Hot Patina on Bronze Ascension

 Nearing the end of the bronze process. The final chased bronze sculpture was attached to a temporary base and washed wshed in a mixture of Potash Sulphurated (also known as Liver of Sulphur).
Then the whole thing was heated in an oven for 20 minutes. Next the patina artist, Chad, layered titanium while and other earth colors and blazed it with a torch.
Once the metal has cooled, it will be sealed with laquer and waxed an attached to the final base made of Nordic Green Granite.I should have photos of the final bronze sculpture soon!

Refining clay sketch maquette

I got a little more work in on the clay sketch - refining shapes and forms a bit. This is Chavant's LeBeau Touche' HM (High Melt) plastelina oil based clay. As it's softer than my J-Mac Extra Firm, it's proving to be much easier to work quickly and the softness of the clay (when warmed under a light) makes it much more malleable. I originally started working with Chavant High Melt nearly 20 years ago when we lived in Sarasota and Placida Florida. At that time I was doing a lot of bas relief sculptures for Image Creations of Florida and found that the HM was the safest clay for me to use in my studio and then transport in the high Florida heat to my client's offices nearly 2 hours hot drive from my studio. Other clays would sometimes literally melt in my car during the commute.

So if you work in a high temperature climate I would highly recommend Chavant's HM (High Melt) clays for your use.

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.

Wax Chasing & Lessons learned

I worked on the first two wax castings of "Ascension". The folks at Art Castings were very helpful and Mac did some good work on the chasing. However, he was working blind, as he got her in pieces and had no real idea how she went together. Can't imagine doing that! So I learned that it's a good idea to provide a series of photos for them to work from.

Another issue was that there was some confusion over how the bronze was to be mounted onto the base. Since they didn't have a photo, they thought it was one way and realized that there wouldn't be enough metal to support the floating woman.  In reality, there was, mounted the way I had planned. So I had to go back and carve out all the wax that they had added.

Never worked with wax before so after a few hours at the foundry, I decided to pack her up and take back to my studio, since it was taking longer than I thought. You can see my desk with the various tools. The hot tool that is plugged in on my desk proved much too hot to use on the sculpt much. It vaporized the wax and melted much too aggressively to be much use to me. So I kept it on and placed my metal tools on the hot tool to heat the metal carving tools. That worked much better, overall.

It still took many hours, but that is mainly due to my inexperience and I'm sure it will go much faster next time. I may even chase the entire wax next time to gain even more understanding of the practice and to familiarize myself with what casts easily or harder to incorporate into my next sculpt. After finishing her up I took her back to Art Castings. Luckily for me, Jeanne too a look at the photoshopped image I had made explaining the mounting process - she didn't think it would work - that the stone would chip!

So I buzzed over to the Base Shop and spoke with Brian. Thanks to Brian and Jeanne, we were able to come up with a solution that will enable me to mount the sculpture as I had planned, with a bit of extra effort, and another lesson learned!

Ascension Figurative Sculpture is at the foundry! ~Lori Kiplinger Pandy's first bronze

After some delay, my sculpture, "Ascension" has been delivered to the foundry at Art Castings of Loveland! They will be making a multi-piece mold of her. Then they will cast her in wax. Next they'll chase the wax. After that, they dip her into plaster and sand many times over a period of a week or more. Finally they'll melt the wax out of the plaster shell, then pour in the molten bronze. After the bronze cools, they'll smash off the outer shell to reveal the bronze pieces.

Finally, they'll assemble the pieces and weld her back together and chase all the seams. Last of all they'll apply the patina, giving her the final colors and attach to her stone base. Each an every bronze sculpture will require this process:  from pouring the wax to attaching the base!

She measures approximately 10" tall (without base) by 15" long and 6" wide. She will be supported only by the fabric that drapes from her hips. The fabric will pool onto the base, flow over the edge of the base and onto the table."Ascension" will be an edition of 33 plus several Artist's Proofs. Number 1 of 33 has been pre-sold already!

If you would like to see the entire actual process of developing a bronze from mold-making to final patina, you can view the short video from Art Castings here.

 The entire casting process will take about 10-12 weeks. I have to study some patina choices but I have something very specific in mind and will post that soon.

I must say that I am very excited to finally have her at the foundry. Being somewhat OCD about my work, I have a hard time letting go ;-)

But I must say, I loved, loved, loved, sculpting her! Even when a mishap came along to destroy
her hand or her face, I had just as much fun sculpting her again as I did the first time. In fact, the sculpting itself was very rewarding and relaxing. The hardest part of this sculpture was learning about armatures and the ways of working with this particular medium, Jmac Classic Clay.

I learned so much from working on this sculpture and am looking forward to using that hard-won experience on the next piece.

Once the sculpture is final, I will release the retail price along with the new photos.

"Ascension" Oil clay figure sculpture work in progress

I'm very excited about my first oil-based clay figure sculpture. It's the first time I've used a wire armature. This is loosely based on a life pose from the Art Students League class that I took under Rik Sargent recently. I'm still getting used to the Classic Clay - rather sticky feeling in comparison to water-based clay.

You'll notice that some of the hands, feet, hair and cloth are a darker color. Rik showed me that you can mix casting wax with the clay to make a much harder clay mix that can hold smaller detail better than the oil clay alone. So even though I had fully sculpted her hands and feet, I cut them off, re-sculpted them using the wax/clay mix and reattached them.

Because I wasn't really basing the sculpt on any particular pose from the model, it changed as I aggressively manipulated the figure for more drama - thereby exposing some of the armature wire in the process. In addition, the pipe supporting her is also in the way. I will be making a mold and casting this piece in wax. Once I have the wax, I'll be able to sculpt away the imperfections caused by the wires and post.

Finally, I may make a mold of the wax and take it to the foundry for casting my first bronze. When she's complete, the flowing cloth will be her only support - she'll appear suspended in mid-air, caught in the moment of ascension.

Rik has generously offered to help me through the steps working with moldmakers and the foundry. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class with Rik DO IT! He's a very giving and inspiring sculptor and teacher!

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….

Forton Metal Patina

Whew....been a long time since my last post. We've been renovating some buildings and our house so time has been detoured.

Due to snow, I was only able to make a couple of the patina classes with Andi at the Denver Art Students League. The photos won't be very good, as I don't have a place to set up for photos at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better ones, with bases, up soon.

This sculpture had a base coat of Forton and bronze/brass metals. Then I used a mixture of several different oxides and patinas from the class. After the metal had oxidized, I buffed with a bit of steel wool to bring back the metal. It came out a bit darker than I had anticipated. I do think I like it overall.

Plus-sized nude model

We had a plus-sized model this week. Again, I had just a little over 4 hours with the live model. I took the sculpt home and worked another 7-8 hours from memory - including time to cut her into pieces, hollow out and reassemble.

I was too excited to start sculpting and forgot Andi's paper cores...I started sculpting her solid and once I'd gotten a ways it was too late to turn back. So I went ahead and sculpted solid for a little while, then cut her into three pieces for hollowing out. I'll be sure to try and be more restrained on the next piece and really try to get the paper core down and this time, with thicker walls of clay to better support and have less problem with paper coming through to the surface... ;-)

The large model was a new challenge for me. I've never worked with heavy models before and the mass and weight and gravity were new and interesting. It was a different way to sculpt and see things since I usually work with more muscular or thinner more angular figures.

Another area for me to work on is my photography. Granted, these were done quickly to document the stages of work, but the photos aren't very good. Hopefully I'll get some better photos done when I fire and do the patina.


I also wish that I was able to keep the freshness. I'm at war with myself; one part of me wants to really work out the anatomy and the other part of me wants a looseness and spontaneous feel. While I like the mass and roundness of this piece, I think I missed the mark with going for a more artistic feel. I think that having to cut into pieces for hollowing and then repair the damage from the cutting encourages me to get too fussy over the finish and obliterates the stokes and marks of the clay - making it too 'rendered'. Well, there's always the next one...always the challenge...

Nude and Drapery Sculpture Study

This week, at the sculpture class with Andi Mascarenas at the Denver Art Student's League, we did a nude study using some drapery. I had about 3 1/2 hours with the model and then continued the work at home for another 4 hours. The drapery was challenging, as every time the model took a break the drapery was different when she came back to model. I had the usual challenge of the paper core coming through and a few places where the wall of clay was very thin. When I got the sculpt home, I endeavored the remove the paper and had quite a bit of breakage that needed repair. I think it goes to show that I'm starting with the wall of clay too thin from the start, so will try to correct that problem on the next sculpt.

Another problem that I encountered was slumping. Because we're trying to work so fast, since we have limited class and model time, there isn't enough time for the clay to firm up much before we sculpt. I found that the weight of the top part of the sculpt was causing the bottom, her legs, to smash down. In order to correct that problem, I had to add more paper and then more clay to the base in order to bring the overall height back up. Unfortunately, I also over-corrected for that slumpage and you may notice that her lower torso is elongated. The proportion of the lower torso being too long isn't terribly unpleasing, at least to me, which is surprising since I tend to be a perfectionist.

But then, that is something that I've been working to overcome and one of the main reasons that I'm taking Andi's class. Good art isn't perfect. It's beautiful or evocative, or interesting, but not really perfect. So I'm trying to force myself to produce a lot more art and to learn something from each piece and to try to find the interest or emotion, or thought for each one, instead of the exact reproduction of what is already there.

Continuation of figure study

I spent another four hours refining the sculpture study - which may or may not be a good thing as I was working from memory and not the model. In that time, I found myself carving away quite a bit. Probably it would be much better for me to be working additively, instead of subtractively, but it's a learning process. By subtracting the clay, I found that I often went too thin and broke through to the crumpled paper. I would poke the paper down with a tool and add more clay, but knew that the thin walls could be a problem.

Well, that was an understatement. My next mistake was trying to remove the paper and hollow it out too early. Not having much experience with water-based clay, I was worried about it becoming too hard to repair when the time came to cut a hole and remove the paper. So in I went, through the bottom of the sculture. The first wad of paper wasn't a problem, but cutting up through her legs and torso, I found that the clay was easily punctured and holes formed where it was very thin at the junction of the legs and seat. Additionally, since the clay was far wetter on the inside where the paper was, the torso broke open around her belly and that ripped her arms off at the wrists. Ouch! Lastly, since the clay was not firm enough to support itself without the sticks and paper, I found some slumping and sagging. Most noticeably in her repaired support arm (It's a bit bowed now) and her folded leg (which collapsed a bit without the paper inside so is a tad flat).

Lastly, I'm a bit concerned about being overly fussy and loosing the freshness of the study. I think that comes with removing clay more than adding it, something that I will be trying to address in my next study.

Overall, not bad for a first attempt and I'm really enjoying the class and the medium. I totally loose track of time and become lost in the moment of the art. I stand for 4 hours at a time without real pause and never even notice that time has moved. In fact, I do feel a bit grouchy that I must stop at all ;-)

This isn't necessarily a good thing. Great art can be done quite quickly when it's inspired and when trained and experienced eyes and hands are working well together. Sometimes spending a lot of time on something is simply fusssing and noodling and doesn't improve the piece. But I figure that at this point, you gather that training and experience by practice - sometimes that piece will work well and improve, sometimes not - but it helps to improve your work over the long haul - and that is my ultimate goal.