Clay Sculptures

Clay Sculptures:

How would you define clay sculptures.....made from the earth, clay comes in all different grades from smooth to rough. The colors are different as well. Depending where they come from.

In history ancient man saw the benefits of clay, that sodden earth that seemed to cling to itself. Man used clay to line their dwellings with, and still to this day, in some countries.  They used clay to hold their food, and also sculpt figurines with.

Clay has been with us since we can remember, and what better to get familiar with. The oldest form of natural substance is the clay.

I have worked with clay, though I mainly work with wax for my sculptures. For one reason, I am more or less a fine artist. Detail is very important to me and I try to achieve this to my best ability at the time.

Clay is ok for detail if you are working on a big piece of sculpture. Yet, when you are working on smaller sculptures, you  really need to work with a wax.

     "Puma Canyon"   Artist~ Andrea Balch

This is a clay sculpture I did quite a few years ago now.

Although I didn't take progressive photos of the sculpture as I worked on it.

This was the finished clay piece. Which I left to dry and then proceeded to cast it myself. By making a mound and casting it in cold cast bronze.

I find that doing clay sculptures to be very therapeutic. To feel the natural clay between your fingers and smoothing the clay with your hands; very soothing. This sculpture is more on the semi-modern side of sculpting as far as I am concerned....

And perfect for clay. Being able to mould clay fairly quickly compared to wax that is harder to work with, in this case I use mainly dental tools. With clay there are very reasonable wooden sets of sculpting tools for clay. Probably about the most accessible tools in sculpture you can get in shops. Where other tools for sculpture, you have to hunt around for them. Now with the internet - its going to be easier to buy your tools that you are looking for. I know that the internet has given me more scope at finding the tools online, instead of marching from one end town to the other, frustratingly looking for the tools.

 I like working with clay, it lends itself to form with just the flick of your fingers.

 Digging in and moving the clay to its desired form is a process I enjoy. Though you need to use an armature to hold your clay sculptures in place.

Also, when you go and leave your piece of work for the day. Have something to wrap it with. A damp cloth is good to carefully wrap around it. And if your not going back to it for more than a few days. You need to keep an eye on it so it doesn't start to dry out on you. Use a small spray bottle to re-spray it with. This way you don't disturb the detail on your sculpture, A downfall in clay, but its worth it.

With the base that I have done here, being the rocks, I found forming them quite easy, and enjoyable. Wooden sculpting tools are your tools of the trade here and use them to also give you different surfaces.

"The sculptor represents the transition from one pose to another.. he indicates how insensibly the first glides into the second. In his work we still see a part of what was and we discover a part of what is to be."~ Auguste Rodin

I like to work mainly with fine grained clay, that way I get the smooth surface, though there are coarser grained clays that are good to achieve a different surface effect.

If you wish to fire the sculpture rather than let it dry for recasting. You just cant fire it as it is. The thickest parts of the big cat would need to be hollowed out. Like the main body and the rocks. And the armature would not be suitable either, as when the clay shrinks - and it will. The water evaporates, and the clay will can tend to crack. Though there are other types of clay which has additives that give it an elasticity, and elevates the fear of cracking clay around the armature.

Clay is relatively inexpensive to other forms of sculpting