In the Works Wednesday

Silly title, I know. It's late. I decided not to post the new photos of the finished painted works because I'm *so* close to uploading the new website that I'll save them for there. The blog is more for the "in the works" stuff anyway. All those "in between" pictures of the piece before completion need a place too. This is it. So, in the spirit of that, here's some shots of some little misc. sculpture stuff I've been up to!

Remember those three sneak peek photos a few posts back? That's the Icelandic Horse hangin' in his second coating of rubber. All that good stuff is dripping down onto the Willy Remember Me portrait piece, who's in her first layer of rubber. Still lots of layers to go. I've been neglecting them too. The poor Icelandic, Baldur has been sitting in that first layer for over a month now. Mimi has been sitting there too, just sans rubber. It only takes me a half an hour or so to measure, mix, and apply the rubber to the two of them so I need to just set aside some time for them. 

I've also been experimenting with claybodying. For some time I've seen Darcy as an Arab, but never wanted to do all that customizing work in resin and Apoxie. Mud ponies provided the answer. :) 

I love it! Don't mind that back right foot. It's globby and will be sanded after she's bisque. I'm thinking fiery chestnut with chrome. Or a contrasty dappled rose gray. Not sure which way to go yet. The original Darcy bisqued is below so you can compare. 

Before the Fire

So you all remember the previous post where I showed off my new-to-me-kiln and the beginnings of Darcy's mold? Well, the mold has been finished and is a success!! I have two casts out of it and will be aiming for a third this week.

The casts have to dry out completely before being fired. Here is the first "bone dry" Darcy. All the casts are hollow, but at this point they feel deceptively hard. They aren't. I was sanding the bottom of her hooves to make sure she was perfectly level and that back right one popped right on off. I'm hoping it fires okay!

And this is a claybody custom in the "leather hard" stage. She's had all her pieces put together and has been out of the mold in my wet box for a few days. This is the point where I can really work with her and not worry about denting or deforming her. She's firm, but very easy to whittle away on. Notice the dark color of her vs. the above bone dry shots of the other mare. This is how much moisture content is in the slip! I'm not quite finished with the cleaning on this piece, but just about. 

I have to tell you just how much FUN it is to customize the clay! It's so completely different, and yet the same. You really have to have a soft touch, but once you get the feel for the medium it's amazing! Wrinkles are a breeze and come out SO nice! 

I'm really curious to see how this earthenware slip I bought fires. I had planned on buying the same stuff Karen G. uses but after months of waiting and bugging them, the supplier still hadn't made any so I had to look elsewhere. I've got a suspicion that this slip won't fire as "white" as the one I wanted. That's not a big deal for the initial few as it means they just won't have white markings as the white in china is made from wiping off the glaze to expose the bisque underneath. 

I've got a "fire day" with Karen on the 8th as the wonderful woman that she is is going to walk me through the firing process since this will be my first time (EVER) firing a kiln. First time molding and first time slip casting were successes so I'm hoping for a trifecta! Wish me luck. :)

Playing Dr. Frankenstein

Appropriate considering what holiday is next upon us! Apparently I've been subconsciously inspired to chop something up. And I happened to spy my next plastic victim on the shelf!

Poor Ringo! There is something just morbidly satisfying about slicing a plastic into many parts and scorching it with my heat gun. Considering this was all I did in my early teens when I was first learning to customize, I'm wondering why my parents weren't more concerned.

I am in for a big overhaul with this guy. For starters, those two legs who's position is undergoing some serious changing will need the musculature sanded down near completely and redone to correctly suit the movement. The left shoulder will get the most work. The neck would just be easier to completely resculpt so I trashed that to make room for the wire and apoxie. I'll have to fill the head in too to make sure I don't trap that air where it could implode the piece. Besides the movement changes to the piece, I plan on going back and adding in the detail that was woefully lost when the mold was made. The body I'm going to try to stay more true to Kathi's lovely style, but the mane and tail will be me.

You can see a quick photoshop sketch of where I'm going with this guy. I was inspired by a photo I saw of a real Saddlebred. I believe this new pose/look will make him more versatile in the performance ring...and I do like me a versatile horse. I'm thinking I'll complete the look with a sandy bay tobiano - maybe about 70% white? Not entirely locked in on that sandy bay, but pinto definitely.

Cookies and Customs

So, I've been wanting to do a medallion forever. I had a first attempt with this guy a few years back:

And I had an idea pop into my head while hubby and I watched a movie for a second one. A little foal hiding behind mamma's bottom and peeking through her tail. A few hours later I had my piece! Meet Peek-a-boo!

Worlds different from the first one, huh? Peek-a-Boo is roughly 2" wide by 4" tall. I'll probably be selling a few of them later, but she's not high on the priority list at all.

Next up is the custom part. I meant for that to be plural too, as the tittle suggests, but I forgot to snap a photo of him finished so I'll just plant in a little teaser description and let you look forward to him later. Here's the Weather Girl custom I'm working on with a much nicer, and much less orange background. ;) She's *almost* ready to paint but still needs some tweaks here and there. I will hope to have her up for auction next week on AB. I abhor bases in all fields - sculpting them, painting them, looking at them - so I went with a thin acrylic rod on the front hoof instead. She's quite sturdy even for being narrow.

 Can't wait to be able to put that bay paint job with chrome on her! Yum! And that teaser I promised. I have a stunning Gomez by Deb McDermott that has been in the works for a while. As with most of my own pieces they usually don't get worked on unless I have left over stuff that needs to be used. So, while cleaning resins, any surplus of Apoxie mixed went towards the customizing of Gomez. Nothing in terms of position, but a lot in terms of decoration and hair. His tail is customized and was shortened, which meant an acrylic rod to support him. Then I took off his mane on the one side and added a double french braid to the neck so he's got those gorgeous locks on both sides now. I couldn't stop there. I'd been eyeing all these fancy Spanish parade horses and of course was inspired. So, to that gorgeous thick Spanish hair, I added roses and ribbons. The end result is AMAZING. So much in fact that I'm going to keep him in my own personal collection for a while. That's no small thing. I never hang on to horses any more as I can't afford to keep my own work. If I keep it, that means I'm loosing the money I could have made from a sale. I currently have one horse in my personal collection right now and this boy will make it two.