Tag Archives: sculpture

Casting the Bird is Back

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

A few days and many hours later, casting the bird is back on track. At least I think it is. My new plaster mold is cured, sealed, and I have put it to use. I cast Fat Baby Bird #16 very hastily late in the evening, and it was not well done. I did prove the mold is good, and I do have another bird that I will count in the edition, but … this poor bird is somewhat wounded.

Truth is I did a poor job of it. I did not mix enough cement, and I tried using a “slip” before filling. I should have pre-measured everything and had a good set up so I could work faster. RapidSet cement is true to its name. The product thickened quickly, and I ended up with several conspicuous voids in my cast.

I could certainly have patched and painted these so that no one would be the wiser. However I chose a different solution: Fat Baby Bird #16 is “Wounded Baby Bird”. I chose to make these voids more conspicuous rather than less so. Now Wounded Baby Bird is painted in raw Sienna with silver highlights, and the voids feature black or red glitter or gold paint. Here is #16 before and after full color. Should I touch up the black glitter with a bit of silver? The the black seems a bit stark. Here are three views of Wounded Baby Bird:

Before paint

Fat Baby Bird #15 sits pretty below, in front of my studio. With a vivid three tone paint job plus a silver beak, he/she is hard to miss. I will keep her/him right here in my yard for a bit:

So for now, #15 and #16 are happy enough here at the studio. But perhaps someone will want to take them to new homes soon. My baby bird adoption fee is a mere $200.

Casting the bird is back on track whenever numbers 17-25 are wanted. My limited edition will stop there.

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Let’s Make a Bird

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

I am something of a birder: I own and use binoculars, I have the Audubon App and the Merlin App on my phone. I put out modest servings of birdseed and peanuts in my yard every morning, and I welcome my regular bird visitors. So it has been suggested that I focus on birds in my artwork.

While I have completed a few birds in my work, this has not generally interested me. I carved and cast my little fat baby bird, and have a few drawings & collages featuring birds on their nest. And I did complete a small sculpture based on these. This felt like enough until I decided to try combining my interest in things Egyptian (mostly ancient Egyptian) with my interest in birds. The Egyptian falcon god Horus seemed like a natural choice. So I decided it was time; now let’s make a bird!

This project has not gone well. My goal of a stylized streamlined falcon has been swallowed up by a chunky awkward lopsided hawk. I have attempted to rework this weird heavy set bird too many times, and I think I may just paint it and stop there.

And then what? I really don’t think I can put this bird in my yard! My crows and small birds will just hate it! What on earth was I thinking when I said “Lets make a bird”?

Still working on this bird, however… not sure why! I have added to the legs & tail to create bit more symmetry, and will need to reshape both wings if I want it to look a bit less ridiculous! Tomorrow!

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Beetles in the House

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Oh no, I have beetles in the house! But this is actually a good thing. And anyway I coerced them to move to my studio. Two new beetles joined my other Beetle People.

I have been using Apoxie Fixit to repair a few fine line cracks in a Milestone Cement finish in our house bathroom. Milestone cement is a custom blend of acrylics and cement with colors, probably no longer available. It is applied in a very thin layers to provide an attractive water resistant finish.

It was used as the finish for our large walk-in shower. Years ago fine cracks appeared in lines over the breaks between sections of cement board underlayment. Possibly these should have been better prepared. Or maybe the wood blocking underneath was poorly done. Anyway some were wider than hairline and we decided that these needed to be repaired.

I found this to be finicky work that did not leave me a lot of energy for art! I had to experiment and find the right tool to open up the cracks before they could be filled. Inspired by the tradition of Kintsugi, I made no attempt to disguise the repairs as you can see in the photo.

Each time I worked I had a bit of leftover material. Of course I don’t throw away scraps if they might be useful. So I found a way to combine a tedious home repair task with a tiny bit of art! I just played with the first little scraps, but then these two tiny beetles happened along so I had beetles in the house!

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Another Addition to the Edition of Fat Baby Birds

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

I have completed another addition to the edition of Fat Baby Birds: I have my newest fat baby bird painted and ready for a clear coat! Number 10 of the limited edition casts from my hand carved limestone bird is “Green Eyed Baby Bird”! Green Eyed Baby is very charming, in lighter subdued & variegated yellow and umber tones. She? or he? is a commissioned cast destined as a gift, and will be picked up by the new owner tomorrow or Friday.

I may still need to create a base for FBB #10, that has not yet been decided. For now, she just sits on her own two yellow “feet”.

I may need to make #11 very soon, as yet another addition to the edition of Fat Baby Birds. I would love to install one or more of these at some of the Larry Scott Trail parking lots!

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Three Angels

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

This is a relief sculpture based on a recent drawing, and has been an ambitious and interesting project.

This is a 24″ x 18″ air dry paperclay relief sculpture on board. This is a new process for me, and it was quite a challenge. The board is completely covered with a thin layer of paperclay. I digitally resized the incomplete figures from my drawing, completed them, and used these to cut out the first layer of each figure. The figures were then built up with additional paperclay and textured before adding pastel pigments.

The cradled board is presented for hanging in a simple homemade protective frame, that can be removed and replaced with a professional frame. It is coated with a spray acrylic that protects it from ambient moisture and dirt, so it can be dusted with a feather duster or wiped gently with a soft cloth.

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Angelic Relief

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

I have made good progress on a relief sculpture based on my Three Angels drawing, and have of course taken photos. It is not finished, needing detailing, final texture, perhaps some background shapes or figures, and of course it will eventually be sealed and stained. Meanwhile, some photos will lead to digital variations…

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Casting Another

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

Well I want to do a piece with a number of my 3-D babies, no idea what it looks like yet, but I need more babies … and can’t resist experimenting with color and so forth as I go. Tricky stuff, working with clear epoxy and adding color or other materials. Additives can settle out, a little pigment goes a long way, surface colors surprise, and so forth!

The emerald green is pretty ghastly, and the translucency eliminates the facial features and detail in bright light! But I really want to get some light through. It might be good to dust some pigment onto the face… but it will be impossible to really control that in my current mold. Certainly less pigment will be better: this guy may get painted over!

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Epoxy Resin

P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell Posted on by

I am plunging back into the world of mold-making and casting. I am not good at this, and I struggle with being precise and methodical (boring :-))! But I want to create useful molds of a few difficult pieces modeled in oil-based clay. I find this difficult, and would love to have help.

I sprayed the clay model with clear gloss acrylic before making a pourable silicone block mold. The mold is not completely 3-D, as the back is not enclosed. So the resulting resin cast is flat & must “lie down”. Not sure why I chose bright metallic copper powder in the mold; it is rather ghastly.

I had to slit more of the block mold than planned to remove the clay and be able to remove the castings. This first cast was made with old resin, and is fragile, with a rough pitted surface texture. The feet broke off in the mold, and had to be glued on! I hope the next cast, now curing, will be more successful.

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