Sculpt Three

Last weekend the whole family traveled to Seattle. Aug 23-16/2018

Hubby and I took a Molding and Casting seminar in Kent, WA and we dragged the boys along with us. They had a blast as they spent the whole time in a hotel room just hanging out, eating junk food and playing video games. A boys dream vacation.

(Affected by the hundreds upon hundreds of forest fires all around the west and south coast, the sun was RED from the smoke by our hotel)

The class itself was phenomenal. We both enjoyed it so much. Learned a ton but more important (to us) we made connections. We met and talked with experts who are willing to hold our hand thru the process of learning molding.

That is invaluable.

Totally off track...

So the journey there is about a 4-hour car ride.

Normally I knit but as I have been on a sculpting obsession, I decided to take some clay. I didn't wanna take Sculpt Two because I was afraid he would get wrecked somehow.... so I figured I would start a new one. Something small so that I didn't have to commit to it... it was more about just playing for the journey.

Sandy told me its hard to sculpt while moving. Yep, I got car sick quite fast and without a picture to direct me I really didn't do well.

I blocked my shape in and unfortunately, I didn't take a picture but the first sort of mapping was terrible.

Then I stopped and remember the math of a face.

So much for the journey TO Seattle I forgot this and tried to get fancy and it turned out very ... two left handed. 

Then at the hotel, I re-examined what I had already done and applied this..

So for the journey home I remembered what I did with Sculpt two and came out with this...

Better!!!

But with no picture, to copy from it still is just a basic shape. 

I came home, found a photo of a real baby and started re-working it.

Now we have this...

I don't know how the clay gets soooooo dirty!!!

Hubby says I am not allowed to call myself a sculptor until I bake my first piece. At this rate with half-finished faces, I will most likely stick to 'artist', lol. 

Next photos are to show how I built out the back of her head. 

Before

After

She actually looks really funny in these photos because the angle is giving the illusion she has a mouth and jaw but I just made them too far back.

When really... she still has no bottom face.

A knock on my door this afternoon brought me this:

SO EXCITED!!!

Thank you Brenda from Machpherson Arts and Crafts!!!

I love it soooo much!!!

https://macphersoncrafts.com/

Machpherson's has everything you need for crafts and doll art and so much more... the best place to shop!!!

SO...

I took the leap tonight and gave her a mouth. I hesitated so long..

Mouths are not even scary to me but I guess I just worried about wrecking her.

So far, ok

Here he (so thought he would be a SHE) is baked and painted.

 

~

I can't believe its been 2 years since I made Three. 

I have started and stopped making him limbs so many times throughout the last 700plus days. Let me say, sculpting is HARD. Hands and feet, SUPER HARD.

I think back to drawing. I have always always loved drawing and faces were my favorite. Hands and feet, not so much. And I was never good at them.  I think that has superimposed on my sculpting.

Just two months ago I picked the clay back up and am now trying again. Still no better at this.. but I am determined to finish Three.

Here is what I have so far.

these hands I ended up scraping because they were too big.

these legs ended up being too thick and long. They got scraped too!

The feet I've put away as I feel like they may be wrong AND I really am having a hard time focussing on hands and feet together. 

This is where my hands are slowly evolving

So I just couldn't concentrate at home working on Three's limbs. Too much to do that ISNT sculpting. I have a hard time justifying just sitting and sculpting when 4 hours pass and I've made very little progress. Brand new to this sculpting thing and never made hands or feet before and I feel like an hour passes and I've made a line and a bump!

So I asked my best friend if I could stay at her flat for the weekend and just sculpt (she went rock climbing so I had the whole place to myself... unrecognizably quiet and so unfamiliar to this mother of 4 boys). It allowed me to really have a good start..

Still SO so hard!

I clearly have started a few sets of limbs because I am having a hard time getting the proportions right.

Feet are more appealing to me than hands but still so difficult to sculpt.

September 2020 ~ we went away for a few days to see hubby's dad and I got a chance to sculpt on the ferry and while we visited him. I don't think I am doing this right but I think I am going to need to bake them soon cause I am at the point where nothing more I am doing is making them better. 

Oct 11, 2020 ~ finally baked them!!! They are sweet looking. I don't know if they are the right size... and I get a feeling they may have fit his face had they been a little more relaxed in pose... but they are my first ones! so I am happy :)

December 2020... actually it's Jan1st, 2021 when I write this but if I am being accurate, I finished Three in the last week of December 2020. 

Am I happy.???.... meh. I feel like I wanted him to be so much better. But the more I worked on him, the further away I got from where I truly wanted him. 

Sculpting is so hard... it feels like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. 

Every movement I make to manipulate the clay is one of trepidation because I don't want to ruin what I have in my hand... or lets face it, it's because I don't know what I am doing and every push of the clay is one of uncertainty. 

 I love his face. I just wanted his limbs to match.

From the beginning, I have called him Three... Third head I've sculpted (but first I've ever finished).

I love the name Three... or Thryee....

But all my family kept telling me.....meh, not Three. You cant name your first sculpt Three.

It is VERY hard to name a sculpt with a name that hasn't already been taken.

I was originally going to call him Isaac (a promise I had with a friend who actually urged me to give him limbs and not just make him a cuddle).... but there are a number of sculpts named Isaac.

Then there comes the fact that he doesn't look like a lot of the names available.  He is little...only 10-12"...and very round.

He could have a long, manly name. It has to be small and whimsical and sweet.

After weeks of calling him many different names, I found the most unique and fitting one for my

hand-bundle.....

I would like to present to you......

Poe

(three letters long)

For now, I am proud of him.

 I think, as always, I want better to come out of my hands.... call it what you will but my dreams and aspirations are bigger than my limits and experience and I still expect more from myself. 

But if I am honest I am happy with him and I will let the fact that this is the first head, set of hands and set of legs I have ever sculpted, make me feel content. That is pretty wonderful to me.

So what next???

Well 10 or so years ago clay doll would have been the only step... and the dirty polymer and baked in moonies would just need to be overlooked.

But today we have SILICONE!!!!

So Poe has another journey... to be continued!