Using Photoshop to Assemble "Lorelei"

Yes, that's her name, and the last piece was finished (building) only, just two days ago. The top two sections have been bisque fired, the bottom three are in various drying stages, hopefully ready for bisque firing next week or so, in this weather, drying is pretty fast. Since I can't assemble her I have had to enlist aid at the studio to hold the various sections in place so I could get some sort of visual bechmark, there is still a lot I don't know yet, until I can really stack the pieces one on top of the other. But by the time I can do that, I won't be able to change much. Well using Photoshop, I have stacked her just to see how she "might" look. Not too bad for my first major sculpture attempt. I think she will end up being about 60--62" tall with several inches of each piece lost as they fit inside another piece. Since I can't actually place the items onto the lower pieces since they are too soft, I had to do it with Photoshop and the photos I have taken along the way. Now to get each piece through the bisque and glaze firing process, hope to have her done for the September Art Show. It has been grueling working on her in the studio ----hot and sweaty work. About 80 lb of clay all together. I think this project has gotten me over the desire to make "big" things, at least for now.

Avatar maybe

In between struggling with my full size figure--garden girl, I whipped out this vase again using a face, but a studio friend at first look thought I was trying to make her look like the Avatar image, but actually I havn't even seen the movie, nor thought along those lines, however, if that is what she looked like to him, maybe he has something, so if you think so to, Avatar she is. But I love the way she turned out. Also made some ceramic hooks to test some glazes on my paper clay to help decide how to glaze my full size figure. Also found my silkscreen worked fairly nicely over two of my matte glazes, silkscreened underglaze on top of applied but dry, but not yet fired, glazes. I had done some previous experiments with this also and it works well.

Record three posts in one day

Another grouping showing progress made on my garden girl today. Another studio friend, Karen Harbaugh was nice enough to hold the top section just about where it would rest (clay on bottom is still too soft to support the weight of the head and shoulders without someone holding it. But I have the arms in place and a nest for her to hold, now she is back under wraps to dry and next week I will tackle the two pieces of the skirt and start thinking about other decorations. I may silkscreen quotations/poems about the garden on her not sure at the moment. But, I am very pleased so far. Also, my jumping frogs sold to the first person who saw it. I will do one with butterflies too, that should be fun. Well, now to get ready for my weekend company, daughter and family will be coming and our grandaughter will be Miss Liberty in our local parade. Promises to be great fun.

Frogs are Jumping

In the meantime, I have been creating a few other whimsical things so I can take a break from the full body figure. I had fun making this and just finished it, makes me smile and hope it makes you smile too:

The Butterflies have landed

Phase II of my latest project (just to see if I can?) is to make a lifesize or almost lifesize figure, building it in phases and in sections due to kiln size limitations, hopefully,ultimately fitting together with a rebar in concrete support structure. The first phase, shown previously was the head, originally, I had planned to make a sea oriented figure, but have recently tired of the beach theme so when I wasn't looking, butterflies landed on her head, and changed my focus. I knew the first two phases, head and torso/hands would be the most difficult, and since I have never done this before, nor had a class on figure modeling, I was sort of just winging it. I started the bodice section on Monday and I did have a template for the place where the head section would fit on top, but because of the soft clay, I decided to build the bodice upside down, knowing I was taking a risk about proportions, etc. When that section hardened enough to turn right side up, I enlisted the help of one of my studio buddies, Roger Mansur, to hold the head section up over the bodice to see if it was close enough. For the past two days, I have been working on the arms (arghhh!), now knowing why so many figures are made without them. At any rate, I have now created a nest bowl for her to hold which helps disguise the hands a little. It is coming along and today I will take photos of that section too. She obviously is a garden girl now and the next two phases will be the skirt sections, each designed to fit with the other pieces. Whew, can't believe I have gotten this far. I did design the project so I could quit at each stage (first two), in case things didn't work out, but now I think I might have a shot at finishing her. When she was going to be sea oriented, I was calling her Lorelei, but now I am not sure she might need a new name. Still am contemplating decorating her with garden quotes, etc., and might even make a base to be able to put garden creatures, squirrels, bunnies, etc around her skirt. Well, here she is so far.