"The Golden Lion Tamarin" - Santa Barbara Zoo Series

Private Commission

Birch and Tigrillo - 5 layers - 85 pieces

24” x 24”

The beautiful Golden Lion Tamarin provided some unique design challenges. A more or less consistant color scheme of the fur and an intelligent and expressive human like face needed to be approached carefully to avoid a “cartoony” look to my design. I wanted to focus the detail of this project on the mane and features of the Tamarin’s head and therefore decided to use a closeup view. The mane of the tamarin has a distinctive flow coming from the head and extending outward in long flowy lines. True to my style I wanted to create a detailed design that incorporated the numerous colors and textures found in this animal. The face I kept simple in order to keep the design from becoming too busy but still tried to add emphasis to the large eyes and intelligent expression. For the background I created a complicated tree branch system out of a single piece of birch with 18 little leafs representing new growth in the tree. All together there are about 85 individually crafted pieces occupying 5 layers. The depth and detail of this design can be seen in the raw view of the Tamarin in the photos. The color scheme and frame of this project couldn’t have fit the Tamarin more perfectly! I created 7 custom shades of yellow, orange, and red to create the complex copper colors found in this animal’s coat. Along with the colors in the face and background there were a total of 11 colors used on this small project! The special frame was created from a rare South American hardwood called Tigrillo. The ragged grain and copper colors throughout this wood provided a perfect border for the Golden Lion Tamarin!