The sculpture ‘Mud Maid’ was made by local artists Sue Hill and her brother Pete. They created the sculpture in a 400-year-old garden, recently restored to beauty called The Lost Gardens of Heligan located in Cornwall, UK.
The so-called Mud Maid is a living sculpture. That means that her ‘clothes’ and ‘hair’ change with the seasons as grass, ivy, and moss grow and then wither. In Spring when the ivy entwines her body she has a vibrant appearance , but this will change as the seasons progress. In summer she will have long green hair and flowers covering her.
The Mud Maid has a custom built hollow framework of timber and windbreak netting, to which sticky mud was applied. Her hands and face are a mixture of mud, cement and sand, originally coated with yogurt to set the lichens growing.