Blog | Silver Lining Sculptures

Adding clothes to the female form in sculpture

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:04:36 -0600

The pose was classical nude, but I wanted to sculpt something a bit more casual, contemporary and fresh. When I began sculpting this figure, the attitude of the stance gave me the impression of someone waiting - caught between patience and impatience - you know - when you've been waiting patiently but now are beginning to get just a bit antsy because there is really someplace you want to be....

This summer we took a trip to Switzerland and Italy and I was enthralled by the public transportation there. Buses and trains, in addition to walking and bikes are an everyday mode of getting around and people are so cavalier about getting where they want to go in this manner. As we don't have commuter trains and not a very convenient bus route/time in my town, this was fascinating to me. Especially because we love trains!

So this young woman is representative of that feeling - she's "Waiting on the #9".

The model brought in a beach dress, but I wanted something that looked more like a dress you'd wear in the city - so I created one that I liked and gave her casual flip flops. Next, I'll be adding a sweet and sassy little handbag casually draped from her fingers behind her back.

Continuing the roughing in of standing figure sculpture

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:57:57 -0600

This is a continuation of blocking in the standing figure on day 3. I'm using my ipad to take quick photos as I go so the quality of photo isn't very good, especially the lighting.

After I took these photos, I raised up her support bar on the armature stand so I could add some additional clay under her feet. I felt it was too thin, plus I had decided that I wanted to have her wearing flip flops and a dress and needed room to put her shoes. Also the slightly larger base will give the piece more support - both in bronze and also when I ship the soft clay across the country back home to continue working.

I find the darker red clays are a bit more difficult to see the form over the lighter tan clays. Not everyone will agree with me on that, but it's a personal preference.

I made many changes as I worked quickly and didn't have the opportunity to photo those changes. I cut her head off twice to raise and lengthen her neck. It was correct by the proportions of the model, but didn't feel quite right on my piece, for the attitude that I was going to convey. So those changes were quite satisfying to make. When sculpting for yourself, you're quite free to change proportions and faces and hair - something I do quite often. That's not the case for a true portrait, of course, where you need to represent the client accurately. However, as I'm deciding the course of this particular piece it's quite liberating to create her however pleases me. Tomorrow I will post photos of the piece as I've started to sculpt her clothes and shoes - which I enjoyed tremendously.

Standing figure sculpting with Chavant clay

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:39:18 -0600

I'm back from my trip to Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina where I attended a sculpting workshop by John Sherrill Houser. We had a wonderful model and the grounds and sculptures on display were lovely. The lighting, however was dismal and very difficult to work under. We had a week-long pose that we worked from and the last day, we had the model bring in some dresses. I have been wanting to work on clothing so was pleased that the class agreed to this approach.

We had and armature and board and were sculpting using Chavant's Le Beau Touche. I've worked with Chavant clay before and it's quite good. Brookgreen had a warming box and when warm, it is easy to manipulate.

I would add, however, for the way that I work, I think that this clay is better suited to larger pieces. Since we were working with a 16" armature, the clay was a bit soft for my style of working. At a larger size, I would think it would be well manipulated by fingers and would work quite well. It did stick to tools quite a bit and I found that I had to keep baby wipes handy to to clean my tools down quite a lot.

Portrait bust of Harriet Tubman with patina

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:44:16 -0600

The firing of my ceramic portrait bust "Triumph of Harriet Tubman" went quite smoothly. Here is the finish sculpture mounted on a simple wooden base with glaze patina.

Tradtional Patina on Bronze Ascension

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:44:57 -0600

This is the traditional bronze patina on the same sculpture, Ascension. Interesting how the patina can change the look of a sculpture. They are both beautiful in different ways.

In other happy news, I'm happy to say that I was again selected to show my work at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational 2012 - so time to get back in the studio, finish those two waxes and get back to sculpting!

Bronze Ascension with stone-like patina

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:44:13 -0600

Ascension is finally finished. This bronze is number 1/33 and has a neutral stone-like patina. You can see that the fabric draping from her hips begins to darken until it becomes the same value as the base granite. This is what I had envisioned: a light to dark composition emphasizing the rising of the woman. I had planned on having the drapery more earthy greens and blues, but that was before I started the bronze process and before I had learned about the limits of good patina. Rather than risk having the patina change too much over time or be garish in color, I opted for a more muted palette, which is in keeping with the very quiet nature of the piece. The base is a lovely granite called Nordic Green. Truly it is more of a soft black with hints of greens and coppery browns when the light strikes it on an angle. I also paid extra to have a revolving base, which makes it easy to turn and view all sides of her.

This first bronze has already been sold to Marie...I have an Artist's Proof for myself with a traditional patina, which I will have photos of tomorrow. Two more waxes of Ascension are nearly complete and will be taken to the foundry soon to begin their journey into bronze.

Refining the clay sketch maquette

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:59:46 -0700

Chasing the bronze "Ascension"

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:02:37 -0700

First bronze pouring of "Ascension"

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:59:01 -0700

Refining the figure (clay maquette sketch)

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:07:28 -0700

Creating a clay sketch (Maquette)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:12:09 -0700

Preparing my board and 18" Truform Armature

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:36:38 -0700

Prepaing Jmac Clay for sculpting

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:43:32 -0700

Wax Sprues & Ceramic Shells

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:26:42 -0700

Chasing Ascension Wax

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:59:11 -0700

Harriet Tubman Ceramic Portrait Bust Complete

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:18:47 -0700

Mother Molds and Wax Pours

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:18:48 -0700

Harriet Tubman Sculpture Portrait Demo

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:18:09 -0700