



It is better to work solid over a clay armature especially if you are not using a scale-model and hollow out just before finishing touches. This is a real disadvantage irregardless of your skill level. They can demand that you harden lower sections before you can build upwards and you are then unable to change them when you later realize they are wrong. Most techniques for building hollow, coiling or slabs, have a strong ‘voice’ of their own and will influence the final look of the piece.
Easy cat clay sculpture crack#
Most cause disruption because they have to be removed: clay will shrink as it dries and crack around a rigid armature. And they limit your option to change your mind. All other types of Armatures must be perfect in shape or they will ruin the sculpture. It is not rocket science and you can do it.īecause clay shrinks as it dries and is floppy when very wet, a Clay Armature that will support and shrink with the form through the drying and the firing is invaluable. Like a pianist ‘doing scales’ you will build up the small muscles, motor-skills and neural pathways involved in this challenging, rewarding activity. The more you practice these invaluable skills the more you will see improvement in all your artwork, your general concentration and your ability to see. That’s why the study of Portraiture and Figurative Sculpture is traditionally the bed-rock of making Art. Learning this system will broaden your knowledge, and your access to more knowledge, enormously. Portraiture has a system to organise the huge quantity of subtle details. Making a sculpture of that living, moving, person requires going against what ‘feels’ right and using information we are unlikely to have bothered with before. The key reason making naturalistic forms is so hard is that our perception (the way we take in our knowledge) that we have built up over our lifetime of what shape the thing is, is based around our general experience of that animal. Fur, muscle shapes changing with the pose and fore-shortening in photos can confuse you leading to sculptures that are a cross between lifeless, amateur taxidermy and stuffed toys. The skeleton is a stick-figure with the right proportions (so important when you are being species specific) set out clearly and unambiguously. And you will be using the process to reorganize the information in your head: there is no better way to do that than hands-on. You get to avoid hollowing out so that you can play around with textures while you are building. A simple clay armature supports the weight throughout the build and gives you a central point that you can work outwards from, allowing that most important key to success: making loads of mistakes and fixing them. This is the same technique I now use for making heads. Skinny legs supporting big bodies or building on larger scale where the weight of the clay is a huge issue causes a lot of problems. Furriness or our perceptions built around our relationships can confuse the information and make it hard to see. Returned to clay, taking elective classes at Rochester Institute of Technology and working in others' studios.Ģ006 - Founded Cat Clay in the historic Hungerford Building.Ģ011 - Began making picture pots, with custom-designed images fired onto my own pieces and vintage chinaĢ013 - Introduced mugshot line, with actual mugshot images of musicians and other celebrities fired onto - wait for it - mugs.We animals are frequently surprisingly similar and identifying those differences can be really difficult. Big Whoop! See Sample Soap.Ģ001 - 2005 - Developed organic brain disease, which ended my corporate career. We won a Nation Make-a-Difference Day award, appeared on a syndicated quiz show and in People Magazine. Thank god for in-state tuition and a great campus.ġ973 - 2001 Worked for several large corporations as a business person and CPA.ġ990 - Founded a swell charity, Sample Soap, which NEVER asks for money. Trust us, Miss Beckett's would be much more interesting.ġ950 - 1968 Grew up in Detroit, Michigan.ġ968 - 1979 Got over-educated at University of Michigan. Sabra wood is her mediocre servant and sole employee.įor unfathomable reasons, Sabra's lengthy bio follows. She's a gorgeous calico, rescued as a kitten when she was 8 weeks old. Beckett Wood is the reincarnation of Clifton Wood.
