Tag Archives: mixed media sculpture

The Alien Carnivorous Venus Flytrap Finale!

Alien Venus Flytrap Headpiece by Suzanne Forbes March 2020Used the last of the Audreii Two’s to make a terrifying headpiece and hair clip.

I had a lot of silk leaves and plastic plants left over from the potted Alien Venus Flytraps and fascinators, so I used ’em up! This moment in time is all about using all my hoarded materials.

Alien Maneating Venus Flytrap Headpiece by Suzanne Forbes March 2020I had planned to make the headpiece and donate it to a fundraiser or raffle for Berlin queer performers.

Now, of course, I can’t imagine when in-person raffles or fundraising auctions will happen again. But I am filling a box with things that can be donated to raise money for the incredibly hard-hit performers of our city, who have lost all their income in a swift stroke.

And when it’s time, these wonderful things can be sold, donated or raffled to help my beloved Berlin nightlife folx, whose inspiration has made the last years the most fulfilling of my life.

Alien Venus Flytrap Hairclip by Suzanne Forbes March 2020The Carnivorous Venus Flytrap hairclip uses a very special piece of recycled material.

Suzanne Forbes making Bettie Page at Chicken Johns for Balsa Man 2009In the second half of the Oughts in San Francisco I wore my hair and eyebrows bright red.

It was part of my brand, how everyone knew me and spotted me drawing at an event. I’m only five four, but the hair and flowers piled on top of my head helped me stand out!

For special events I added feathers and tulle and tiny tophats, but for everyday (or I should say, everynight) going out I wore two double-flower red dahlia hairclips.

I have no idea where I got them, probably Target or Claire’s, but I wore them whenever I went anywhere for five years.

You can see me wearing them in the photo above, taken at Chicken John’s warehouse in the Mission in 2010. I was working on a balsa wood Bettie Page for Balsa Man.

Suzanne Forbes photographed by Libby Bulloff 2009Here I am wearing them when photographed by Libby Bulloff in Seattle in 2009!

Alien Venus Flytrap Hairclip by Suzanne Forbes March 2020 2

Then somehow I lost one in 2010, while having sex in my car outside a SOMA goth club with a bouncer half my age.

I wore the other til I went blue-haired again in 2013 or so, and I kept it, afterwards, because I had this idea I’d use it for something. It went in the shipping container with all the craft materials, and arrived in Berlin, and has been sitting in a craft drawer.

Alien Venus Flytrap Hair clip by Suzanne Forbes March 2020 3I found the thing to use it for!

It came out so well! This is a pretty special item, and if the virus doesn’t get me I’ll offer it up for sale worldwide whenever it’s safe to ship things again.

Insect Art: Glitter cicada with holographic vinyl!

3D printer pen jeweled cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020Made with a 3D Printer pen I got from my mom-in-law for Christmas!

I broke out the 3D printing pen last week! It’s basically a glue gun that takes different colors of PLA filament. It came with fifteen colors. I used seven colors, darker ones on the bottom and going brighter towards the top layers.


This is the naked filament armature.

Then I took a ratty brush and painted the whole thing with blue-violet interference paint. You can see other posts about acrylic interference paint, which I started using in 1990, here.

3D printer pen cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020 rt wing detailThe last batch of art supplies I ordered from the UK, back in the other world that was February, was glitter, holographic, iridescent and metallic vinyls and pvcs.

I’ve been feeling a thirst to work with transparent and tinted clear materials the past month.My assortment of sparkly sheets arrived the second week of March. I cut small triangles of the holo pvc, applied glue to the edges, then attached them to the back of the filament “struts”. I filled in other spaces with scraps of textured lavender iridescent vinyl, some dark blue glitter vinyl I had left from my mermaid corset project in 2012, metallic blue pvc, and transparent blue glitter “jelly” vinyl.

Glitter vinyl cicada by Suzanne Forbes March 20 2020“Jelly” vinyl is a thick, tinted vinyl, often full of glitter, foil stars, etc.

I covered most of the back with some actual trash – scraps of clear plastic cut from packaging, metallic blue plastic foil from the cat food packets. The glue I’m using is UHU Alleskleber in the Flinke Flasche (“nimble bottle”), which has solvents; in the US I’d use Gem-Tac. I left some areas open, and drizzled glue across others, then added decorations.

3D printer pen cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020 front windowI used microbeads, Swarovski crystals, opalescent rhinestones, iridescent rhinestones, glass pearls, clear rainbow micropearls, and glitter to decorate it.

3D printer pen cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020 libraryIt took about a week to finish all the decorating.

I find working with sparkly materials like this to be a kind of ASMR, deeply soothing and meditative.

During this really unprecedented time, when my husband and I are safe but I am so acutely aware of the danger to so many others, I don’t know what to do but make pretty.

I hope you enjoy the sparkle!