Archaeopteryx Faux-ssil (Fossil)! (Image Heavy) - POTTERY, CERAMICS, POLYMER CLAY

Soooo . . . . what do you do when the perfect Christmas gift for someone is a one of a kind fossil discovered in Germany in the 1800s? Allow me to spell out the options: 1) Buy it -- not likely, it's not for sale and it would be a bit out of my price range; 2) Steal it -- difficult, museum's have nice security systems and the consequences of jail time might put a damper on the holiday cheer; 3) Buy a replica -- best idea so far, but even the replicas are over 100 dollars and I don't have that kind of cash; 4) Make a replica -- oooh, now there's an intriguing thought . . .

In any case, by virtue of this post being on craftster, you can guess that I decided to make my very own "faux-ssil" . . . and here's the result:

What would a museum artifact be without a certificate of authenticity:

And now various closeups:
The Head:

Angled view that shows the actual colors better:

Closeup of the body:

Closeup of the wings:

Closeup of a claw:

Basic details of how I made it:
I had my husband cut me a piece of wood to act as a foundation and I used original sculpey and rolled it out on top of the wood in a thin layer. Note: I wish I had "upgraded" to one of the higher end sculpey's . . . I had a lot of issues with this one cracking . . . oh well, live and learn. I found a photo of the fossil on wikipedia, had Staples print it off and blow it up close to actual size. Then I placed the photo on top of the wood and traced the major lines of the fossil so that it imprinted into the layer of sculpey below. Some smushing, some scraping, and voila, most of the fossil is done. I took some feathers from my chickens (not plucked, I just picked some up that they left behind in the chicken yard) and used them to make imprints in the wings and tail (just like in the "real" fossil). To simulate stone texture, I used sand paper to imprint a rough texture onto the stone portions of the clay, note: I didn't "sand" it, I just used the sand paper like a stamp -- you could easily use an actual stone to do this, but I had sand paper and suitable stones were hiding from me in the great outdoors somewhere.

My husband added some wall hanging hardware and I cured it in the oven following the sculpey manufacturer's directions, painted it with acrylic paints, and sealed it with multiple (4+) layers of Miniwax Polycrylic High Gloss . . . a satin finish would have looked more realistic (i.e. more like stone), but I already had the high gloss and well . . . you know how it goes . . .

Like I said, I had some issues with cracking (before the majority of the sealing), so I added cyanoacrylate based super glue to the cracks, painted over them, and sealed.

Anyways, let me know what you think (my second sculpey project, so I'm really REALLY interested in tips/criticism), I can't wait to give it away!