Finishing "Waiting on the #9"

Sorry for the poor photos - I was rushed and simply threw a spotlight on this and grabbed some shots before the sculpt went out to the mold-maker this morning. I had a bad sculpting day earlier this week and over-worked the piece. It went from nice and fresh to stilted and posed. Part of if was the softness of the clay for such a small sculpt and part of it was me rushing because time was running out to get this into bronze in time for the show.

I also noticed that as I overworked, I ended up pressing on her neck a bit, causing it to shorten and thicken. So I cut off her head and neck and sculpted a new one. This time, I added flowing hair to add to the breeze that was ruffling her dress. You'll notice that her hand and purse are a different color. I used Jmac Classic clay for the purse, as it is a harder clay for the tiny detail. Then, since the fingers were too soft to hold their own form with the Chavant, I added 1/2 Classic to the Chavant and mixed together. I could have used straight Classic, but was concerned that the difference in clay would impact the surface of the clay and not hold the marks the same way - to be safe, the mixing of the two clays gave a better transition from the arm to the hand. There is armature wire (22 gage braided) that is poked through her index finger to give enough strength for holding the purse and also in the blowing sections of hair.

This sculpt was a big learning process and I struggled a lot with it - which is good - from adversity comes improvement. I learned that every clay has its own strengths and weaknesses and it's very important to choose the right clay for the scale and style of subject. As I stated before, on a larger scale piece I think I would enjoy the soft, buttery feel of the Chavant Le Beau Touche a great deal - it would be easy on the hands and effortless to apply - it just wasn't the right clay for a full sized sculpt with a 1.5" face ;-) I also learned that it would be a good idea to bolt the armature wire of the feet to the board to stop any lateral motion or shifting, which causes cracks in the ankles and also can lead to minute twisting that you don't notice till later.

I enjoyed this sculpt - even the several times that I had to rip off and re-do sections and I liked the attitude and pose. This is one that I may come back to and enlarge to a bigger scale for bronze at some point. For now - it is off to the mold-maker who will chop her up and make the mold and pour the wax - until then - time to clean the studio and get the next piece started...

Maquette - clay sketch for next scuplture

While I have my 18" Truform armature set up and ready to go, I'm still working out the pose in my head. I decided that some sketching was in order but instead of breaking out the sketchbook, this time I decided to sketch in clay to work out some of the mechanics before I go to finish.


Anyone who know me know that I am an unlikely mix of spontaneous impatience (I want to get started NOW!) and relentless perfectionism (it must be as good as in my mind - no better, Better, BETTER!)


That can make for some frustrating work habits. So I'm killing two birds with one stone - starting work NOW and accepting that it can't be perfect because it's only the maquette (small clay sketch).


I am using an inexpensive 12" wire armature and some old Chavant LeBeauTouche HM plasteline. While this plasteline is perfectly fine, I do like Jmac quite a bit too. Since the LeBeau is softer than my extra firm Jmac, I though it was a good choice for clay sketching - it is quicker to warm up to workable consistency and softer/easier for my hands to manipulate, facilitating a faster, looser approach. Hopefully that will lend more life movement to the sketch and yet make it easier for me to stop at a less-than-finished state and then move on to my 18" final model, using the sketch as my reference.

Preparing board and Truform armature

 Time to get my new armature ready. I went to the hardware store and got my flange screws. After deciding the placement for the armature, I marked the board, pre-dilled the four holes, then screwed the metal flange in place.

Next I attached the metal armature rod from my 18"Truform armature. I bought this a while back, but have been busy working on other projects and haven't had the chance to try this.  The head is removable but the rest of the armature is not. In the larger sizes, you can take off the arms and legs, allowing you easier access to work on the sculpt - a real plus in certain poses.

I do know it was very tricky trying to get to certain areas with my "Ascension" so it would be beneficial to be able to take the arms and legs off of this armature. Since that isn't an option on this size of armature, I've been experimenting with creating my own system for making the extremities removable. So far 3 of my four designs failed, but the 4th is showing some promise, so I will do further experiments before starting this sculpt.

This will be a new experience for me, as I made my own armature using multiple aluminum wire for "Ascension".

Also, as I had some difficulties with the hands getting bumped, I'm building some wire armature hands to put on this piece, which may be very helpful or just a big pain in the butt - time will tell.

Getting Jmac clay ready for next sculpt

Time to prepare for my next sculpt. This one will be done in similar style and fashion as "Ascension", however I'm trying out a new armature, which I'll be showing later.

I spent a week purging my studio of past projects and art supplies that I'm no longer using. The local people on Craigslist are very pleased about that ;-) Still needing to improving my lighting for sculpting, as it's imperative to have good, strong directional lighting to cast shadows on the sculpt to reveal the forms. As I do most of my sculpting standing - or even standing on a stool for added height, I need a light that I can move around as needed - plus my ceiling is rather low (basement studio) so I don't have a lot of hanging options. I'm thinking of getting a boom for photo lighting and clipping a light onto that. It would be useful for lighting and photographing the sculptures later too.

Time to get my materials ready to work. Every artist has their own methods of working. David Lemon (check out this guy's blog - it's delightful to watch him work and his sculpts are crazy good) likes to chunk his clay into pieces using a knife. I suspect he's bigger and stronger than I am, plus my Jmac clay is extra firm. I think it's left over from when I was living in Florida and needed something that would say firm even in high heat.  I can't possible cut through it. This may be way firmer than I will like working in for a figure, but want to try and use it up before purchasing another block in a less firm formula. So instead of trying to cut pieces off the block, I place a lamp on it to warm and then shave pieces off and collect them into a foil lined box. This box has a lid (great for keeping out dust and hair) and the foil helps hold and reflect the heat from the lamp to warm the clay. The small strips warm up very quickly compared to larger sections. I can then easily mush the strips together into manageable lumps for easy grabbing later as I'm sculpting.


Time consuming and a bit hard on the hand, but will make the actual sculpting process much smoother so worth the time and effort now.

Harriet Tubman Ceramic Portrait Bust Demo

 Here is an update on Harriet's progress. I let her rest over the weekend after having hollowed her out. She was a bit over-dry when I checked this morning, so I've soaked some cloth to drape over the driest parts and misted well before beginning work again.

I can see I've got to work on the symmetry a bit more, but she is making progress. I intend for the surface to retain a lot of looseness and energy, so the challenge will be to bring it to a level of completion that pleases me and stopping before I overwork her. Estimated time to date: 5 hours.

Clay sculpture portrait demonstration Harrient Tubman

Making progress on Harriett Tubman bust study. This is at about the 3.5 hour mark. The clay is wet and heavy so I have sticks pushed into the heavy areas to help support while firming up. Once I'm fairly satisfied with the forms, I'll cut her up and carve out the interior to hollow out then reassemble to work on her some more.

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay #7

 Making progress on the sculpt and generally pleased with her. There are some areas that need a bit more refining. The lighting is rather harsh because I just grabbed some quick pix in the studio. .

When she's fully completed I will set up the photo lights and get better photos,

I really enjoyed sculpting her and have titled this piece:

"Her  first dress rehearsal"

This was my first sculpture of a child and I have to agree with other people - kids are challenging. I did not work from a model which can add to the challenge of a piece as I try to imagine limbs in the round. The thing with children is their softness. It makes it hard to find the forms sometimes.

 This was so enjoyable that I'm certain that I'll be doing more dancers and hopefully gymnasts too.

Ceramic Paperclay Fox Sculpture

You may remember that I sculpted a small fox in oil-based clay. I'm still working on the wax pour of it for bronze. I decided that I wanted to make a larger version of this fox and sculpt it using a water-based clay for firing. Since Mile-Hi was out of the CT3 clay that I had planned on using, I opted to try this in water-based ceramic paperclay instead. I didn't do any measuring - I just dove into sculpting. While I did use crumpled paper for filling out the body, there was some distortion and I felt that there was too little clay in some areas and too much clay in others. So I cut this into pieces, hollowed out and reassemble before I completed the sculpting.

I was pleased to find that A) it was as much fun to sculpt the fox the second time around and B) I had no trouble enlarging the sculpture while keeping the same look and feel using a different medium. So, now it's drying in preparation for firing later.

First wax pouring of miniature fox sculpture

This is my first time pouring wax in preparation for the lost wax bronze process. I have an old crockpot that I'm using to heat the wax. This wax is something I bought an embarrassingly long time ago and can't remember what kind it is. Karen, at Sculpture Depot, assured me that pretty much any wax will work and different kinds can be intermixed. I thought I'd be really smart and put the block of wax in an old metal can inside the cooker to keep the cooker from getting wax all over it. Nice idea, but it dripped and got wax it it anyway ;-)
I'm using the pour mold (commonly called a dump mold) that I made of my miniature fox (you can see on earlier posts). After melting the wax, I took a small cup, dipped it into the melted wax and poured into the mold. Then swirled the mold around and emptied the wax back into the pot. A layer of wax remained inside. I did this several times to build up layers.
1) crockpot with melted wax in can
2) wax in the mold (I tried tape to secure the mold but it didn't stick very well - rubber bands worked better)
3) the wax mold of the fox - it has flaws and the base would need to be trimmed.
4) I was anxious to see the wax and demolded too soon - the wax was still quite warm and broke.You can see how the swirling of the wax creates a hollow casting.
5) I figured it would take several tries to learn the process enough to get good results. Luckily I can simply melt down the rejects to reuse the wax.
6) Back into the pot for remelting. I tried again that night - but the wax wasn't hot enough so it was a tad lumpy. The results were another imperfect casting so will try again later.

New terracotta clay bust in progress

 I have been swamped with designing the layout and illustrations for my newest book for Operation Outreach USA. Love illustrating for them, but wishing there were more hours in the day. Also got word that my other book, Nana's Silly Goats has been printed and is currently being shipped to the states. Nancy said it's gorgeous and I must say the color proofs we reviewed earlier looked great so I'm really looking forward to seeing them. I'll be posting some of the art on my website soon.

Currently I'm working on a new bust of an African American woman. This is sculpted in Chestnut. It's clay left over from my class with Andi Mascarenas and so was a bit stiff to work with as it's rather old. But I couldn't stand to waste the clay, so while it was quite hard, I soaked it well and let it marinate for a couple of days, then wedged it a bit to work the hard bits into the mushy bits.

This was actually started nearly 8 weeks ago and shelved when deadlines hit. When I got back to her, it had gone well past the leather hard stage, so was a challenge to get working again. I had a heck of a time cutting her in half to hollow out! Once I finally got her hollowed and put back together, I worked in her shoulders and started her scarf. These are some early photos and I should have newer ones up in the next day or two showing the progress.

Still not sure what I think of Chestnut. It's a rather stiff and very coarse clay. You can really see the grit and grog. Sometimes I like the earthiness of if it, but other times I find it distracting. I'll probably compare it with some other clays after firing. The plus-sized woman that I sculpted earlier using his clay fired nicely. It comes out a very, very dark brown color, which is interesting.

Miniature Fox Sculpture with New Patina

I wasn't satisfied with the first casting and patina of my miniature fox sculpture, so try, try again. This one came out much more to my liking and I earned a good lesson: solid colors show texture and form much better than variegated colors. Especially in such small scale (about 3"). I have a base that I'm preparing so when it's dry we'll see how it looks on a solid wood base.

My next endeavor will be to cast this fox in wax and chase it. I have an appointment with Art Casting Foundry in Loveland, where I'll be having this little guy bronzed!

I'm quite excited about that - I sculpted him with mold-making and bronzing in mind as I want to learn both processes.

Since this patina came out much better, it gave me the urge to work on some of my other sculptures. There were two in particular that I didn't care for how the original patina came out. Since I wasn't happy with the over all look, I decided that I could risk ruining them further by removing the patina and trying a different. It was a good choice - and I will post new photos of them soon.

Lastly, I've been struggling with my photography. On a shoe-string budget, I've been trying to outfit my photo area and have been making loads of test photos. Thank goodness for digital! Back in the day you could photo for a show, send the film off and not find out till a week later that they were awful! But now - Bam! upload the photos and see how bad they are instantly! ;-) Actually, I made real progress this week in getting white balance and lighting to agree - so new photos will be up soon!

Miniature Fox Sculpture mold making

I took the miniature fox that I sculpted in December and made a mold (often called a pour or dump mold). I used Dragon Skin mold-making products by Smooth-ON.

 1). Dragon Skin is a 2-part silicone mold - you mix equal parts of A + B. I also used Liquid Gloves - it forms a barrier to protect your hands from absorbing chemicals or paint - it feels nice, goes on like hand lotion.
2)  I cut the bottoms off of two plastic cups to form a cylinder around the fox sculpture. I put a small bit of clay on the bottom of the fox sculpture to help it stay in place, then put the cups over it and sealed the bottom of the cups to the base to keep the silicone from leaking out.
3)  I also put the whole thing on a small tray in case it leaked - but this time I sealed it well and nothing leaked out.
4) Mixing Parts A + B
5) Poured into the cylinder and curing (left it over night)
6) I took this to class and my instructor, Rik Sargent, helped me to cut the cured silicone on two sides on a diagonal to get the clay out.

Contempative Woman - a ceramic nude sculpture work in progress

I started this sculpt when taking Philippe Faurat's figure study class at the Sculpture Depot two months ago. If you ever have the opportunity to take Philippe's class then DO IT! He's an amazing sculptor and a hoot and a half too ;-)

So this technique is new to me - the sculpture is almost entirely solid. According to Phillipe - she'll fire just fine if REALLY DRY first. (Fingers Crossed) As I live in semi-arid Colorado, dry isn't really a problem here. I'd say that I had about 10 hours of model time on this piece and put in another 4 to 5 hours sculpting at home and she's about 80% done. I’m juggling illustrating a children's book at the moment, so I've kind of shelved her for a while and just misted her with water a few times.

This is a low-grog ceramic clay and it is 16" high. I believe that it will fire to a white finish and plan on doing a marble/stone look for the patina if she survives the firing. I'm looking forward to taking a few more hours to refine and finish before the long, slow drying process.

On another note – I may have a kiln! I’ve been looking on Craigslist for a year now and if all goes well, I should have it by next weekend….then I’ll be able to fire my pieces and be more productive – very exciting!

Next up, I’ll be showing you my first oil-based clay figure. It’s one I’m working on from a class from the Denver Art Students League with Rik Sargent as the instructor. Another terrific teacher – you really need to look at Rik’s work – his monumental bronzes are amazing and he’s been such an informative teacher – I’ll do my next post on his class and my new piece….

Sleeping Nude

Busy, busy, busy. Unfortunately no time to post lately. I had a wonderful time at Sculpture Depot in Loveland last month. They sponsored a workshop with Philippe Faraut (my second). The first was a portrait workshop years ago, so I was thrilled to get to do a workshop on the full figure with Phillipe.  It was a good class - a nice, diverse group of people to share the journey. We spent two days doing studies that I enjoyed, then destroyed ;-) Then a day doing one larger piece. I'm still working on that one at home from memory.

I'm getting better at letting go, smashing up studies or sculpture that isn't working. Don't get me wrong - I was quite pleased with many of the small studies, but the process and experience was what I was after, not the physical product. So I only kept one of the smaller studies. We had about 4-5 hours with the model in this pose, then I did the rest at home. This is water based clay with low grog and the piece is about 9 inches long. This one I sculpted solid and didn't hollow. I'll allow to dry very, very slowing and try firing it my my ancient, questionable little kiln. If it doesn't make it, well, it was fun to sculpt anyway ;-0