Canada Goose

I made this little Canada goose tonight, for my dad's Christmas present. (He doesn't have a computer, so there's no danger of him seeing this picture before Christmas.) He always wants me to sculpt something for his gift, rather than buying anything, but he usually gives me complete latitude to pick the subject. This year, for the first time I can remember, he actually had a specific request. He wanted a Canada goose to go with the mallard I made back in 1989, just over half my lifetime ago.

So I present the goose and the duck together, along with a penny for scale.


The duck was made with Fimo, which was the only kind of clay I had back then. If you can't tell, that's a slice of bread in its bill. For as long as I can remember, Dad and I have always gone out to feed the ducks and geese in the park.

The goose was made with a mix of Fimo, Promat, and Granitex. I didn't have a shade of brown I liked for the wings, so I mixed glittery dark brown Fimo and "stone" flecked light brown Granitex. I really expected the end result to have a bit more texture to it, given that both components have speckles, but it looks almost matte. I'm a little bummed that a small bubble formed during the baking, marring the goose's white cheek. But I think it still looks pretty decent overall.

And just for grins, here's the real thing.