The Hollowing of a Bust

After slicing off the crown of the head with a wire tool, you can see the clay of this portrait bust enrobes a center of crumpled newspaper on the armature.  I’ve set the crown aside and will keep it in tact so that it can be replaced later in the process. This portrait bust is larger than life, requiring about 50 pounds of water-based clay.

The newspaper has absorbed moisture from the clay so it tears apart easily. It  must be removed and the walls of the sculpture must be thinned. I use a ribbon tool to shave away clay from the inside walls.

   

In the photos below, the sculpture is freed from its armature and placed on a wooden board. It is now hollow. About twenty five or thirty pounds of clay have been removed from the inside.

You see channels have been punched through. These are necessary only if the sculpture is to be fired. If you were to cast the sculpture, you could skip this step. The channels allow air and moisture to escape thick walls of clay during the heating process in a kiln. Without them, the sculpture is more likely to explode in the kiln.

The outer surface of the clay is smoothed over, concealing the channels from the outside. The channels open toward the inside and will vent through the bottom of the sculpture.

The model will sit for me one more time after the smoothing of the channels is complete.

Younger bust

Here is the continuation of the previous portrait since I have changed models.  I learned a lot about the differences in the ages of faces by changing from an older woman in her fifties to a younger model of age fifteen. The area around the mouth in particular, the jaw line and they eye areas are so very different.  In a younger person, the eye sockets are more filled. The mouth is full. The muscles around the mouth are plump. The Jaw line is cleaner.

Teenagers are lazy! That’s the most important lesson. I have to wrestle this girl (my daughter) out of bed at two in the afternoon. She gets to sit there and read a book, but she’d prefer to lie down.

Sculpture Bust

Here is the very beginning of a larger than life portrait bust in clay. I had about 2 hours with the original model and, even though I think it would have been very nice looking, because she is a beautiful woman, she is in her 50′s and I realized I wanted a more youthful face. In this picture I just pulled off the plastic and started reducing along the jaw line and making changes. …and now I have a new model!

My daughter is going to pose for this portrait. She works cheap and can read a book while I sculpt!

The sleeper

  

Here’s a reclining male I recently finished sculpting. The model was fantastic. This piece is about 19 inches long.

The Good Dream

This work can be seen in progress here: A Puncture Saves a Thousand Curves

Sharing the Light

Here is a recent Interview of me done by talented writer, Michelle Rosenthal. I’ve asked Michelle to do a guest sculpture for my blog. ~  It is important to me to continue to share that series of work I did on PTSD and it’s my aspiration that others going through this will perhaps walk away happier, more sure of themselves, with more hope than they had when they came.

Before I part with that series of sculpture, I want to show it as a group in real life, where people can actually come and see it for themselves. I’m not sure when or where this will happen, but I did finally get the courage to speak to a local gallery about it and the response is encouraging so far.

p.s. When I say “I did finally get the courage”, what I mean is I went with my friend, Ahmed Fadaam, to a gallery that had already invited him to exhibit there, to show them some of his portrait drawings, which are incredible.  We walked in the door with his drawings and he says to the Director of the gallery, “We’re here to show you her [my] sculpture.”

A Puncture Saves a Thousand Curves

 

Here is a clay sketch with channels cut before finishing. This sculpture is finished and in the drying process now. About 19 inches long.

In the Rubble

There’s something special in this pile of rubble. This was a quick sketch I did of a model that I never finished.

I abandoned it in my garage for months. I did not add the usual labyrinth of channels I like to cut into these before firing. It was completely covered so it really didn’t have a good drying program.  Then temps during that time got down to about 16 degrees. This piece was very close to the door of the garage so it was well below freezing. I rediscovered it recently and I fired it just to see what would happen.

See how the figure held together? Every time a sculptor touches the clay, it becomes stronger. I love what happened with this piece.

Small Gust of Wind

I’m so tired of working on this one, I have to stop now.  It’s difficult to handle due to the pose and positioning of the support.   I started on an armature. After I removed this one from the armature, I hollowed it out, then I made a clay support that goes under her rear end to support the weight while the legs dry and she’s being fired.  (I removed the clay support for the photo.)

I’ll sand her after she’s fired to giver her a nice, smooth finish. She is 13 inches tall.

The middle of a man

 

Here’s an absolutely gorgeous torso in clay by my friend, Jim Fatata, who runs Litmus Gallery and Studios and the Raleigh Sculpture Group, where he teaches. This one’s in the drying stage and stands about 27 inches tall.