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Observer14 — Sheltered
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#ceramicsculpture #claysculpture #female #figure #hands #resting #safe #shelter #terracotta
Published: 2015-10-22 22:10:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 1228; Favourites: 32; Downloads: 3
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Description
Clay. hands are just a little smaller than life size.original WIP post here: observer14.deviantart.com/art/…
I was working with a teen student who wanted to do a sculpture of two hands holding something. We spent around 10 hours over four days working together, and for someone who had done very little work with clay before, she did an excellent job!
Of course, as I was teaching, I was making my own sculpture to demonstrate the various steps to her. However, when we reached the point of the hands being done, I decided to do another figure. It took me a long time to figure out how to position the child in the hands here to make the pose look natural, and finally came to this point.
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Comments: 19
Thank you! A very good friend bought it when she told me she saw herself perfectly in the figure.
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Thank you Holly! Some lovely figure drawing work in your gallery!
(apologies for delayed response -- have been in a study program in Italy for a couple of months, so a little distracted... 
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I want to try to use another clay which will be more comfortable to use and more quality...
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Question is, do you have a place to fire natural clay if you get it?
Otherwise, you man need to ask some of the people who work with Polymer clay. I've used Sculpy, and like it, but haven't used it a lot.
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What kind of clay do you use, Charles? I mean the name of this clay...
Just I use a very cheap clay... And this clay is not so good... It's Fimo Basic... Do you know this clay? This clay is pretty difficult to use...
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One thing about living here in Georgia is that they have a lot of really good clay here.
One important thing to remember: There is a HUGE difference between "natural" earth based clay, and plastic based polymer clay like Fimo or Sculpy. I have seen people here who do absolutely *amazing* work with polymer clay, but it's a completely different beast from the water based clay that I use. I have to keep my clay moist, and then let it completely dry before firing in a high temperature kiln up to around 1,222°C. Polymer clay can be baked in a normal oven, which makes it a lot cheaper in terms of equipment.
The advantage of polymer clay is that it doesn't dry out as you work it, and you can get incredibly fine detail when you get good at it. Disadvantage is that it can be a little fussy to sculpt, and it is a LOT more expensive per pound than natural clay. Natural clay is inexpensive for larger quantities, and extremely strong when you are finished. (Well... except for the little tiny fingers, which can still break off pretty easy.
I normally use different varieties of red terracotta clay, without a lot of "grog" in them. Grog gives the clay more strength (and less shrinking when drying), but leaves a gritty texture and sometimes speckles on the surface. You basically have to experiment with different kinds of clay to find what you really like. It's taken me a couple of years to narrow down to the couple of clay types that I use now.
Hope that helps!!
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Thank you Esra! I really like how the figure turned out in this one...
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Thanks! Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.
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