For the recent “Art of Racing in The Rain” Show at the ES Public Library, I thought I’d try my hand at sculpting. So I settled on a portrait of our greyhound, Serena, for the subject. (Click the images for a closer look)
Although we do plenty of ceramics, we rarely do sculpture. So we don’t have much equipment, especially when it comes to armatures. So I used a paper armature (fancy term for balled-up newspaper), and stuck it on top of a piece of copper pipe, which I clamped down in a rotating vice. When I’m finished, the paper can stay in and will burn away in the kiln.
This is the point when I realized that the thing was going to stay together and would eventually look vaguely like a dog. So, I needed some reference pics. Good thing our dog just lays around, she wasn’t hard to find!
You can see my model sheet there in the background, as I set upon trying to find the right proportions and capture somewhat of a likeness.
This was the end of day 1:
The next day was mostly fidgeting. Being a novice sculptor, I wanted to keep it simple, and wasn’t going to try and work up a lot of fine detail. I’m all about manageable goals!
And There you have it for the sculpting, next stop; the Kiln! I’m pleased to say that it survived both firings, the first one burned out the newspaper armature and for the glaze-firing I used a clear glaze in order to keep it smooth and white:
I cut down the copper pipe I used to hold it up while sculpting and reinserted it, then attached it to a wood base.
And that’s it! It was done in time for the show and well received. Thanks for looking!
–Neal
