The making of my sculpture

The process!

 

 

After the demonstration from Jackie we started making our own sculptures. A lot of people in the class had done portrait sculpture before and decided to do people they have done before to try and aim for perfection, whereas some people did babies and animals. I decided to do my mum because I am familiar with her facial features and thought it would be nice to have something personal I can keep for a long time.

 

I started by placing the newspaper around the wooden pole, I used a lot of tape because I felt that it helped hold the skull in place and made it easier to manipulate the shape. During this process I thought about the size and shape of my mums head, baring in mind the sculpture will shrink by 10% when fired. It also helped to look at a photograph of a skull to gauge where the jaw is.

This photograph shows the skull once I had completed the initial process. I made sure that the back of the skull was higher than the jaw bone and tried to add newspaper to where the cheek bones would be to create a more defined structure to work with. I was pleased with the way my skull turned out because I felt that it resembled a skull instead of just a ball, I then wrapped a plastic bag around the skull and tied it around the wooden pole to make it secure; this process took me around 15 minutes to complete when being precise.

 

 

 

When it came to putting the clay onto the skull I cut off a smaller slab of clay from the larger slab using the wire cut off tool, I curved and flattened the edges of the slab to make it easier to apply to the skull. Once I had covered the skull I felt that the layer was too thin and that I should have used thicker slabs to cover the skull. However I added more slabs of clay to the areas I felt where too thin, making sure to roll the clay on top of each other to avoid trapped air. I then beat the head with a wooden baton to release any air, and as you can see the neck has lengthened from the process.

 

 

 

I started adding to the face, marking out where the facial features should be and looking at my mums face to see how spread out her facial features are and looking at proportions.
I added coils of clay over the brow for the foundations of the eyebrows and to give the eye sockets more depth, also using my fingers to push the clay in to make the eye sockets. I first made a small triangle like shape for the nose and added it to the face, I felt that my mums nose was more like a long roman nose, so I added a thin long coil to the length of the nose and a small round ball to add to the end to give the nose length, using the wooden hand tools to create nostrils. I created a long thin oval shape to add as the mouth, to create body and volume which I could later work into.

 

 

 

My mum has quite high cheekbones so I decided to add clay to the cheek bones to make them more prominent, which you can see in this photo.  I also added coils to the jaw line to even up the proportion of the face and to evenly join down to the chin. I also felt that the neck was too thin, so to make the neck thicker I added 3 larger coils and worked them into the existing clay.

This photo also shows where I have made markings  for the ears.

 

 

 

 

When creating the eyes of my sculpture I started with making very small balls and placed them into the sockets using slip as a glue to secure them in place. Once the eyes balls where in place, I then made small thin coils to place around the eyeball to create upper and lower eyelids. During this process I looked at the shape of my mums eyes and the area around her eye to try and make it as similar as possible. I also added small pieces of clay beside the eyeball to make it more softer to look at, using the wooden hand tools to manipulate and shape the clay into the appropriate detail. Jackie came round and taught me certain techniques I could use with the hand tools to help with the detail.

 

 

 

This is a side view of the current process, you can see how I have shortened down the length of the nose and the beginning of life building up in the face. I found that when creating the sculpture I had to continuously look at my mums face and intensely observe her, even when we weren't in the lesson I couldn't help but stare at other peoples faces as well. I then started thinking about how I would go about creating their faces and everyone became a possible sculpture.  

 

 

 

 

EARS

On day two Jackie gave another demonstration on how to create ears for our portraiture, she explained that you start by making a small kidney shape of appropriate size and attach it to the head using slip and wooden hand tools to merge the clay together. Once the ear is attached you can use the loop hand tools to carve out the clay and create the detail of the ear.
I found that trying to create the kidney shape into the correct size was quite hard and it took a lot of practise to get the right shape; after a few attempts I was able to make the shape of the ear that I was happy with and used it as a template to create the other ear. I found that once the ear was attached it was easier to then add to the ear and take clay off the ear to make it exactly how you want it. During this process it is easy to make ears that are too big, so it helps to take a step back and look at your head from a distance and review the proportions. Once the ear is attached to the head and you have carved out your detail, you then make a long thin coil and place it behind the ear to give the ear more support and make it more secure so that the ear does not blow off in the kiln.

In this photo you can also see where I have drawn out the hair line in preparation for making hair.

 

 

 

 

HAIR

There are two different ways in which you can create hair, you can either add clay to the head or you can work into the head using tools. Sometimes you find that your head is quite thick so you can work into the head without breaking through it. However sometimes you may find that the thickness of your head is too thin and its best to add hair to the head separately. It also depends on what hair style you are trying to create. My mum always wears her hair up in a pony tail and I felt like it was a signature feature for my mum and wanted to keep that aspect of her. I decided that to make the hair I would try both techniques, adding clay to the head and working into the head using tools. I had already created a hair line and a parting down the middle of the head using the hand tools, from here I started at the hair line and made long thin coils, attaching them to the head using slip to stick them, otherwise they may have blown off in the kiln. Once I had attached a few coils next to each other, I then used the side of a hand tool and merged the sides of the coils together to create the effect of individual strands of hair leading down to the pony tail point.

In certain areas of the head I just used the hand tools to carry on the hair detail, however I found that I liked adding the clay separately to the head because I found it gave the hair better texture and volume.

 

 

 

Once I got down to the pony tail, I created a number of coils and lined them up on top of a larger coil that I was using as a hairband. I then curled the coil that I was using as the hairband to attach the hair securely, which then created a pony tail. To attach it to the head I used a lot of slip and held it to the head for a while until it stayed up on its own, as shown.

Once I had done this I then wanted to clean up the hair and soften it, I used hand tools to soften and tidy the ridges in the hair, giving it more structure.

 

 

 

 

DISMANTLEMENT

I then discovered that once we had nearly finished our heads, we had to cut part of the head off and cut out the paper skull, we had to do this otherwise the paper would burn inside the kiln.

During this process you have to think about how big your skull is and how much of the head you will have to cut off to get the paper skull out. When it came to cutting out the paper skull, I found that mine took a very long time because I had put so much tape around the skull. From this experience I would definitely have this in mind whenever I make another ceramic portraiture.

 

 Once the paper skull was out there were then a few steps I had to take before sticking the top of the head back on. Jackie explained that I should look at the thickness of the head and make sure that the layer of clay was even all the way around, this may either mean adding clay to the inside of your head, or taking some clay off the head. I felt that some of the head was too thin so I decided to add clay to the inside at the front, this process was delicate because when merging the two surfaces of the clay, it had a tendency to make the face itself bulge, so I had to be careful that I didn't break through the clay and ruin the face. At the back of the head the layer was quite thick so I used a loop tool to carve away some of the excess clay. I then placed the head onto a very large sponge, sometimes you may need to lay the head down to get to certain parts of the head, so you place the head onto a large sponge so that it doesn't crush any of the facial features on the face.
I placed my head onto a sponge so that I could carve some of the excess clay away from the neck, however I accidentally made a few holes in the neck, because of this I then had to attach some clay back on. This is why it is important to create even layers of clay at the very start of the process.
The final stage before sticking the top of the head back on was to use a 'Potters needle' to make small holes inside the head, making sure not to pierce all the way through the clay, the reason for this is so that any trapped air in the clay gets released before it goes in the kiln.

 

 

 

 

 RE-ATTACHMENT

 When re-attaching the top of the head, you start by cross hatching the rim of the head and the outer circle of the cut off piece so that they attach together more securely, you then use a lot of slip on both pieces and place the top back on. Then you use either your fingers or hand tools to merge the two sections of clay together. Sometimes if the layer of the head is too thin, the top of the head can sometimes dip and loose its form.

 

 

 

 FINISHED