Fun with clay...

I took several art classes in high school. I loved drawing, painting, and print work, but my favorite was 3D art, or in other works, sculpting. I'm no prodigy or anything, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of it...the kind of thing where you can get lost for hours and not even notice. I've dabbled it in a little since high school...I carved a plaster sculpture of Mt. Rushmore with the heads of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead of the presidents for my brother, Mike, for Christmas in 2005 or 2006 (can't remember which). I wish I had a picture of it, but I never took one. I'm not sure if he even still has the sculpture. Then, last year in January I bought a hunk of clay so I could start a new project: a chess set for my brother-in-law, Justin. It was quite an undertaking to begin with, in fact, Gio didn't think I was serious when I was explaining to him what I wanted to make. Here's the idea: a physics themed set with a bust of Einstein for the King, the equation E=MC2 for the queen, rockets for the bishops, microscopes for the knights, mushroom clouds for the rooks, and apples (symbolizing gravity) for the pawns. I figured I would make one of each out of clay, then make a mold to duplicate the figures exactly. Well, I got farther than Gio expected me to, but I ran into some hiccups with the molding process, and some general laziness, but a year later I'm back in the game! Because of a bad molding technique last year, the rocket broke, and the apple stem fell off. I haven't finished the microscope yet, but here are the pieces I have so far:

In order to complete this project, I will need to invest some substantial dollars into it. The proper molding technique uses supplies which are sort of pricy. Also, I'll need to make a new rocket (which won't be hard). I just need to find a place to buy the goods, and work up the motivation to finish it. Hopefully in the next couple months I'll find both of them. This is one reason that one of my goals for the year is to FINISH one sculpture every month.

Another reason I have that goal is my other unfinished clay project of 2009. Last September or so I pulled out what was left of that hunk of clay to release some steam and find my "happy place." :) I worked on it for a couple of nights, but I ended up getting frustrated with the proportions on the piece I was making. It's a girl standing on a cliff with the wind blowing her hair and her dress. To me it symbolizes that moment right before you make a bad decision...the moment where you realize you haven't jumped yet, and you can still turn around and come down.

The proportions are off because I didn't look at any pictures while I was sculpting. It was just for fun, so I didn't really care if it was perfect, and I didn't want to be bound by an image. I just wanted to see what would come out. I don't have fancy clay tools, so I used a plastic spoon, one of the tongs of a plastic fork, the little wire part of a twist-tie, and my hands. Even though I tried to keep it moist for a while so I could finish it, I waited too long. It's dried out now, so I can't fix the proportion problems, I can only fine sand it a bit and clear coat it for protection. It is what it is.

So, one sculpture a month in 2010 is my goal, and I haven't really thought about January's project yet. I've worked with clay and plaster the most...a little bit with wire, so I'm not even sure which medium to use. I'd like to try something new, but I also want to improve my clay technique. We'll see.