Correcting a proportion mistake in sculpture

At the National Sculpture Society's Sculpture Celebration Weekend held in Loveland last week, I was so fortunate to meet some amazing, world-class and world-known sculptors. One of them, Victor Issa, generously critiqued my sculpt in progress, "Waiting on the #9".

The original sculpture was in good proportion and I had verified measurements with my calipers. However, with the severe damage incurred in shipping, I was forced to cut off her legs and arms and re-create them, as well as her head and neck.

Here's where the distortion came into play. I was sculpting from memory. I did do a quick measurement of the feet to be sure they were the correct (and both the same) size. But I got lazy when re-sculpting her hands and just set about sculpting them as I remembered them before the accident. That was a rather arrogant mistake indeed!

Luckily, Victor's practiced and keen eye detected what I couldn't see for myself. It's rather like when you write a paragraph and have "...the the" written twice and you can't see that simple mistake. Victor noticed that the wrists and ankles were too heavy (my own are exceedingly small and I think I over-compensate my own wrists and ankles) and that the hand on her waist was too small. He put it nicely and delicately but when I got home and studied the sculpt I found that the hand was WAY to small! So glad he caught that, because I hadn't. So off came the hand for re-sculpting. The hand should measure from the palm on the chin to the top of middle finger 3/4 up the forehead. We have established mine was wrong, so I won't fess up to just how short her hand was when I did the original comparison. Above is a photo of the now-correct measurement. Thanks, Victor, for that and many more lessons!

Re-sculpting the figure

 Well, I had my time to pout, eat chocolate and have a glass of wine. Then it was off to the hardware store for supplies and home to start re-sculpting the smashed figure.

First I had to fix the armature base and reassemble the rod. Next I cut the clay off her legs from the knee down where I found that the wire was badly bent and rounded. Then I took pliers and straightened out the legs.

Then I cut her head off at the clavicle. The entire neck region had smashed and reworked the armature there before putting her head back on and lengthening her neck back into proportion.

Overall the entire figure rolled around in the box, so everything was a bit compressed, so I spent some time getting her stretched back out a bit.

Finally, I put her back onto the armature stand and started to put the clay back on her and begin the process of resculpting the figure. I started with giving her new feet and legs, then pulling out her right arm and working it and finally, starting to give her a face again. I'll try and get a little more done today and tomorrow but then will be out of my office for the holiday.

I'm still very unhappy about the shipping accident, but it feels good to start making the repairs - I was very excited about this sculpt and am looking forward to continuing the work.

Shipping disaster - or how to destroy a sculpture...

 How utterly disappointing. I was looking forward to finishing "Waiting on the #9" this week following the National Sculpture Society's Celebration Weekend in Loveland. I had this sculpture professionally packed and shipped from a shipper near Brookgreen Gardens.

When I got the box, all looked great - from the outside. Not a dent and it indeed was carried to my door right side up. When I opened it, however, this is the what I found. The sculpt had come completely off the vertical armature post. The screw was stripped and the sculpture was lying face down, ripped off at the ankles.

Obviously it had rolled around hard because the armature wire from the ankles down was torqued and bent. The whole thing is badly smashed.

The sculpting base had been screwed to the plywood under the inside box (it was double boxed) so the base was secure. I can see that the sculpture stand base is compromised, the vertical support pipe is loose and the bolt tightening it will no longer hold it tight because the board where the pipe fits has been weakened, so the pipe will no longer be sturdy on this armature. You can see the stripped pipe treads and how it has metal burs coming off on my hands.

This is sickening and I can't deal with it today because I'm too disappointed, not to mention behind my projected schedule to finish and get to the foundry. Instead, I'll head to the hardware store to collect items for a new armature and assess if anything can be salvaged tomorrow when I'm not as angry over this $150 shipping nightmare....

Jet lag and sculptures are not a good combination...

 Bummer.....I'm seriously exhausted, having just returned from Europe and having hubby and daughter sick. I picked up my little gymnast to pack her up for the auction at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational this weekend and dropped her.

While ceramic sculptures can be quite sturdy, this was a wicked drop. I wouldn't mind so much, but I was counting on donating her for the auction and I had just put had the sculpt mounted to this nice stone base. Well, I might be able to salvage the base for future use.

At least I didn't smash any others yet ;-)

I got the rest of them down to the show and will finish the final set-up tomorrow. Then I can post some photos of the booth at the show later.

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay

For the Fort Collins Studio Tour I'm doing a sculpting demo. I'll be sculpting a young dancer with an attitude using ceramic Paper Clay. Here I've just started. The armature is a steel pipe attached to a board. I've put newspaper around the steel post and wrapped that with a slab of clay. The stick are temporary supports - the clay is wet and heavy and slumps while at this stage. It will be a couple of hours before it's stiff enough to support the weight and the sticks will come out. Will be updating the sculpt all day as I progress.

Come on out toe 900 Marble Drive in Fort Collins today from 10am to 5pm to see the progress!

Crash and Smash

Sorry - no photos today. You'd think I'd remember the camera on my phone ;-)
This week I did a standing 3/4 nude on a large scale. It was hard to keep the clay from slumping on such a large scale (about 26-30"). I was determined that on this piece I would do a better job with the paper core to avoid having to cut and hollow the piece. My goal was to allow for a lot more freshness and looseness on this piece. I probably got about 1 1/2 hours done on Wednesday. On Friday, I found that the sculpt had compressed a bit, the movement to the pose and back were still quite nice, however. Throughout the next three hours I was furiously and managed to get her nearly complete, including her hands, face and hair. The piece had a roughness and grace to it and I really made progress in keeping that fresh, painterly feel.

Since we'll be going on Spring Break, I needed to take the sculpt home. Bad call...while I was successful in transporting the other sculptures, this one probably had about 30 pounds of wet, top-heavy clay. Even with good bolstering in the car, she broke and collapsed on the way home. I was unsuccessful in fixing this time. Wish I'd have photoed before I transported.

Oh well, I went into the class expecting everything to crash, explode or fail, just to make myself do the work for the sake of learning, and doing the work. Very freeing and I'm glad that I'm sticking to that goal...