Hello there!

The following is a blog about my very amateur attempt at sculpture.

I first started a 12 week course in Sept 2009 (3 hours a week) at The Mary Ward Centre in the West End of London. I created this blog for my family, friends, tutor and possibly fellow class members. I shouldn't think it will be of interest to anyone else. Start at the beginning if you want to see the progress of the sculptures in order.

Since then I have done several other terms at The Mary Ward Centre but also a 3 day course (5 hours a day for 3 Sundays) at City Lit (in Central London again). The City Lit course was entitled 'Bronze Sculpture: The Voluptuous Figure'. It involved casting a bronze statue that we have created ourselves from plasticine.

Also included in the blog is various sculptures I have worked on at home in between courses.

I hope you enjoy it and if you don't, don't tell me!

Year 3 Week 22

I took the sculpture home this week and drilled a couple of holes under the 'arms' with an electric drill. I then spent this week making the holes bigger and the shape I wanted with various files.

I also spent some more time sanding down the whole thing.

Still more sanding to go.

Year 3 Week 21

The repair of last weeks disaster has come out better than I hoped. After some filing and sanding of the excess glue today I am surprised how good it came out. Below is a photo the side where the chunk was broken.

I spent the rest of the session with a little bit of filing and lots of sanding.

Year 3 Week 20

Disaster!

Stupidly, to make it easier to file the 'head' of the sculpture I put it in a vice but closed up too tightly on the area of the stone with a flaw. I heard a worrying crunching noise and saw pieces of stone falling to floor. You can see the outcome below.

Funnily enough today I was going to use a mixture of stone dust and glue to fill in the crevice but instead I had to use it to stick back the stone chunks that fell out. Then I filled in the crevice.

The areas with glue are very rough at the moment but can be sanded down next week.

I also did some work shaping some areas of the sculpture.

Year 3 week 19

Today I was mostly refining the shape in certain areas.

I straightened out the lower area of the sculpture as the flaws in the stone meant I couldn't have it the exact shape I wanted it. I am happy with this shape though.



I drilled a couple of small test holes in the sides of sculpture which I hope to open out into bigger slots later.



I also started to reduce the size of the head to the shape I want it to end up. Unfortunately a bit more came off than I wanted so I may not be the exact shape I wanted again.

Luckily I was able chisel and file in close to the big flaw in the side without any more damage. It's pretty strong stuff.

Year 3 week 18

Mostly just filing today to smooth off a lot of the surfaces. Also some fine tuning of the shape though.










Still worried about the flaw spreading!

Year 3 Week 17

Today I finished the saw cuts and chiselled the lumps out at the top of the stone.

I did some minor work on the shaping and filed a couple of the large flat surfaces (still avoiding the flaw though).

Still a LOT of work to do!

Year 3 Week 16

Lots of chiselling, sawing and filing this week and lots of avoiding that flaw in the stone.

I started a couple of saw cuts in the top of the stone but will need to finish them next week.

I am finding this a very hard stone to work with.

Year 3 Week 15

This week I started in earnest the chiselling and filing of the sculpture.

Unfortunately I discovered when I got further into the stone that there is a flaw in the middle. I hope this doesn't make it too brittle. It is a bit unfortunate that where it is located is bound to show up in the finished sculpture.

Below is a close up of the annoying flaw!

Year 3 Week 14

I found a piece of stone that fitted my latest sculpture idea perfectly but a student from another day had marked it for their use. After an enquiry from the tutor they very kindly let me use it instead. Below are two pictures of it before I start.

Follwing are pictures after a few hours of chiselling, sawing and filing.

Year 3 Week 13

Start of a new term and start of a new sculpture. I have an idea already of what I want to do so I hope to find a piece of stone at Mary Ward that roughly fits the shape of the idea. Meanwhile I made a clay maquette today to see how the sculpture would work.

It is based on a household object that should be familiar to most people and is associated with happy times (I hope). It is an object that seems to have been recreated for many years in roughly the same design so is quite iconic. I also like it though because it resembles something else and is strangely pleasing to the eye and a bit humorous. Intrigued!?!

As I had a little time at the end of the 3 hours I worked on another clay maquette for another sculpture. This was for a piece of very nice wood that a fellow class member (Ruth) very kindly gave me.