Brushed Kato Polyclay over gold-plated wire & archival tissue paper. The tissue paper & wire were coated with PVA glue and allowed to dry, supplying the clay with a congenial surface. Several colours of Pearl Ex powder, from Jacquard, were brushed on, as well. This was the first pair I made in this way, actually. Now I prepare to attach them to somebody.
In 1987 the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, launched its model dinosaur line, “The Carnegie Collection”. I’ve worked with them since the beginning of that series, creating each creature with the guidance of the Carnegie’s experts, and learning a great deal the process. This is Caudipteryx, first the polymer clay original, with two painted resin prototypes below. Needless to say, we have some leeway on the colour, though we try to refer to appropriate living species. I use either Kato Polyclay or Classic Fimo for these models, with inset glass-bead eyes.
A very tiny pair of friends. Kato Polyclay, with brush bristles, and
Genesis heat-set oil paints.
Lou is my mother. I aim to make a large gallery page of her work.
This faery is ready to fly to eBay, tonight or tomorrow. I’ll announce her debut
on my eBay mailing list (if you’d like to sign up for that, see the link at right). These are the same wings as pictured below, in the Jan. 29 entry. It’s harder to capture the colours when somebody’s wearing them! The faery would stand about 8 inches tall, were she not sitting on a mushroom. The fibers in her ‘skirt’ are distressed silk gauze, in very pale green & pink. I believe she is dressed for a fay event, but she did not tell me what that might be.
...where I'm working like mad, aiming at upcoming events.
I’m occasionally asked whether I draw my 3-D figures before I sculpt them. Well, sort of. Some people make beautifully precise drawings of their planned sculptures, while others...
Observe the grand scrabblings above: my plans for two pieces aimed at the
‘Magnum Opus’ figurative art exhibition next month. Yes, my great works. Anyone wanna guess what they are? One futile hint: there are a total of four figures within these scrawls, and not all of them are human.
Artists do it on paper napkins...
Magnum Opus: http://www.magnumopus-show.com
Divine Studio, 21 East Fourth St. NYC, 10 Feb. 2007
An old Selkie. Rather, an old picture of a young Selkie -- done perhaps ten years ago. Ink, watercolor pencil, with unorthodox (even uncouth) use of watercolor. Arches Hot Press paper, off a block, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, which are great if you favor drawing over painting, but desire colour.
I aim to do some more Selkies, in two and three dimensions.
I remember the moment when I consciously concluded that there is always more than one expression in a face at a given instant, and that capturing this is key to a living image (the moment was working on a Vasilisa tale sketch, as it happened).
Just another detail from my take on 'Vasilisa the Beautiful.'
Blue Faery Dreaming, an "ACEO" card (Artist Cards, Editions & Originals, a phenomenon on eBay and elsewhere, standard trading card size at 2.5" x 3.5").
I have a bird, Little Ahab, a slightly disabled dove, and my darling. He gazes upon me even now, with one dear beady eye, from a favorite roost atop an eight foot triptych. This bird trusts me (most of the time). Like most domestic birds, he would meet a tragic end, swift or slow, were he to escape outdoors. I have nightmares about him lost, hobbling the gutters, the dim image of his seed, pellet, salad, and treat dishes fading in his tiny, starving brain...
In a recent dream, I found myself inexplicably wandering St. Peter’s Basilica, clutching my squirming birdie in my hands. St. Peter’s: that’s one big place. I was last there with some hundred and eighty Sisters of Christian Charity, for the Beatification of Mother Pauline Von Mallinckrodt (whose portrait I had done). You can lose 180 nuns in St. Peter's, and their substantial relatives too, never mind one tiny bird.
Throughout the dream I traipsed that vast and intricate marble edifice, Little Ahab wriggling ever more energetically. I realized his escape in St. Peter’s would be as bad or worse than escape in Rhode Island. They’re almost the same size. I’d have to remain in St. Peter’s permanently, for the rest of my life, leaving food for my bird. Doves have been known to live near 30 years. If fed properly.
Would the great rotunda be the place to sprinkle his dinner? Would he see me, and come? Or would he starve, and, unbeknownst to me, drop behind the great Bernini altarpiece, leaving me to scatter futile Mazuri Small Bird Maintenance Diet near the Pieta until my own demise, years hence...
Like I said, never take your bird to the Vatican.
Below, a detail from my portrait of Mother Pauline, which was full figure and somewhat larger than life. I worked from one photograph; the only one taken of her before her death in 1881. She had a wonderful face, and a kind heart:
This painting was sent to Milan, as a pattern for a mosaic. There, sadly, it was stolen by a disgruntled liturgical arts company employee, and never seen again. I also did a large sculpture of Mother Pauline with a child, in plasticine (which weighed near 400 lbs. -- see Liturgical Work gallery). Traveling to Rome and Germany with sisters from the order Mother Pauline founded was wholly fascinating...
But, anon.
Just a quick image...
...or, making strong 3-D spiky things in polymer clay. This figure would stand about 8 inches in stocking feet. She flew to her new home via eBay, arriving undamaged.
My motto: Look like a butterfly, ship like a tennis ball.
To achieve this, one first needs a strong material. Amongst polymer clays, I recommend Kato Polyclay, Classic Fimo and Puppen Fimo. I understand Cernit is also quite strong, but I’ve not worked with it. No doubt there are others: experiment, and check out the enormous polyclay reference site, Glass Attic:
http://www.glassattic.com/
To test clay strength, I roll little ‘snakes’ (worms, if you prefer) as thin as my thinnest planned finger, tail, or other appendage, and bake them thoroughly. Then I set about bending and snapping them. Most informative. And I always make sure to cure a clay as long and hot as the manufacturer suggests. Under baked polymer clay is like ceramic greenware -- very fragile. Kato clay and the Fimos mentioned above all take long, repeated baking very well, though there may be some colour shift. Again, experiment.
Armatures: I armature everything, including fingers (many achieve beautiful fingers without armature, but... well, I need something to press against). Overall, an armature strengthens and supports, and in these winter faeries, each protrusion is built over wire. I now use a gold-plated or gold-filled wire, as this seems to help prevent verdigris. And for a tiny critter, it’s not too expensive.
To help the polymer clay adhere to the wire, I paint it with Gem-tac glue. That’s a white glue, that happens to be particularly good a clinging to nonporous surfaces. Sobo would do as well, if you can get it to cover the wire. I let the glue dry on the armature. The polyclay adheres well with dried white (PVA) glue.
Another good armature material: Aves Apoxie Sculpt, Fixit or Fixit Sculpt. Read about them at the Aves site: http://avesstudio.com/
I’m partial to the Fixit Sculpt. I cover an armature with it, then coat it with a PVA glue, as above. The polymer clay adheres well, is supported during baking, and, thus far, I’ve not had cracking problems (I watched for this, given the possibility of varied shrinking/cooling rates).
But enough for now. E-mail me if you have a question about this, and, despite cultivating a fashionable degree of ADD, I’ll aim to answer! Soon. Really.
A detail from a Snow Queen in progress, oil on canvas. I wanted to capture the remote nature of the character as she appears to me, chill and numinous. The boy (Kay, in the Hans Christian Andersen story) is a near likeness of my father as a child. He fled this world poignantly early, and this tale felt fitting.
And then there’s social media, of course: