Skinks are quick, slick, and a little mischievous, which made turning one into a stainless steel sculpture both a challenge and a thrill. This piece stretched almost four feet nose to tail, its body tapering and curving like it was ready to dart away. Stainless, of course, doesn't like to play along with smooth curves and tapers, especially since I cold-shape everything after coloring. Once the torch lays down those blues and golds, I can't go back with heat, so every bend had to be coaxed without buckling corners.

The trickiest detail was the black striping. Stainless won't give me a true black, so I came up with my own solution: burning hundreds, maybe thousands, of tiny holes with the torch, then backing each one with small blackened pieces of metal. It was painstaking, but it let the black shine through like scales, and it worked for the arms and fingers too. As a bonus, that scorched texture let me disguise a few seams, helping the curves flow more naturally.

For me, this metal lizard sculpture was equal parts puzzle and play, finding ways to make stubborn steel snake smoothly, hide seams in "burns," and turn an elusive little reptile into a permanent wall-dwelling creature. This one can be found "climbing" a client's chimney. Poised as though it could dart at any moment!

This blue-tailed skink sculpture is wall hanging, made entirely of stainless steel, colored using only heat patinas, and is safe to be kept outdoors!