Refining the emotion of Loss

 Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. Haven't been able to post as regularly as I'd like. So - back to the sculpt of "Loss". I did some extra work and ultimately wasn't needed and wasn't diligent enough of photo. For instance I fully sculpted both ears - which are completely covered by the blowing hair. But sometimes you change direction with work and the ears may have shown - at the very least they are a form that takes up space under the hair, so their presence is still felt.

I also sculpted the hands and arms several times - trying to get just the right pose. The tendrils of blowing hair are tricky - casting shadows upon the face, which is fine with me, however may be a problem in casting in bronze - I'll be checking with the foundry. The costs of casting increase dramatically with extra work, so it's a delicate balance.

You'll see in the full length images that she is standing on a long base, which is her shadow. This is how the emotion of loss feels to me - engulfing and swallowing (shown by the hair and dress swirling about her) with nothing but darkness ahead - represented by the long shadow.

The shadow has a hole it in - the feeling of a hole in your heart.

Now that the forms are in place and proportions set  I will take some time to refine the entire piece and then take some photos with better lighting.

15" high by 16" long in waterbased clay.

Sculpting emotion of Loss continued

 I've been inundated with publishing deadlines, so haven't had much time for sculpting. I've finished with blocking in the forms and establishing the figure. Before I go too much further, I need to determine the flow of the hair and dress.

When I work on a sculpt, it is very important to me that all the parts work in agreement. In my tiny maquette of this, the dress was fairly still and the hair was blowing away from the face, however as I work on this I'm leaning more towards the hair and dress blowing forward and whipping around and past her face. This will cast some shadows and obscure her face a bit however I think the effect will be one of loneliness and a feeling of being enveloped and overwhelmed - which, to me, is how loss feels.

So - I will refine her forms and her face before putting on the dress and hair, but this gives me a better idea of things. Next I will cut off the hair, dress and arms. The hands are next on the agenda and will be difficult to do. Once I've finished the arms and hands and re-attached, it will be time to sculpt the hair, dress and sandals - the zen icing on the cake in terms of working and I'm really looking forward to that part. I'm sure I'll be playing a lot of quiet cello music on my Pandora when getting to those nuances - the mood must all match...

CT3 Water-based clay over a wire armature to be made into bronze.

Beginning a new figure sculpture - "Loss"

Taking a break from the ecorche piece and trying something a bit different. I am sculpting from a tiny, quick maquette that I made a couple of months ago depicting the emotion of "loss". The was before the indescribable day of Sandy Hook....but since then this sculpt has prayed on my mind. So I decided to table my work for the moment to give some attention to this.

Usually I work in either water based clay for firing or oil-based clay for mold-making and then bronze. But for this piece, I'm working with a metal armature like I would with oil-based clay, but I'm sculpting with water-based clay instead. I just really love the feel of waterbased clay and wanted to give this a go.

The tiny sketch is a oil-based clay and the enlargement that I started is a metal armature with water-based clay on it. It can't be fired -as you can't dry and fire waterbased clay with a metal armature in it. In fact, I really can't let it dry out at all, because the clay with shrink and crack and become terribly brittle. What I plan to do is have the mold-maker take a mold directly from the leather-hard clay before it dries. Then cast in bronze.


I've  not done this before - my bust of Harriet Tubman was a fired clay piece, so not fragile when making the mold. But it's good to experiment.

"Loss" as I'm doing her now stands about 15" tall and has a long shadow being cast before her - symbolic of the darkness that she's feeling. I've blocked in some of the basic forms and shapes of the anatomy and look forward to beginning the refining stage next.

How to make a cheap hot box

Oil based clay comes in differing degrees of firmness. If you live in Colorado have your studio located in the basement, you'll find that even extremely soft clay will be very hard when cold. You could warm the clay in the microwave, as I've done in in the past, but inevitably you will end up getting burned when you squeeze a block of microwaved clay that seems firm on the outside but is a pool of molten lava on the inside. Enter the hot box.

There are a lot of different ways to make a hot box to warm your oil based clay. Tuck Langland has a very nice one that he makes from an old fridge. But you can also go very low tech, as I did here. I simply went to the dollar store and purchased a styrofoam cooler for $1. I also got 3 aluminum disposable pans for $1.

 I turned the cooler on its side and traced around the dome of a cheap shop light. Next I cut out the circle I traced using a sharp knife - being sure to cut 1/2" INSIDE the circle. I placed a 40watt bulb in the lamp and place it on top of the cooler. Since the circle that I cut out is a bit smaller than the lap - I sits just on top of the cooler.

Finally I took some cold, hard chunks of jmac classic clay and tossed them into one of the pans and slid it into the cooler and closed the door (which is really the top of the cooler). Within 10-15 minutes I have warmed clay.

This isn't perfect - it's kind of small and the center chunks of clay get melted while the outer chunks warm less - but for $2 and a lamp I already had, it sure beat sore hands from trying to use cold, hard clay or burned hands from lava-melted clay.

Yes - I know that the old, hot lightbulbs may be be a thing of the past and hard to find soon - but I imagine that I can get creative and find another heat source in the future - for now, this is great for smaller budgets, smaller space and smaller amount of working clay fast.

Here is "Waiting on the #9" in bronze. She stands 17.5" tall x 6.5" wide x 9" deep and has a shaped mahogany wood base.

You can look back at previous posts to see this sculpt develop. I really had to re-sculpt most of her after she was broken in shipping and in the process, I tried different hairstyles on her. Her first hair was a short, sassy 'do but when I came closer to making the mold for bronze, I opted to give her longer hair with flow and movement to echo the flow and movement of her little dress - caught in the draft of the passing transportation.

The inspiration for this piece was from watching all the lovely European women waiting for trains to go about their day. I love trains and we take an occasional train ride her in the states, but in Europe, especially Switzerland, the train is an everyday fixture of daily life and therefore, the people are calm and cavalier about their travels.


I projected my wishes into this piece a bit - hopefully the next time I'm in Switzerland or Italy, I'll be better versed at rail travel so I can exude such casual confidence. As it was,  I had a nervous look as I squinted at platform numbers and realized in dismay that the train I was supposed to be riding was pulling away without me from a different platform. The closest I come to 'being' this woman is the cute little 'date purse' that I gave her. My tiny favorite purse doesn't hold all my usual everyday stuff, therefore it's relegated to those fun nights out with my husband. And while we may not take a train into Old Town Fort Collins, I do enjoy draping that sassy little bag from one finger while we wait for an outside table at one of our cafe's.....and pretending that I look as adorable as my sculpture ;-)