Evelyn Rubenstein
Mold Making
I like that I can work on the area under
the skirt.
The mold making process is often done by the foundry. However, I create my own molds. It takes about 2 weeks of time and is very labor intensive. I’m thankful for the interns and helpers who have come to assist in the last two weeks of mold making. My husband kept coming down from his clean office and watching me tug, lift and pull and just shakes his head. My interns say it is better and more physical than working out in the gym. The mold making process consists of several steps.
1. Cutting up- This was already mentioned in an earlier post
2. Claying up- In this part of the process the mold is divided into two halves with clay seams. Pour cups are also added to the mold- This offers a place for the foundry to pour the wax.
3. Painting Rubber- Once the pieces are cut, cleaned and clayed up the rubber is painted on both halves of the sculpture. Four plus coats are used on each piece. It takes about an hour for the rubber to dry in between coats.
4. Mother mold- the mother mold is called that because it is placed on top of the rubber mold and holds the rubber in place. Without it, when someone tried to pour wax into the mold the mold would be miss shapen. Creating the mother mold is hard work. A very stiff plaster/cement is mixed for each half. I mix my plaster by hand. It takes about 40 minutes for each half of the mother mold. Everyone of the molds that I made had at least 2 mother molds- front and back. The chest had three because it was so large.
You can follow along with this entire process of creating a life size bronze for the ERJCC on the Evelyn Rubenstein project blog located at http://erjcc.blogspot.com/
coats of rubber.
to be sent to the foundry .
How Do I Stay Focused While in The Studio?
Thought I would share this little tidbit. I stay focused by….
Listening to audio books. I’m pretty much addicted to audio books and have a regular relationship with my library.
I also have the company of a very faithful, yet somewhat stinky old dog. And when I need a break I head outside my door and hang out watching the turtles at my pond.
watch nature for a moment.
Now For The Next Part Of The Process- Mold Making
The sculpture is divided into 8 pieces.
Once the approval is received, I then begin the next step. Even though I have spent hours painstakingly putting in all of the texture and detail, I must now cut up the sculpture. In the end there will be molds made of the following.
1. left arm
2. right arm
3. toros
4. head
5. two parts of skirt
6. left leg
7. right leg
8. base
The best part of cutting the sculpture apart is that I can work on the detail so much easier. For example, I work on the detail on the underside of the hands. This means that all though I have approval I still am spending an entire week on making parts as perfect as possible. While working on the hands, I found some chord and was able to make a better wedding ring, and give Evelyn a manicure.
You can follow along with this entire process of creating a life size bronze for the ERJCC on the Evelyn Rubenstein project blog located at http://erjcc.blogspot.com/
The Changes That Were Made
Here is the larger photograph that was provided that had so much more visual information. I separated the head from the body more time, so that I could really get close to it. Someone asked me how many times I have done this in the process? I have no idea, too many times to have kept count. The reason why I do this is that having a head in my lap is much easier than trying to sculpt while it is attached. I changed some things on the sculpture like the eyes, and tweaked the smile I also elongated her neck.
I also worked hard on the legs. I thought it important to give the sculpture a little more movement.
You can follow along with this entire process of creating a life size bronze for the ERJCC on the Evelyn Rubenstein project blog located at http://erjcc.blogspot.com/
Client Approval
I know some artists might not like client input- I LOVE IT! I really do.It is at this point when we are pushing the creative process to the very limit. I love co-create with my client. The interesting thing about this creative approval is that the client brought the photograph that you see on the right of this page, but it was a bigger version. Why would this matter? Well there was so much more visual information on the larger photograph. Good photographs cannot be overemphasized when trying to create.
You can follow along with this entire process of creating a life size bronze for the ERJCC on the Evelyn Rubenstein project blog located at http://erjcc.blogspot.com/
Approval Of The Sculpture
I have not posted anything in the last couple of weeks and have done so on purpose. I wanted my client to come by and see the sculpture themselves. I am happy to report they are very happy with the outcome, which I will post soon. Just a bit more tweaking and then you will be able to follow the process of going through the foundry. More to come soon.
You can follow along with this entire process of creating a life size bronze for the ERJCC on the Evelyn Rubenstein project blog located at http://erjcc.blogspot.com/
MESSY, MESSY, MESSY
I spend a good deal of my time, taking off clay and putting it on. Because I have the foam armature I am also digging out foam, covering it with wax, then clay and smoothing.
The reference photographs are scattered.
With that said, I spend a good deal of time, scraping the floor, my shoes and having to clean the studio. It is a mess, but mess, means I have progress.
This is the blog about the creation of the Evelyn Rubenstein sculpture for the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Houston Texas. To see more of the artist work, visit her Creative Sculpture website and Blog
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Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation PodcastClick on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Compare, Compare, Compare
This is what I do all day long. I compare one part to another and reference photographs to sculpture. This can be hard because the reference I have is little, both in size and amount. I mean trying to figure out what someone looks like by using a picture that is less than one inch is, at best, a challenge.
Plus you are looking at a two dimensional element and trying to create something in 3d. Still, I compare.
My comparisons of late.
I have been working on the head separate from the body. I put it on and found that I needed to take off about 1 inch of hair and lower her hair line for it to fit the body. There is nothing worse than creating a perfect head and a perfect body and put them together to find they are not in proportion.
Today I get to cut off her head and work on it separately again. I like the size of the neck, the placement and proportions and I am very tired of sculpting upside down and on the ground. Working on the head at my desk will be a welcome challenge.
Legs, shoes, stature. I look at my own legs often and then at Evelyn’s and wonder about her proportions. I have committed to the length of the skirt, just below the knee is perfect.
She is sitting back, someone said, is it too much, absolutely not. It is an attitude. She is confident, she is assured, she has great posture, ( I’m so jealous as I do not). I love the stance.
Sweater- Folds are everything. I can’t talk about this right now as it is a pain in my side. I’m going to fix this, which may mean, redoing the sweater entirely.
Weight on legs. I like that one heel is up just a bit. She stands back hard on the left leg. I like this.
Sometimes it is all about becoming more friendly. I become more friendly with the piece and it becomes more friendly to the viewer. This is what it means to search for Evelyn. This is the blog about the creation of the Evelyn Rubenstein sculpture for the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Houston Texas. To see more of the artist work, visit her Creative Sculpture website and Blog
______________________________________________________________
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation PodcastClick on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Laying Down On The Job
So, you could say I have spent the last two days on the floor of the studio. How else are you going to sculpt ankles and legs? Pillows are thrown about as I try to crawl around and sculpt, then stand up and go to the other side of the room to look, and then back down on the ground.
You can follow along with this entire process of creating a life size bronze for the ERJCC on the Evelyn Rubenstein project blog located at http://erjcc.blogspot.com/
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation PodcastClick on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Working Diligently- Thumbs Up And A Comparison Smile!
Though Evelyn is not scheduled to be delivered for quite some time, I’m working diligently to get ahead of my deadline and I am making very good progress.
need to be done to what I have done already.
proportions in the face to those of the photograph. But doing
This from one side can be misleading.
I need to do this from the side as well. Oh, and I have to keep
putting the head on the body. There is nothing more infuriating
than to have a perfect head and perfect body that are not in
proportion to one another.
You can follow along with this entire process of creating a life size bronze for the ERJCC on the Evelyn Rubenstein project blog located at http://erjcc.blogspot.com/