I am still trying to find the right format for the project posts. The image slider was just too long on the first post. Splitting up the second post was not right either. Tonight I am mixing image sliders in at various points in the text. Could this be my Goldilocks moment? I hope so.
It was fun in its own way getting the other two body moulds done. I resisted the temptation to start the next step without getting all the bodies to the same state of readiness first. Had to stay focussed. So another week of build ups, pouring plaster and the other steps to get my supply of wax dummies made.
Each of the two bodies had to be prepped for the moulding process. The tool I am using to smooth the wax into the joints has been heated with a micro torch. Hot tools are useful in the finishing process.
I always start my clay buildups from a slab that I cut into strips. It’s the fastest and simplest way to get the clay buildup done in a controlled way. I use a combination of fingertips and tools.
To get nice shots of pouring, I went to the shortest possible interval settings in the auto cameras. This is where the image count can explode if you are not careful. You don’t want to shoot two images per second with one and every ten seconds with the other for too long a session. Needless to say, countless images were discarded to collect the few shown here.
A lot of processes involve the change of state from liquid to solid. The plaster is poured as a liquid that hardens in a few minutes. The liquid wax is poured into hardened plaster moulds where it hardens before releasing. Porcelain slip will later be poured into the plaster moulds where it will harden.
The need for constant photo management has become more and more apparent as the weeks pass. Experiments with increasingly shorter intervals between the shots from the two hands free cameras used have been successful at capturing fleeting moments of the process but left me with many thousands of images to sort through each week. Daily photo editing is the new normal.
Something I admire in many antique figures is their animated quality. They portray fleeting moments frozen in time (much like the auto cameras capture my frozen movements as I work).
My figures will portray a frozen moments in time. Five figures engaged with the world they inhabit. Not people standing still. There may be some trial and error. Not every avenue leads you where you need to go. Thus the extra wax copies. Room to explore. When I did this kind of remodelling in porcelain, it took an average of about three days for each posed figure. Will have to see how that compares with the wax.
Ideas about the setting for the figures are in development. My plan is to model poses this week but the temptation will be there to begin building the set (bases). Have to see which way it goes.
