Not everything went as I imagined at assembly time.
There was a critical flaw with the trees. They were top heavy and unbalanced when put together. Had to give the branches a trim. Found myself liking them a lot more once they were cut back.
I was not satisfied with Huggy Bear’s arms. I think in my efforts to finish the moulds, I told myself the arms were good when they still needed work. Ended up having to rework them after they were taken from the moulds. These arms are partly cast and partly hand built. Just this once.
When I am back to mould making next month, I am giving the bear’s arms a do-over. The real problem for me is that somewhere along the line, I lost track of the human arms that are supposed to be underneath. They will be better the second time around.
Enjoyed having the separate elements to play with. With these being one offs instead of a set, I took the freedom to move components around. Discovered I like having a tree behind the bench more than I like having the mesh garbage can there. Made a new base with the proper supports for both tree and bench.
It was always my intention to have a vessel aspect to these sculptures. A nod to my pottery roots. The small branches of each tree form an opening to the interior space. More symbolic than functional.
The cat heads are still presenting some difficulties. A length of the foot separated from the body of one of the larger heads during the two days it was in the mould firming. I patched and reattached which may or may not hold in the firing. The smaller cat head is supposed to have fangs in the open mouth. These proved trickier to hand build nicely and attach than I imagined. I finally got one head looking good only to knock a couple of the fangs out when I was cleaning it up. Too dry now. Will have to make separately and attach post firing.
I may make the fangs out of resin. Then glue them in place at the end.
The sculpture with the tree, garbage can and plushy toy is incomplete but can still be fired and glazed once it is dry. I want to fill the can with miniature porcelain ‘trash’. Need to do some research at the park to see what exactly gets throw in them. I am picturing a set of items that can be removed and examined individually. Won’t likely be getting any trash made until next month or even as late as the Fall.
As was the case last week, I am not posting process pics. Not enough time with the looming show deadline. It is going to be a test of my endurance to finish this work on time as it is. Will revisit the process pics in August.
Many of the first copies became part of the learning experience. A good review about putting this kind of work together. Had to make some additional copies to get things right. While moulds might technically work, one still has to learn how best to use them.
Hoping to have a few of these in the bisque fire by the end of the week.
