Thank you everyone for the encouraging words.
Ianinsa well we all know that us artists are never paid what we would like. I have dreams of one day only doing 2 pieces a year ,unhurried.. , and making enough to live off.
sparky yes the shoes were interesting ,the toe caps are from a fire extinguisher bottle (check out the embossed stamped letters of weight etc) the leather uppers were made from "knock on scarafier mountinh clips) so its all natural curvature. The eyelets I had to blow out with a stick welder on high amps as the steel is too hard for a drill to scratch.
Ausfire the waistcoat is copper from an old "copper"(wood fired water heating vessel) it even has real copper buttons secured with copper thread(wire) . The white shirt is old lead sheet from roof flashings. the color (colour) is natural oxidation. probably a lead sulphate or something . The hair is made from short lengths of "rasp bars " off an old header harvester they are normally around 800 mm long, they ground against the wheat grains to thrash off the outer husk. I trimmed some of the tapered end to simulate some locks of hair near the neck and suit coat.