Oil clay proved to be a good medium to sculpt, but it is soft and therefore fragile. I bet it gets pretty dusty too.

Oven bake clay added another dimension in that it can be permanently hardened and then carved.

Water based firing clay was up next for testing. I’d not ever used it so I read much, located a supply across the river, and got three hundred pounds of it after seeing two little terracotta figures at the house of a friend.

I worked long hours for a week and enjoyed every bit of the time. Other than a steel pole affixed to a little wooden platform on a tool cart there was no armature. The tool cart was a lucky find that I acquired a couple of days before from a widow friend who was cleaning out her husband’s tools and manly garage stuff.

I built it up from a solid block of cinnamon red very heavy clay.

Larissa and Leah each modeled for it. Larissa took the center of a trampoline and I walked around it with a camera snapping pictures.

Leah helped me resolve the arms and hands which Larissa’s long hair somewhat hid in the pose. Because of her part of the  picture prep, I had a better understanding of neck and shoulders also. Very helpful.

Neither woman holds her elbows in this pose the same way.

I improvised.

With a home made wire cutter I removed the face then the chest and hollowed those regions out but still left the sculpture heavy and thick. The arms are solid because I am convinced I waited too long to hollow them.

There have been cracking and minor problems like the neck settling from the weight of the head. Must remember to make the neck long in the future. In fact, there was so much settling that I had to restore about three inches of hight to the bottom.

I joined a clay sculpture group on social media and that led to me drilling holes. Then the front of the bodice fell off. I think that would have happened in the kiln for sure had it not happened here.

Having failed to devise an effective expression, did closed eyes. Will figure out eyes next time. The dress was inspired by something similar that I had seen and was a joy to render.

Larissa, a model for this, has great hair that played a big part in deciding to create this.

Originally, she was to be looking up with her eyes open but I didn’t have the expertise.

Hollowing her torso presented all sorts of problems. The clay stuck to the wood and had to be forceably separated from it which process risked deforming the torso. Then the figure settled so much that her elbows were dragging. I tried putting it on parchment. Then I put it on a water proof barrier paper such as is used in construction.

I built up the figure to the height I preferred and made a flange at the base in case I might want to anchor the bust to a plinth later and might need to drill into the clay.

The interior was all fork poked, though not deeply.

I sprayed it a lot during the first two weeks and kept it covered with a pillow case and plastic by night.

Cracks still developed in certain places. Corrections were made and I’ve been letting it dry slow and even.