I knew I wanted to twist another horned animal. I love the drama of  the horns and with a newly completed studio and friends big birthdays looming, I was keen to get twisting. Little did I know when I started that the finished piece would be quite so large!
I hope they have the space to accommodate him!

I did my research looking for a recognisable and dramatic head, the antelope family are always a good place to start and didn’t disappoint. I discovered  the Scimitar Horned Oryx, now extinct in the wild, with its elegant long arching horns and decided this would be my next twist. 

I wanted to find a way of depicting the distinctive ridges around the arc of the horns without which, I felt the horns would be too plain. I devised a technique of binding a brighter wire in a finer strand before wrapping this around the completed horn. The sliver colour of the wire adds a highlight to the horns and added interest to the piece. 

Usually my nemesis, the base, was a relatively simple find on this occasion. A large section of weathered English oak from a local reclamation yard, simply sanded down and drilled to accommodate the rod holding the head. 

Why Rafiki? Well it means friend in Swahili, and as this was twisted for my two good friends special birthdays I thought it was a perfect name! Happy birthday both xx