I thought I'd start a project log. I intend to sculpt and cast a magpie as I seem to have attracted a few regulars in my garden by feeding them cat food. The colours seem fun to try matching with a patina too, with those lovely greens and blues. Approaching for a landing seems like a cool pose to do. I've started off by drawing a basic diagram to check my proportions against. Going for a 50cm wingspan, which is roughly life sized. I've made a wire armature up. Since it's a bit too large for me to cast in one piece, I'm planning to cast the body, wings and tail separately. I wasn't sure how I'd be able to carve up the sculpture after the fact, so I've tried something a bit experimental by creating a modular armature held together by magnets. I'm not sure if it'll have the strength to hold together once the weight of the clay is added, but it should free up at least one hand when I'm checking parts against each other. It should also give me some sockets to hold the final piece together for brazing. I figure that the wings will need some firm clay to hold their shape properly, so I've got some Chavant Hard coming in the post. I'll update when I've gotten a bit further along.
A very sound planning stage. I wish I was that patient to make a decent armature to start off. I tend to just throw something together and spend ages making countless modifictions later. Looking forward to the process.
Oh, I'm sure I'll be battling the armature the entire time. I can already tell that the magnets are going to be more trouble then they're worth.
I've had a bit of experience with an oxy/propane torch. Some patch work here and there, and the sparrows I made recently were cast in two parts. They were a bit of a trial by fire, trying to join those thin legs to body. I wrecked two castings before I got the technique down.
I bet they were! I tried the torch once and that's all it took for me to step up and buy a tig machine. Tig welding bronze is a dream come true. I actually threw my torch in the trash. It makes those difficult connections possible with minimal and more concentrated heat exactly where you want it. I see you are in the UK, so should probably check out R-tech. John at doubleboost does a lot of work with the machines on his youtube channel. I'm guessing they are chinese so are probably "budget friendly" we could say. If ya want the best, Stel is where it's at.
Half way there with the sculpting. I've finished building up all the forms. Detail work next: Feathering it and sculpting all the delicate bits like the head and legs.
Yes, but it's generally a bit more relaxed and enjoyable. Sculpting with hard NSP was really rough on my fingers. I think I'm going to switch to soft for the rest of it.
Chopped the wing off to make things easier to sculpt since everything is proportioned how I like. Those magnetic joint payed off! To get a nice snug fit once they were detached, I wrapped the body in clingfilm and sculpted them back on. With a bit of wiggling they came off with a nice join line.
Hmm very nice work so far. I've always been scared off by the armature part of clay sculpting. Ill have to give it a try like your model
It works great for solid lumps like on the body, but I think there might be a better way for doing large flat areas like the wings. I kept on having problems with the clay tearing when bending it or putting pressure on it. It's difficult to repair the tears too, as smoothing it back together doesn't properly join it. I had to heat up a tool and weld the clay to fix things. If I was going to do it again, I think I'd add some strips of sandpaper into the wire frame for a bit of extra support.
Some type of mesh (aluminium or plastic) would work. I made an owl with outstretched wings a while back. I used wax as its lighter and more rigid than clay. I notice there are no legs. How are you going to do these?
Probably from miliput. I'll sculpt the fluffy breeches that birds have onto the body, but I'll leave the legs detached so I can make a separate mould for them. They'll probably be the last thing I do as I've got to think how I'm going to have the final piece stand up before I can decide on a pose for the legs. I've got some ideas how to do that floating around, but early days yet.
Small update. I felt like getting the head sculpted first was important to help scale everything else appropriately. .
Thats great work. I like the feather texture. What is the beak made of? Dont tell me you use a real beak
The beaks made from milliput. Needed something hard or it'd just get squished at some point. But funny you should say that. I was chatting with a guy on reddit today who does bronze work. He showed me some pieces he made by investing dead animals.
