one of my giant butterfly sculptures created in

this same style but wanted a turtle shape and she wanted it big...

which happens to be right up my alley. He's right at 4 ft.

Filled with goodness from top to bottom, this turtle starts with 

beautiful molding in the center of his shell. 

If you've visited my blog before, you may know I love use decorative molding, 

and/or old picture frames, in many of my pieces like 

my Christmas Trees, signs, alphabet letters, and also in the first giant butterfly I made.

 I'm crazy about the texture you get when working with molding.

I attached wavy corrugated metal with bottle caps around the edge of the shell.

Bolts, nuts, washers...

Keys, carved wood pieces and other bits and pieces.

For his fins, I applied wood pieces in a herringbone pattern.

This turtle is painted in off white with a distressed finish.

I hung him up briefly to get photos before this turtle left for his new home.

I also had an order for a large butterfly in the brown metallic tones,

similar to the one in photo below...

This is the first recycled butterfly art I made almost 5 years ago.

Of course no two butterflies will ever be the same but they will all be 

wonderful and unique.

 

Hinges, keys and metal pieces...

More metal bobs and wood pieces...

Keys and studs...

And of course beautiful moldings.

They all start out rather innocent looking...

Then it gets a little more chaotic as I try different combinations...

Then it can get downright messy at times.... yikes.

There is a method to my madness.

During the creation process, I often use my phone camera or, if possible, 

I'll hold a piece up in front of a mirror or use the "squint technique"

 when I need an objective view of something.

I can look at a photo I've taken of the piece or the mirror's reflection and can instantly see if something is out of balance and needing more or less of something in a certain area.

I don't know why this works, maybe just giving my brain a different perspective

but it's something I've always done.

The squint technique ( I just made that up) does the same for me.

If I squint, the areas that need more or less become obvious.

Fun fact: The squint technique is amazing to check for even placement

of the lights when decking out your Christmas tree.

So I squint, snap pics and look in mirrors until it all comes together in the end.

Creating order and a cohesive look from all of this "junk" and random elements

to create something beautiful, really is so satisfying to me.

This one is large as well, almost 4 ft wide,

You can read more about it in my Etsy shop.

I also created another giant butterfly in a distressed white finish

This one has curvy wood pieces along with the usual odds and ends.

Copper pipe antenna and aged drawer knob eyes...

Roman numerals cut from an old clock...

Yummy molding and wood pieces...

And vintage door plates, hinges and keys.

Thanks for reading about my latest project.

Visit my new online shop and I still have some items listed 

in my Etsy shop and clearance prices on remaining paintings.

I'm so excited that I've recently joined Houzz and Instagram

and I would love for you to follow along with me.

As always, you can also find me on Facebook and Pinterest too.