Studio Work: June - July 2007

 
A pedestal upon which a Face sculpture will be mounted. This picture was taken while the polyurethane was curing so the crown is slightly askew so that the crown would not adhere to the base.

 Lower Deck of the pedestal.

Close-up view of the crown, the crown is set askew on the pedestal so that the urethane can dry without sticking.

 

 
The Finished product.  Since it was too tall to assemble in my studio, I waited to assemble it at its debut at The Colorado State Fair Fine Art Exhibit, At the time of this update I have heard nothing about this piece being accepted to the Exhibit.  By the way if you are viewing this and you or your art is pictured here and you do not want it or you to be displayed, let me know and I will take it  down.
A pedestal upon which the Bone Sprout Shrine sits.

Close-up view of the Bone Sprout Shrine
Green ware  press molds for decoration of the Bone Sprout Shrine pedestal. The molds are drying under a heat lamp. The use of a heat lamp cuts down the dry time by about 70%. The molds range from 3/4" to 1 and a 1/2 of an inch so that when they dry the mold  distorts very little. Due to the thickness of the clay of this type of mold dryness is a must. After they spend 24 hours under the heat lamp they will be placed on lid of the kiln around the rim for the duration of a cone 5 firing.

 These little pieces are what came out of the press molds, pictured here they are sitting on wax paper to allow the rubber paste to cure. the rubber paste will act as a cushion when they are mounted to the pedestal of the Bone Sprout Shrine pedestal

 

This Series of photos is a documentation of the process of creating 23 skulls for the sculpture Blue Temple.
The finished sculpts are made from a two piece mold then joined together and adjusted.

1. The original sculpt the the molds are made from

2. The back of the scull sculpt

3. The front of the scull sculpt
The pieces are laid out after being taken out of the mold and the extra clay removed
The pieces flipped, scored on the back and ready to be slipped together.
Slip is being applied with a small brush. The slip I use is a mixture of multiple cone 5 clays, water and a small amount of tissue paper.
The skull sculpts have been joined and are ready for adjustment.
This is the adjustment tool, on the left is the socket tip used for defining the eye sockets of the skull sculpts. on the right is the nose  and tooth tip used for defining the nose cavity, teeth and the area between the two.
Finished skull sculpts.