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FAX (937) 687-1479 | I get so many inquiries about how sculptures are made that I thought I'd show you how they begin, and the result. One of the piece I'm starting here is called "Skydancer." It will be a jumping horse suspended above clouds by a thin line of bronze that will be patinaed a mottled light blue. "Skydancer" uses a "back iron armature" which will be explained below. "Come On, Boys" uses the standard armature I use for most of my horses, with the post coming into the bottom of the barrel of the horse.
Sculptures usually require some kind of armature. Most armatures for bronzes are made using pipe and aluminum armature wire. The pipe can be whatever size the artist wants. This is fairly small pipe, with a connector to a larger pipe because I couldn't find a floor flange that small. I like small pipe because it makes less of a repair spot on the horse's body when the piece is being cast. This style of armature, where the support pipe is not directly under the sculpture, is sometimes called a "back iron" armature (because in figurative [human] sculpture, this style is used and the support pipe goes into the middle back of the sculpture). Most of my pieces are made with the pipe coming in underneath, into the center of the body mass of the horse. For a jumping horse, where the under belly detail is really important, the side-mounted armature seemed the best choice.
The wood working surface is shellacked so the clay (which is plastilene, an oil-based clay that does not harden or dry out) will not stick to it, and so there won't be any spinters to get in the clay (or the sculptor's hands!). When steel or galvanized pipe are used, they need to be sprayed with polyurethane to coat it, or painted with shellac, to seal it away from the plastilene. Steel and plastilene together create a chemical reaction that causes the clay to get black and crumbly where it touches the pipe. As long as the pipe is sealed, there should be no problems.
We begin by cutting aluminum armature wire longer than it needs to be. The heavy wire will support the horse's head, neck, body and tail. Smaller wire is wrapped around it to give the clay something to "bite" so it won't slide around on the wire. Smaller wires are doubled and twisted to form each leg, or each pair of legs, whatever works best for the piece. The tighter the wires are twisted, the stronger they are and the more clay they'll support, so for tightly folded legs, or legs extended out (not hanging down), the wire had to be tightly twisted to support the clay's weight. Aluminum wire is used because it's both strong enough to hold the clay and soft enough to easily manipulate it, plus it doesn't have any chemical reaction with clay. Steel coat hanger wire, for instance, would have a chemical reaction with clay, and is brittle and inflexible (for fine or curved movement), so it isn't the best choice for armature wire.
This is the armature for "Come On, Boys." There is no elbow joint -- this armature will come up under the horse into his belly. Note the T-joint that all the wires pass through. To stablize the wires, I shove in toothpicks and break them off where they stick out past the end of the T. I continue to shove toothpicks in from each end until I can't get any more in. I make sure to break off the toothpick as close to the T as possible so I don't stick my fingers when you're working. Some sculptors use pipe clamps, those little metal strips with a screw in them that get smaller as you scre it in. I don't like these for pieces as small as most of mine, because I usually wind up hitting the clamp at some point. Toothpicks are less trouble for me to work with. The wires all have to be held in place as the toothpicks are put in place so they are in the right position once they're stabilized. The same process is done for back iron armatures and standard armatures.
Note that this is a completed armature. The legs are way too long so I can sculpt to the length of leg I want and cut off the excess (and stick the ends in the ground so I can change leg positions easily and have them stay where I put them). Some artists will make the armature exactly the right size to start with. I tend to let the sculpture tell me where it wants to go for these table-top sized pieces, so I like an armature that moves and adjusts easily. By the way, you can use exactly the back-iron type of armature shown in the first pictures above for modeling people, with the T set upright and the wires arranged just a little differently (no tail, for instance! :-D)
Shown above is the "C'mon Boys" sculpture starting to take shape. First I cover the armature so there are no sharp pieces to catch me unaware, and to stabilize the armature in the position I want. Then I start building the body masses, laying the clay on in the shape and size of the musculature whenever possible. The horse will soon take shape from here.
Here "C'mon Boys" is starting to look like a horse.
"Skydancer" about 3/4 done. Note the tail is left for last, so I can work on the detail of the buttocks and back legs without the tail being in the way. I changed my mind about the braids on the horse after this picture was taken.
And here's the completed clay of "Skydancer." I hope this little tutorial has helped you understand sculpture better!
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