From Malifeaux: Kirai – commission, part 1

Once in a while I get a commission that I get really thrilled about to do. In this case it is Kirai, from Malifeaux. A great looking japanese distorted woman. The customer has asked for a display base with it, and I have complete artstic freedom. You just gotta love these kind of jobs :)

I was brainstorming on the look and feel of the piece. As Kirai is holding hedgecutters, the most logical and story enhancing scene would be in a japanese garden. At first I envisioned a part of a bridge in there, and later I changed it to these stereotypical archways.


But as I googled 'japanese garden', I saw loads of pictres of these big blossoming trees. This would exactly fit into this scene: it screams 'garden', is always awesome to behold (if done properly), and you can do so much with a tree!

I realized that I have never made my own tree before (yeah, really!), so there I got my challenge (every new piece should have one challenge, don't you agree?). I wanted a stone tile path in front of it, really showing the audience that this was a well kept and feng shui kind of garden - fit for a deranged gardner.
I'm gonna make a rice paper light hanging from one of the branches. It will add to the japanese feel, I guess.



First I have build up the tree from metal wiring. Which was easily enough, actually. Then I filled up the main body with Fimo clay, and baked that in the oven. Now I had a sturdy ground to work on, to really start sculpting the form of the tree. Nothing too fancy, a knot here and there, and mainly smooting it out. And then bake it off again. Once done, I will mount it on the base, and finish it off with greenstuff, as I cannot bake it afterwards anymore.

Sculpting the base was easy enough too.  Just a bit of patience. The hardest part was getting a nice and tidy slot for the round-lip base Kirai will be mounted upon.

Now to go on a hunt for some usable and great looking blossoms to glue on later!