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.
On With The Bronze Process Of Professor Richard Hathaway
The next step, after the creating the waxes, is the gating of the waxes. Pour cups and wax sprues are added to the waxes that came from the Dick Hathaway molds. These are then dipped into a mixture coating the waxes both inside and out. Each of the many pieces will need to be dipped creating a ceramic shell. I went to the foundry today to take some pictures and video of the dip process for the next video that I will be creating about this sculpture. This part of the bronze process will take the foundry about a week. 
We Have Approval, Now On To Being Created In Bronze!
Baby Jenna has bee approved. Mom said “I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through trying to get this done in the time frame, it’s amazing. Can I just say again how beautiful she is, thanks for all of the tweaking and your patience on the whole process, she just came together perfectly,absolutely love it. can’t wait to have her home.”
Keep watching to see her created into a beautiful bronze sculpture!
Few Changes
Just a few modifications on the Jenna sculpture, they have been done and I am awaiting approval from mom.
Momma And Baby
Some of you may not know that my constant studio companion and friend is a turtle. This is Tilly. Who if you have been following this blog log enough came to my studio when I built it. (See June 2005 post).
The edge of the pond is still not complete, one of those projects I just can’t seem to get to. But she wanders about the 14 foot stream and two waterfalls to her content. Here she is at the lower pond, which is just about 7 feet from the edge of my studio. And she is with her tiny baby. Notice the resemblance?
She has had several clutches of eggs, but only this one baby has survived, plus another two that I gave away to a ponder friend. This little thing has survived amongst big dogs, and bullfrogs ( wow that rhymes) I don’t get to see him/her often as it scampers under the surface as soon as it sees movement. Probably the reason it has stayed alive so long. Anyway… I receive a great deal of relaxation and inspiration from this pond.
As I was taking the trip upstairs and downstairs to take pictures in the studio of Jenna, and upstairs to upload them to the internet I saw this little scene. It is amazing how much they look like each other.
