My dragonfly on a rock...so far

The "rock" is 13cm long ( a bit longer than 5 inches ) and is made from a single sheet of 1mm thick mild steel. The lower images shows the underside and the hollow filled with pitch. I'll now secure it on my pitch bowl to make the next stages possible.

The image at the top shows the wings of the dragonfly in roughly the position I'm happiest with. The material is reasonably thick but the golden colour is only in the top 1.5mm. The tricky part now is to shape the wings underside to follow the contour of the iron. Then I'll inlay them. If It's possible I intend to cut most of the ground in the recess away so that the wings will effectively be like stained glass windows; or plique a jour enamel. The veins will be engraved directly into the MOP and filled with urushi. The eyes are black lip mother of pearl.

The original concept has evolved somewhat. I will be adding some grasses on and over the front, sloping edge of the stone ( in 2 alloys of brass with pale gold tips ), and the whole thing will rest in a turquoise patinated silver, uchidashi formed, rippling "water"

The larger rock I was forming is put aside for now. The basic shaping is completed and that piece will develop the theme and concepts of the smaller one even further. In a sense this is a series of stepping stones...I wonder how far I can take the concept.