(this happened yesterday but the photos wouldn't upload right)
I have been looking at this palette of colors for the last couple weeks and thinking of Gustav Klimt's patterned gold dresses and statues of amazons. To build the dress, I chose six very painterly smears of white/pinks/reds/oranges and deep blacks. I also plopped down some millefiori down hoping I could make weird, but easy, starry eyes, but that didn't last long. No worries, they make better earrings, anyways.
A voice of reason (and more experience than I) told me to work on the detail work first, but after trying to shape teeny-tiny slivers I procrastinated and made part of her upper arm and practiced less-finicky detail work by shaping her sword from iridescent whispy grey bits to give it a pAtTeRn WeLdEd vibe. Putting its edge on it is going to be horrible and tweezer intensive work that will make me question why I am doing this.
But delaying that existential hellscape for another, I slapped town a bubble-textured dress strap over her shoulder, and gathered the resolve to work out the details of her face. The devastating side-eye and bacon-strip lips were the best I could manage before frustration started nibbling. Wisely, I pushed it away to be continued with patience, armed with a better expectation of the what pace I would move at, and understanding of the task ahead.
One thing I wish came through better in the pictures is the original pencil sketch of her face and arm raised to strike with sword, but the phone did not really pick it up too well. C'est la vie.
things came together pretty quickly once i started gluing down the face bits. co-worker said it reminded her of the Rider Waite Nine of Pentacles, which i liked. looking at it now i want to maybe pry up the two medium pieces that make up the right armpit and side (her right, not mine haha). i'm thinking carving off a piece of of each to more clearly define the arm and side might make a more elegant figure, and it would allow me to make better use of the sliver of backer board i have to work with over there.
i widened up the gap in the middle of the dress. i'd like to fill it with a floral tile or something shiny. our shop has some metallic vitreous tile i could use. or i could go with millefiori. i am kinda getting a feel for working with stained glass, so maybe i should find a use for shiny cutting scrap.