#cybernaut

Jack Kirby — Mutants and Other Weirdos from Thundarr — Mutant-Lion

Mutated Bird

More Mutants at Jungle Bar

Another Circe Knight

Cowled Raiders

Ragged Desert People

Janus

Cybernaut

FIRST SISTER (CYBERNAUT) (five views)

Cassius stoneware, glass, found objects, camera lens, polymer clay, acrylic texture-putty, paint, circuit boards, schlag-metal leaf, verdigris patina, plexi, lacquer, brass, bronze & copper powders, porcelain, wood cradle - 11¼"x 12½"x 2¾"

This is one that was worked-on over a period of twenty-one years. The Cassius stoneware clay body was modeled and fired in 2004, but it was several years before the face was fitted to a ceramic landscape. It was also being modified to take a pair of large glass marbles as eyeballs. However, the right eye socket shattered as it was being ground, and as a result the lens from a digital camera was fitted in its place with polymer clay. W.i.p. state #4 below:

After the polymer clay was used to fit the lens to the eye socket, the face was then leafed with gold schlag metal and coated with an umber wash and removed from the landscape it had been fitted onto.

It was photographed and used in a couple of digital prints (above) but the physical piece simply sat on a shelf until 2016 when it was fitted into a 'window' of a four foot high textured wooden cradle with a casting of a hand. Attached to the front of the cradle was a sheet of 1/4-inch plate glass. Below are two views of the piece in state #12 w.i.p. in late 2016:

It sat leaning against one of my work benches covered in a towel until 2024 when I decided to cut the cradle down and use the cradle as a 'window' frame for the face. A black piece of glass was cut, polished and fitted into her left eye. A sanded circuit board from another dead computer was added as the background for the face. State #13 w.i.p. in October of 2024:

I had decided to add some metal objects into the textured surface of the cradle, and then leaf the front and all sides of the cradle with schlag metal with the intent to apply a verdigris patina later. Stage #14 w.i.p. in late November of 2024:

The schlag metal leafing had to be applied twice to achieve the proper coverage on the surface. The inlaid metal piece were masked-off when applying the second layer of leafing. Then the patina chemical had to be applied in several layers to get the depth of verdigris desired. State #16 w.i.p. in September of 2025:

Most of the metal inlay pieces required wire-brushing after the patina chemical has produced a brownish patina to them. At this time I added further materials to the inside of the 'window' attaching to face or to 'float' at different depths around the face. The sides and top of the cradle had fittings inlaid into or onto them which appeared to connect to the interior of the 'window'. Also added was the burnished black stoneware to the upper right side of the face on the 'window' edge. Two views of state #18 w.i.p. in late October of 2025:

The final state of w.i.p. in November of 2024 was to touch-up some areas around the metal inlays in the verdigris, to add the glazed porcelain to float at the upper right of the face, and to tone down with an umber wash the four brass tubes attaching to the face. With those changes the piece was signed on the reverse. Finito. Late November 2025:

Day 2: The Cybernaut

God they're so cool. Idk what a cybernaut is supposed to be but I was definitely feeling something cyberpunky. Really like how this turned out.