learn to sculpt

My friend Bethany and I had some lovely girl time last Saturday, and that involved me sculpting a wine glass! She’s been doing this kind of sculpting for years, and showed me a gorgeous picture of a goblet she created for her significant other, that included a long braided piece of clay. Gorgeous.

She showed me how to mold the clay together, but not so much that it becomes an entirely different colour. I used string-bean (colour pictured above) and a rich hazelnut. They melted together perfectly. The glass is always going to remind me to drink minty chocolaty things inside of it.
I’ll have to take pictures soon…

I have this old Reader’s Digest Craft book that my grandmother bought for me when I was around 7 years old. It’s so funny to look through it now because it has those typically 70’s arts and crafts things like string art, macrame plant holders and those long knitted vest sweater things with big pom-pom ties. (I recall having to wear those crocheted winter hats with a big poof ball at the top because Gram was a mad crochet person. She also crocheted a purse for me. I was so stylin’ as a child with my bell bottom pantsuits and my crocheted accessories. It’s a wonder I haven’t blacked it all out.)

But that Reader’s Digest book has a section that fascinated me as a child: sculpture. Step by step they teach you how to make a bust, a figure and a very ugly coil pitcher. I have a cheap set of tools and a few pounds of unopened clay. I want to make something this year. Sculpting feels like a late summer/early fall thing to me.

Since this is one of the things on my list that’s gotten a top number of cheers, I’m taking it as a sign to get off my ass and actually do it.

Now I have to think about what it is I want to create.

This one is about 25cm high and about that wide. It’s an alchemical retort and receiver flask done up as a soldered steel wire sculpture.

This one is steel and copper wire, about 30cm tall. I call it “Mouth to Feed”

Wouldn’t it be great to sculpt something beautiful? But I can’t do this on my own—I need to find a teacher.

I made the greatest mud pies as a kid. Smooth, creamy, beautiful things. Sometimes I just couldn’t wait for the rain and I’d have to sneak a bowl of water outside and pour it into the dusty ground before I got caught and once again branded as a “strange child.”

I love the slippery feel of wet earth in my hands, I love using mud masks for facials. One day I’ll do one of those spa mud baths (I’d do it in my tub if I could figure out how to clean it after!) And of course, one of my ultimate fantasies is wrestling around with a lover in the mud during a violent thunderstorm. Mmmm…

Anyway, I have a earth/clay/mud affinity (what do you expect from a Taurus with her Venus in Taurus?) I want to take a lump of clay and use my fingers to push and dig and stretch it into expression. I think I admire working with hands more than anything, because you’re so close to your art. I have some tools, I bought a cheap set at the store, and I have a package of clay. Now I’m just waiting for the inspiration.

I know you can sculpt using other materials, but clay is the one I really like. Maybe it started with the smell of Play Doh. I still love that smell.

(I’d like to try pottery too, but classes are really expensive here, and I don’t have a kiln to use.)

Last week I bought a 1000mm x 400mm x 60mm slab of red gum timber to make the jaws of the Neolithic Workmate sculpture. One edge still has the rough bark line, and I plan to leave that as is. It will be on the fixed front jaw side.

This week I planed the slab smooth and ripped it into two 400mm wide planks on the table saw at school. I’ve also cut several fallen eucalyptus branches into the various parts of the two H-frames; these I am joining with mortise and tenon joints for strength.

The base will be a red gum frame with woven willow twigs in between forming the step platform. This is partly to reduce weight, but mainly because it should look cool.

Rather than break my expensive lump of flint up into lots of little, useless pieces, I’m trying out knapping with beer bottle glass—much cheaper.

It’s going to take time, but I’m beginning to get glimmerings of the idea.

I’m making an all-wood folding portable workbench as a sculpture; it will be a sort of Neolithic Black & Decker Workmate. I’ve just bought 3+ metres of 2×6 red gum plank to get a start on it.

I would love to used Mulga (a very hard, dense acacia wood found in arid areas, such as the Flinders), but I didn’t think to gather any while I was on walkabout at Iga Warta last week.

A1 Timber in Hahndorf (just 25km from my house) had some Mulga in stock, but it was quite expensive. I reckon it would have cost over $100AU for enough billets of Mulga to do the job.

Sigh.

Anyway, I also bought a 20-lb lump of flint to try my hand at flint knapping for yet another sculpting project. Maybe I can make a set of Neolithic chisels to go with the Workmate :)

A gross of paper airplanes. This doesn’t look nearly as impressive in the photo as it does in person.