Grand Chaos

Grand Chaos, a whitetail buck beaded skull Steampunk deer art piece.

Grand Chaos is a fun and fascinating Steampunk beaded deer skull art piece. A copper color scheme, wires, tubes and gears in addition to leather inserts further his classic mechanical Steampunk vibe. With this genre in mind he sports a movable monocle covering a glass tube “eye” connected to gears by copper wires.

Brown leather surrounds the base of his antlers enhancing the “wild west” flare. Likewise aged copper inserts, hinges and a keyhole, as well as the classic skeleton key continue the Steampunk theme. His mechanisms are intricately designed from a combination of gear focals, tiny watch parts, screws and antique brass and copper plated beads.

Everything about this Steampunk beaded deer skull leaves to the imagination the purpose of each gear and how it all works.

Continue reading below to see the making of Grand Chaos.

I’ve dedicated this Steampunk beaded deer skull piece to Benj Spencer from Pixel Ink Frame as he suggested the Steampunk art idea while working on my logo and website.

I love Steampunk and immediately knew which deer skull in my current inventory I wanted to use. The fact that he is a smaller skull with a damaged tine and missing teeth made him just the sort of rogue I envisioned for this piece.

Benj is so creative and I had several insights working with this buck. I am grateful for the journey I have had with them both.

Leesa Clark with Benj Spencer from Pixel Ink Frame and Grand Chaos.

Grand Chaos
$
1850
  • Dimensions:
    10.5″ w × 17.5″ l × 10.5″ h

The Making of Grand Chaos, Steampunk Beaded Deer Skull

Cleaning

I have no pics of Grand Chaos prior to the clay stage due to the frantic pace this piece started with including the mid-holiday season, out-of-town family coming and preparing for my first photo shoot. In hindsight I should have already had a clue to his “name”. I wish I had taken pics of his initial rugged state.

Clay

The majority of clay work on this whitetail buck skull was nothing out of the ordinary, until it came to his underside. Although it will rarely be seen, it was so deteriorated and split it degraded the integrity of the entire piece. His left upper nasal bone was broken off but this is not unusual and I reattached it with glue and clay.

This is the clay process for Grand Chaos.

Paint

On this Steampunk deer I wanted to try a new copper sheeting as well as a different type of paint available in the perfect copper color. I mean, what could go wrong using two new elements in a time crunch? And also starting with a totally different focal point design? Initially the paint and copper did not agree with my glue at all. However, after some practice I did manage to get them to all play nicely together.

The paint process Grand Chaos.

Bead Selection

While all of the Steampunk mechanisms were important to this design the eye was the key. Specifically the mechanical connections and monocle were the true focal point of this piece. Starting the design around an eye rather than the center of the skull was also a new idea for me.

I had no time to physically layout the complicated design on the buck skull due to the photo shoot. Instead I started with the simpler design on the opposite eye. Indeed, everything about his beginning felt very chaotic. All the same, it all came together beautifully and was a lot of fun to create.

Initial bead design placement for Grand Chaos.

Beading

Although the beading design I’d envisioned was not complete, for several reasons I stopped and sent photos to Benj for the site.

However, having seen all my other pieces he questioned some things about this one. I had not finished my vision and it showed. And so I replied:

“Since it is so different than my other pieces I got off track early by rushing with new materials for the photo shoot and then asking too many people for their opinions. I always show them to people throughout the process but with this one I started listening to people rather than the deer. I plan to finish the design the way I had originally planned, unless the buck has other ideas. Thanks for getting me back on track with my own art.”

The continued beading process and naming of Grand Chaos, Steampunk buck skull art piece.
This is where Grand Chaos comes to “new life”. Every piece has a story to tell.


Naming

The remainder of the design and coloring his antlers fell right into place. All that was left was a name and for the first time I struggled with naming a piece. I even resorted to looking up Victorian era and Steampunk phrases. Nothing fit. In honor of Benj Spencer I considered naming him “Benjo”, Victorian sailor slang for “A riotous holiday”. But, even though the era and meaning were spot on, this whitetail deer didn’t strike me as a sailor.

And so I sat down with him, considering our chaotic journey together as well as how beautiful he’d turned out. And I realized his name had been right there the entire time: Grand Chaos!

The finished Steampunk whitetail deer skull bead design, painted antlers and art piece name.
A fitting name is better and takes time, but is well worth the effort.