John Houle 29 Sep 2006

So off I go rummaging through my house for suitable materials. I have wire for the body but wasn't sure how I was going to hold her down .. or rather upright without falling over. I found a couple of steel plates in my basement that go with some unused jack poles the supported my floor when I added onto my house. I taped them together with black electric taped which helped hold my bent wire in place until I could solidify it better with some clay.

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

I bent a wire to form the main line of the body trying to judge scale by eye. I'm usually pretty good at it so I didn't go by any measurements or anything ... I just left a little extra length that I could trim off if need be, later.

I dug the back of the head out and placed it approximately where it should go then squished clay around it to hold it in place.

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

Here she is standing up.

I needed to add a little tape where the arm wired wrapped around the central wire to hold it a bit better in place until I could get it covered in clay.

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

Starting to apply the clay to hold it in place.

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

moving onto the body ... yes there are breasts .. but no nipples ... yet.

haha

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

another view

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

a view from the top

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

closer ......

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

Viewing her at a different angle

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

another angle

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

ditto

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

one more

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

I worked on her a bit at noon today .. basically added to her hips some and gave her a bit of an ear.

I also tried warming the plasticine in the microwave and it seems to work fine, so from now on I'll use that to soften the plasticine rather than my oven.

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

another view

John Houle 29 Sep 2006

and the last one before the weekend.

I'm sure I'll work on her more this evening and during the weekend.

Everyone take care.

I'll upload my progress Monday.

Later

kiddolucas lee 29 Sep 2006

Your Enthusiasmatic Energy motivates Me...

Glad to see the Birth of the Mermaid!!!

Happy Sculpting!!!!

We all love to see it when it is FINNIshed!!! Take your Time

John Houle 10 Oct 2006

Geeze Kiddolucas ...

That photo is a bit sad.

but onto what we're here for.

This is the sculpture 3/4s finished.

John Houle 10 Oct 2006

Sorry for the blurry photos. I was in a bit of a rush when I took them.

Notice how I have the sculptured propped forward at a higher angle than she's attached to the base. Her tail was getting heavy and pulling her too far downwards when I placed the base flat.

In hindsite I can see that I should have reinforced the lower part of the wire armature to prevent slumping.

John Houle 10 Oct 2006

Although it's difficult to see in these photos, I had started working on her left hand's fingers.

Leaving the spaces between them webbed, but later gave up on the webbing since there just wasn't enough space to work between them, being so small.

I hope to be able to work on larger sculptures in the future to be able to really add some amazing detail to them.

John Houle 10 Oct 2006

Another view