Clay Model Phoenix Mirror

[Jibby]

Hello everyone,

Long time lurker, one time poster on an account that has long been lost.

When I was introduced to the world of Shenmue on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000 I was immediately enraptured by existence of the Dragon and Phoenix Mirrors. What was their purpose, how would they be used? Were they truly integral to the life of Ryo Hazuki, Lan Di, and those around them, or were the Mirrors just a clever plot device used by Yu Suzuki to propel the story forward, a clever axis on which everything pivots?

Either way, I wanted them. And I wanted them badly. In fact, my inability to have them forced me to change focus and start collecting Resident Evil merchandise, of which I now I have a fairly impressive, and ever growing, collection. http://imgur.com/a/jJbjU.

Back on point. I found myself with an Amazon gift card recently, and my mind was drawn back to the days of lusting for a copy of the Mirrors, so I did what anyone would do and I bought myself a pound and a half of Sculpey. On Tuesday I began working on the Phoenix Mirror, creating the base, and yesterday I began on the Phoenix. After a few hours of working today I threw in the towel in posted a picture of my creation (so far) to the Shenmue 500k Facebook group. It was very well received, which made me think of sharing it here.

Keep in mind that this is very much a work in progress, and that a lot of revision and addition has to happen(not to mention beginning work on the Dragon Mirror), but I'm hoping that by sharing my work here the community might offer me advice and criticism, tips and tricks, and, of course, find their own will to create such works. My plan for today is to revise the Phoenix, and hopefully make it accurate to the feather count in the original model.

Please enjoy.

[shengoro86]

Awesome! Great work

[FlagshipFighter]

Really cool, congratulations!

[GameRoomsRising]

Thanks guys! I'll post a pic once I've finished the thing!

[GameRoomsRising]

Here's my completed first draft of the Phoenix Mirror. A little touch ups tonight and tomorrow it will go in for a nice warm bake. There are so many improvements than can be made I'm strongly considering creating a second mirror so I can refine my technique and procedure.



Album - http://imgur.com/a/rJ91z

[DreamcastPast]

Wow, love it, looks much better after the revision.

[GameRoomsRising]

Thank you! It was so much fun to make as well. I love doing work that requires minute detail.

[GameRoomsRising]

Ok, I've just completed the second version of the mirror. I could really use a very critical eye on the construction of the peace, as I want to recreate it as faithfully as possible. Scale, for reference, is 1:1 as close as I can tell. I'll post a picture that will hopefully prove that once I bake it tomorrow. Thanks for the all help!

[GameRoomsRising]

Third version (of a likely 6) has been completed.

I'm going to run down my process in creating these things:

1) I use an empty beer bottle, without the paper labels, as rolling pin to roll the Sculpey out into something fairly flat. At this point I break out my level and try to make the Sculpey as level as humanly possible, lying the level on it both vertically and horizontally on the 2D plane.

2) At this point I then take a 7" embroidery hoop (which is a new step in the process) and place it over the leveled matte of Sculpey. Now I just run around the inside of the hoop with an Exacto blade, thus freeing the base plate for excess material.

3) Now I create the center plate, where the stone goes, and position it in the center. There are two options for what you can do next. You can either line the outside of the base plate with Sculpey, constituting the edge, or you can begin to trace the outline of the Phoenix. I prefer to do the former as it gives clearer bounds in which to work.

4) Next I trace the outline of the upper portion of the Phoenix's torso and wings. I never trace the neck, head and the main body tail feathers, as I find that having the torso and wings gives me enough contextual space to work within.

5) I place down the wings, working from the lowest tier of feathers and working my upwards. After this I create the main body tail feathers/scales and place them down. I always try to be as accurate as possible when making these features. For example, the first tier of the left wing contains 15 feathers and runs from just about the rim of the mirror to a little past the "northern" tip of what I call the center plate.

6) I repeat the above steps for the head and neck, though I'm a little more lax about the accuracy of the neck as it's depicted as a very, very layered set of feathers.

7) Now I'll trace the outline of the tail going around the mirror. I haven't yet put the thought into putting the exact amount of bulbous features on the tail as is pictured in the mirror, but it is a goal at this point. After I trace them I do something unusual, I roll Sculpey out by hand into small diameter thread, and painstakingly place it down over my outlines.

8.) Then I place down the other miscellaneous threads, by eye. I could trace them first, and probably will do so in the future.

9) Have you ever noticed how there are little baby feathers inside the Phoenix's tail? Yea, I do those next.

10) I finish the tail by creating the feathers at the very end of it.

11) Finally, I try to polish up and smooth out the outside edge of the entire mirror, as well as the inside rim face. The rim can become quite distorted over the course of working on a mirror, and keeping it intact/restoring it has been one of the greatest challenges I've faced in producing these mirrors.

12) Bake.

Total Time from Start to End: ~7 hours.

Phoenix Mirror v. 3:

This time it seems that the Phoenix is a little askew on the base plate, and the proportions aren't quite correct, but the over all lines are a lot cleaner. I'm having trouble creating a quality center piece with the stone attached, but they're getting better each and every time I make one.

Question: Do you believe that the rim of the mirror has a bevel on the inside edge? I'm just not quite sure.

[GameRoomsRising]

The forth of six Phoenix Mirrors is now complete. Next version I will be doing much the same, except I will need to raise the body of the Phoenix somewhat, and I need to find a way to make the rim better.