Posts by Bridgette
Presentations And More Computer Toys
I have another presentation that I am doing but I have not been given permission to post the child’s photographs or name. I did want to share a bit about the process, for those following along. ( does anyone read this blog?)
I could not do this little boy in a 3D model as with Jenna. I began this process in the post “Working on another 3D presentation.” The big hold up? The blanket. Apparently creating blankets in 3D take quite a bit of time. So instead I played with another new form of technology in my studio. My WACOM tablet.
with this tablet I can draw right on the screen! I love it! I am also using a program called Painter. In the sketches here I have only used the pen tip, but in Painter you can actually paint in all sorts of mediums. The nice part about using it with these sketches is that I can do things in layers. Sketch the boy on one layer, from a photograph provided by mom, and then place him on different layers showing different elements. Kind of like having a clear transparency. Some day I’ll have more time to work in Painter. I am wanting to illustrate my children’s books in them ( any publishers interested?)
The sketches you see are the boy on the granite base and a cross, that is on an angle. In one picture his blankie wraps around the cross as if it is a gift to God, in the other it hangs off. I love that the grass is tickling his toes. In the third picture I have shrunk the cross. See how it changes the feel of the piece?
This presentation reminded me of a praying boy that I had created a long time ago. He is peeking up to see if God is listening!
Boxed Angel Wings and Baby Plays Peek-a-boo
My daughter used to love playing in boxes when she was little. That is the feeling that I get with this picture that I quickly snapped before loading Jenna into the van to go to the foundry. I have her taped in so there is no chance of her little roses coming off of her dress. Her little wings, and the hand now with a butterfly secured to her finger are in another box. It is up to the foundry now!
I have a note on the box that says, “please bead blast” When the sculpture is in complete it is usually sand blasted before the patina is added. Not many people use the bead blast but I’ll tell you it makes a difference. How to describe it… softer, yummy, translucent? I really don’t know how to describe it. Not long ago I was at a foundry and they were boasting about a sand that they use. I think it was some sort of Oklahoma sand. I am such a tactile person, I immediately asked, “may I touch it?” The moment my fingers touched it I was reminded of the only other time I “felt” what they beadblast with. I thought is was interesting that my fingers had a memory.
I still have Jenna wax two in the studio. My goal is to get her together before the end of the month for display. I have several clients coming to view my work, and it would be nice to have her there. Thank god for apprentices!
Be Careful- A Word About Copyright
I had someone call me and ask if I could create an award for them. Not unusual, but they wanted my to recreate an award that they already had. My response to them was, “I am sorry, but I cannot recreate your award unless you have written permission from the artist.” I was unclear as to why they could not have the artist do the award, and they were in a hurry. “We paid the artist to create this sculpture,” they said. “Unless the artists contract states that you have the rights recreate or pour from a mold you cannot cast this piece. If you get permission from the artist I would be happy to help you out. ” Because of their time frame I quickly sent a photograph off to the foundry to see if they could give an estimate, then we would be ready if they could receive the permission. They recognized the artists work. It turns out the client could not reach the artist, and the foundry said they would help.
THE LESSON
Copyright is a bit confusing.
All of my work is by commission. Though clients pay me a lot of money to create sculpture, and many times in the likeness of their loved one, I retain the copyrights. They do not have the rights to recreate, cast or pour other pieces. Sometimes a contract may state it is a one and only sculpture, usually this costs more. Note the artist can still cast an Artist Proof (AP). This is just like the clients sculpture but is used as a proof by the artist. AP can also be in an edition. Often AP’s are sought after by collectors.
Typically I request that I have the rights to pour up to 10 additional pieces of my work and sell them at what I feel is a reasonable price, which is often much lower than my client originally paid. The reason is that the client is paying for the design, the personal likeness, and the original creation of the piece. Creating pieces as an edition of 10 is a wonderful way to gain a body of work.
Copyright is tricky and really not understood by many. It is there to protect the artist, their careers and their work.
Yes, I Do Have Fairies!
Someone that I had traded plants with before emailed me about plants and at the end of the post asked, “My girls still talk about the “magic pond” and the sparkling lights that you showed them when they were with me earlier in the year! My littlest one has also asked me if you have fairies that live there.”
when these girls were in my yard, I went to get something, their mother was digging plants and one little girls was dancing around on the beach, the other was sitting very erect on one of the wooden benches. She said she was the queen of the garden. These children understood what I was trying to do with my garden. Some adults come here and say it is magical, these children played into the magic. It was getting dark and I told them they could bid the garden to become even more magical. They said the words that were indicated and I plugged in the twinkle lights. You should have seen their faces light up.
This was my response for her children.
“Yes, indeed I have seen some fairies in my yard. Some have introduced themselves. Fern is the oldest and wisest, she seems to watch over everyone, and make sure that the garden is in order. Ivy is quite lazy and prefers to lounge on the ground, especially in the shadows of plants. I don’t think she likes the heat, but I have never asked her, as most of the time, when I see her she is yawning, and either just getting up, contemplating another nap, or has sleep in her eyes, is annoyed and does not want to talk.
The dragon flies are back at the pond and they often perform for everyone that will watch, showing off with their acrobatic maneuvers, then dipping their tails in and splashing in this circular dance. I have not seen the huge dragon fly. I heard they are called tree toppers. I was sitting on the bridge one day and one of those dragon flies came out of the sky and nearly knocked me in the pond. No one believed me until we saw one come down and lay eggs. She must have been close to 12” wing tip to wing tip! They are called tree toppers because that is where they live. ”
The bully bullfrog has brought a couple of his friends. Even though they are not my fondest of pond creatures, because I have heard they could eat my baby turtles, I still would not wish harm on them. I do love to watch them jump and dive. I should talk to Tilly the turtle and see if she might like to host a pond Olympics.
It was so funny, when I was taking out this huge portion of plants out of the pond it was so heavy my son had to come and help me. Then out of the blue…bully bullfrog jumped out! He hopped around the pond, and the foster black lab chased him, around the pond, over the bridge and then dove. The lab looked so sad. She sniffed around trying to figure out where on earth bully went.
Tears And In Memory of Family Pets
I am often asked to create memorials for family pets, or at least sculptures to remind the owner of the love of a pet. If you remember I recently sculpted a little boy and dog, the boy whispering in his dogs ear. When the commission began I was touched when they said the dog was aging and they did not expect him to live long. I had to create the dog as part of the sculpture and did so at no charge. My client arrived at the studio yesterday and informed me the dog did indeed pass away a few weeks ago. She lovingly stroked the piece, attracted and looking at it even before she did her son. I could feel her sorrow. I identify. Her son is growing up, and this dog has been a part of his childhood. I’m going through something similar with my daughters cat of 16 years. I gave my daughter the cat when she was 6 or 7. (you don’t really take into consideration, that when they grow up and move away after college you now have a cat)
Anyway…the cat is not well. I’m more attached to the cat because of what it represents as my daughter’s childhood, then just the cat. The cat and I have both gone through our own struggles as my daughter left for college, and then moved away to Oklahoma. I guess we bonded as we each dealt with the loss, and our goodbyes and coming to terms with the new arrangement. We drew to each other in her absence.
I recently heard someone tell about how their childhood poodle helped them through the difficult times of growing up, through the alcoholism in the family and a divorce and that this poodle dying was so traumatic for them they never again had another pet. I on the other hand, foster dogs, work with shelters and at this point in my life I have two cats, two dogs, one of which is being fostered by us and has come through some horrible physical problems, two turtles and a bunch of fish in the pond, they pretty much take care of themselves and am now the feral cat lady as a mother cat found our house and dropped off her kittens, all 4 of them, which also brought two teenagers. I have no idea what to do with these cats, the shelters won’t take them. I keep feeding them and trying to get them used to people, but something has to be done.
This is my life with cats and dogs and pets. No wonder my heart goes out to those commissions that includes the family pet.
Working On Another 3D Presentation
I have not received permission to blog about this little boy, I will say this. I am trying to create a 3D model and work with some sketches of a little boy. He is so adorable. This project is different from Jenna in that the child may not be created life size, but instead we are considering smaller child and as part of his headstone. If I am given permission to post I will. Please remember that working on a 3D model is new to me and I am just learning.
Finding a boy the correct size. This young boy is about 2 1/2. Bigger than my baby and not quite a little boy. That means I take either the baby and scale it up, or the little boy and scale it down. As we all know you cannot take a 6 year old and reduce them by a certain percentage and get a 2 1/2 year old. So either using the baby or the little boy I will be looking at the body parts and modeling them a bit differently to accommodate for a 2 1/2 year old child.
If you remember I am working from created models. I thought you might like to see what is available.For Jenna I used millennium baby from Daz 3D. I had ordered Baby moves, for Jenna, which has different poses. Once again it is much easier to take a pose and modify it to be what you want than to pose each limb and joint. I have opted for modifying the millennium baby instead of using a older 6 year old. I had also ordered moonbaby giving me options of clothes.
I feel like I am fumbling around in the computer trying to do this. But knowing how much it helped with Jenna I am determined.
Someday My Nails Will Be Clean
When I am not sculpting I love to garden. There is so much that needs to be done, and I do hope to get the pond finished in the next few weeks. Something that has trailed on for years. “I am going to order my stone, I am going to order my stone.” This is a mantra I must continue.
I decided to widen the pond, yes, they told me that this would happen years ago when I built it. They said I would continue to add. I’m also making a bog, and taking out many other plants in my yard to open it up a bit. What a lot of work. I sometimes wish I had someone to help, but my only companions is the foster dog Sam who chased the bullfrog from the plants that I pulled out of the old bog. It was so funny the two of them went around the pond and then right over the bridge!
It is so hot very hot outside in the Texas weather that when I need a break I come in and work on the wax of Jenna, and listen to the bible on tape. I’m supposed to be facilitating a Sunday school class on “read the bible in 90 days.” The facilitator should keep up, and with my busy schedule bible on tape is the only way I have been able to do it.
I should run. I’m giving away more plants. That is my favorite thing about gardening. I love posting “I have plants” on the local forums. This time they are even dug up! when the sun finally sets, it will be me and Jenna, oh yes and a shower!
It feels funny not to be in the studio all day and night. I feel very guilty, but I do have clients coming and I need to get the yard spruced up!
I Picked Up The Waxes of Jenna
Little wings, hands and toes! My apprentice and I will be working on these tonight. I had two waxes poured of Jenna, so there are lots of toes, hands and wings to clean. According to my contract with my client I have the rights to pour up to 9 more of these sculptures. I love the idea that Jenna will make other families happy. I won’t make the other wax Jenna into a bronze until someone has ordered it, but I can put her together and keep her in the corner of my studio to watch over all of the coming and goings! It is a small enough piece that she will hold up quite nicely in wax.
Someone asked. ” I am such a curious person, looking at the molten bronze going into Dick’s shells, just wondering what stops it from seeping out the vents like in the bottom of his shoes and the back of his head?”
The wax is coated with this ceramic shell both inside and out. The vents and sprues either bo back into another portion of the wax or up to the pouring cup. The only real opening is the pour cup. Sometimes a shell will break, and then it is back to pouring another wax, cleaning that wax, dipping it, burning it out and pouring. I have only had that happen once. Oh yes, and once the wrong metal was poured. But I have not had any mishaps like that in a while.
I’ll post photographs later
I tried! Could Have Done It With An Apprentice
I missed the deadline, but it has been extended. I have been working diligently on the Jenna mold by myself, no apprentice. When it came to clean up I sure did miss her. Midway I ran out of material, found some old material and had to test it to be sure it would still have the chemical reaction that I needed it to. I’ll bring her to the foundry on Tuesday. I have already decided to have two waxes poured. I’ll clean one to go to metal and the second I’ll put together and keep in the studio. It will be good to have her around.
Jenna Waits Patiently
Now that I have my approval I will begin with the mold of Jenna. Once again this is not for the weak of heart! After all of the time spent creating this perfect sculpture I will need to now divide the sculpture up so that molds and waxes can be made. It is a process that I have done for so many years, it no longer bothers me, as it is just part of the process. The difficulty is that I don’t get to look at her for a while. But, in a few weeks, when I go to the foundry to approve the metal and see her there, I will say, “there you are sweety, I missed you.” I greet them all the same way. As a friend who has been a way for a while.
I took Russo, my now former apprentice, to the foundry to see how the sculpture that she has worked on is coming along, and to explain the foundry process with her. Then it was off to buy materials for the Jenna mold. Russo said if she wasn’t going to go to Washington before her trip home to her country, she would come and help. That was sweet, but to be perfectly honest- I’m looking forward to more alone time with Jenna, and since the foundry does not need the molds until Monday, my pace can slow down considerably!
Now it is off, for evening hours with Jenna.