If this isn't classical, then you and I are totally on different pages, my friends.

We are one application of superglue (which, yes, I forgot to pick up at Target yesterday. oops.) away from my completion of the Sculpture badge.

The requirement is simple (and referenced back in the saga of SassyCat): use clay to duplicate, or in some way make a piece related to, an antique sculpture. When you think antique sculpture, you may be imagining discus throwers or the Elgin marbles or something like that. Me too. However I was not the 1999-2000 Pennsylvania state Junior Classical League secretary (vice-president? I have no idea. Dude, this was ten years ago) for nothing. I made a few poor-quality efforts at bas relief, then remembered: the Cyclades.

For those of you who are less amazing than I am, you may not be entirely familiar with the Cycladic civilization. Shame on you! Really. What the hell were you doing when the rest of the world was learning about obscure Bronze Age Aegean cultures?

Let's leave it at this: the Cycladeans (I just made up that word, I think) were artistically distinct from just about everyone else. Their sculptures consist largely of white marble, flat-faced figures, standing with their arms crossed around their stomachs. Some people suggest these may have been religious in nature, but really, you don't expect me to know everything, do you? Regardless, these are pretty immediately recognizable figures, and they're startlingly modern.

Yes, they're also a lot simpler than the more immediately-recognizable classical sculptures. I will admit my weaknesses, though I will also couch them in intolerable pretension. Deal?

For my sculpture, I chose an image of an ibex, which is where the superglue comes in -- while the ibex is sculpted and baked and looking startlingly ibex-y, I chose to bake the poor little guy's antlers separately, since they kept collapsing down into his face. Tomorrow, once they're glued, expect to meet my ibex buddy.