Sculpting the seat cushion is next.  She’s almost finished!  (See finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos) 

Chair back and chair legs will need to be fabricated at the foundry.

The back of the chair and chair legs will be added by the foundry so I needed to add registration marks to show the metal worker where to attach.

On a side point, here is the braid all finished. Also, you can see how I’ve added some wire under her arm to figure where the chair touches her arm and her back.

An indention under the arm marks where the chair back should go.

Smooth chair cushion will have texture added.

Her chair seat is now sculpted in clay and smooth.  Next, the texture is added.

Registration marks are added to the chair seat.

Registration marks are in place as seen above.  She is mounted on an oil base clay tube which will serve as a pour spout for the mold.

Funnel for reproduction mold is attached under the chair.

Impressionistic floral pattern is barely discernible and is a contrast to the tight and smooth modeling of her skin and dress.

Impressionistic floral pattern gives contrast to the smoothness of sculpture.

Next is the final step before molding. Yay!  I will be sculpting her base, with the written note and  bouquet of flowers.

Glad I entered some competitions this year!  Decided to see how my sculpture Garden Reverie would do in a few competitions.  If she was able to win something it would really help with promoting her.  Well, I was so excited to get a phone call from AWA (American Women Artists) that I had won Grand Prize in their online 2013 competition!  I won $400 cash, 1/4 page ad in Southwest Art magazine and an automatic entry into their November 2013 juried show in Texas.  That made my day!  I was so excited that I did the dance of joy.  Yay!

Then I had hopes for how Garden Reverie might do in the other competition that I entered, ARC (Art Renewal Center).  This is the finest competition that I know of and is international.  I just found early this morning the results. Thankfully, I was a finalist in the Sculpture category for “Garden Reverie.” She was one of only 30 finalists in sculpture. I was in good company as a finalist with such well known sculptors as Angela De Le Vega and Philippe Faraut.

• http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2012-2013%20Salon&page=Sculpture

Well, these awards make for a nice finale to my sculpture project.  She was a lot of work and so having the recognition from top awards really makes me satisfied of a job well done.  Accolades do feel good and mean something to me, especially coming from such good organizations as ARC and AWA!

Thanks for all your support and comments.  They have always been a big support to me and keep my spirits up during difficult periods of sculpting.

~Tamara

My favorite patinas are usually ones that show the quality of the bronze metal in all it’s glowing glory.  Some sculptures look best with an opaque patina and some look great with a bronze patina.  I happen to favor Garden Reverie in bronze patina, with color on her dress and flower etc..

Details:

• Pre-cast promotion is here.   She’s being offered in two different patinas. One is an bronze patina with color as seen below or the other option is an opaque monochrome patina. 
• To view all work in progress posts for her, click here
• ARC awards finalist in the Sculpture category for her. She was one of only 30 finalists in sculpture. I was in good company as a finalist with such well known sculptors as Angela De Le Vega and Philippe Faraut.  http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2012-2013%20Salon&page=Sculpture
• Grand Prize winner for AWA (American Women Artists) in Sculpture 2013 competition for Garden Reverie.

Front full view of Garden Reverie Sculpture in bronze with color.

Side view of Garden Reverie showing her blue-green
patterned dress.

The dress has patterns of teal blue, green, and some rust.  It is semi-translucent which allows the bronze to show through.  Her chair has a touch of burgundy tone in highlight areas.

Closeup view of face of bronze Garden Reverie.

Her hair is a lighter shade of bronze.  We decided not to add color to it but rather to take color away from it.  Her dress ties are rubbed back so that they stand out from her skin color.  The flower in her hair is burgundy red color with a pale yellow bronze center.

“Look into the window of my heart, this is what you’ll find” note
in bronze.

The bronze base is very beautiful (thanks to the wonderful patina artist, Bart, at Parks Bronze in Enterprise, Oregon) with a swirly rich brown pattern that resembles brown marble.  The pattern  goes well with the dress pattern.

Variegated patina colors on her dress.

And that’s the conclusion to this project but I will continue to post the remaining blog posts for my work in progress of her, including mold photos and foundry process pictures.

Thanks again for watching!! Now I’m free to work on my lady with the hat reading a book.  :-)  Just in time for sunny days to inspire me further.

Have a great day,

~Tamara

Hi everyone,

Finally have some pics to share with you of Garden Reverie in monochrome.  The patina is called a pastel patina, meaning that a white base is used and then color is slowly built up upon that.  I wanted her to look warm and soft so we used warm colors of rosy salmon, tan, off-white and grey.

Pre-cast promotion is here.   She’s being offered in two different patinas. One is an opaque monochrome patina as seen below or the other option is a bronze patina with color (see pics here).

To view all work in progress posts for her, click here.

• ARC awards finalist in the Sculpture category for her. She was one of only 30 finalists in sculpture. I was in good company as a finalist with such well known sculptors as Angela De Le Vega and Philippe Faraut.  http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2012-2013%20Salon&page=Sculpture
• Grand Prize winner for AWA (American Women Artists) in Sculpture 2013 competition for Garden Reverie.

Her face shows up very well in this light patina whereas the bronze with color patina choice has more of a rich and exciting feel.  My patina artist did such a good job that I love each of his patinas!

She is 15 1/2″ tall which includes her base.   The black granite base is 1 1/4″ and has an ogee edge.   Just a little bit fancy touch for the ogee edge base as opposed to a simple round edge.

Garden Reverie in monochrome “white” patina

Her pupils came out very well.  I didn’t carve out the pupil which can depict a dark color.  By leaving the iris on the same plane as the sclera (white part) it gives the appearance of a light colored eye.

Detail areas like eyes, lip lines, eyebrown lines and fingernails are all important to me.  My Oregon foundry did a good job to keep this areas in tact or replicate them if need be.  The metal chaser said this is the first time he ever got out a razor blade to chase in detail areas like lip lines.  So happy he did such a good job.

Chose a lavender background to go with the springtime feel.  On my monitor it looks pleasing but will be nice to see how it reads on different computers- perhaps greyish.

This is the note that is below her.  It reads “Look into the window of my heart, this is what you’ll find.”  It can mean different things to each person.

Stay tuned and I’ll be posting the bronze patina photos of her shortly.

~Tamara

Sculpting flowers is something I really enjoy doing.  Adding one to my garden lady seemed like a great  thing to do.   (See finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos) At first I didn’t know how many flowers to add.  Should I have a variety of flowers or just one? Didn’t really want to cover the wavy curls in the front of her hair or cover her ear.  Played around with adding some clay petals to determine what mass I wanted in that area.

Playing around with the size of flower to add.

Decided to sculpt one large flower.

Decided to do a big single flower (nothing too busy looking), one that had a romantic, lacy feel to it.  Because clay shrinks, the flower kept getting smaller, and so I had to add more to the edges in order to get it to be the right size.

Will need to back fill clay behind petals so rubber mold will release.

When making ceramic roses, I can have the petals very thin and dainty. But for bronze, I have to thicken the petals so that the flower will de-mold well.  Maintaining the dainty look can be tricky. I back fill behind the petals with clay, but kept the edges as thin as possible.  Below is the finished rose.

Flower is complete.

Next, I worked on getting her dress finished out with ribbon ties and bow.

Bow has trailing tendrils.

Wavy hair, flower, and ribbon ties…. that oughta do it!  I love swirly, wavy anything! Lol.

Delicate and fine straps for her dress.

If the neckline tie is too fine, the foundry workers might remove too much metal, and the tie would disappear.  I continued to add more clay until it was just thick enough.

Continue to build up thickness of dress ties.

In order to work on her bodice area, I had to remove the arm once again.

Had to remove arm to work on dress bodice.

Wavy and delicate dress bodice.

Next I’ll work on her chair cushion.

Thank you for your interest in following this sculpture to completion.

What a wonderful time I had going to my new foundry, Parks Bronze, in Enterprise, Oregon.  Want to share my foundry experience with you along with photos of Enterprise and the nearby town of Joseph (5 miles away).

First off, I’ll share some about the town of Joseph.  Here’s a photo entering Joseph, Oregon.

The town of Joseph, Oregon is nice little town.

My husband had a fun time making a little video that we’ll put on YouTube of him giving his version of this sign.  These people really do feel like they live in Paradise and I can see why!  They say to slow down but we were crawling along so I bet they’d be glad if we went a little bit faster.  Lol.

Welcome sign in Joseph, Oregon made us laugh!

There is one bronze foundry in Joseph, OR called Valley Bronze and two foundries in Enterprise, OR : Parks Bronze and I don’t recall the name of the other one. With all the local foundries it is no wonder that there are several bronze public art scuptures to enjoy. Some sculptors live in the area, including sculptor Rodd Ambroson who makes very beautiful figurative women sculpture.

“Attitude Adjustment” by Artist : Austin Barton

The town of Joseph was named after Chief Joseph and there is a historic monument for his graveside outside the city near Wallowa Lake.

“Chief Joseph” looks over the city of Joseph along with several other bronzes.

Chief Joseph- Hein-Mot too-Ya-la-kekt

Lake Wallowa, seen below, is gorgeous with it’s snow capped moutains, red barn and deer in the foreground. I got hailed on just a few minutes after this pic was taken.  The deer were coming up to me so curious and friendly.  I hear winters get minus degree temperatures so I’ll save my visits to the spring or summer.  It was cold enough as it was in mid April as you can see with snow on the ground.

Gorgeous Wallowa Lake in Joseph, Oregon with a deer in picture.

Now to the foundry…. here is point number one to just give an idea of the quality of the foundry…. see how clean this eagle is out front of Parks Bronze?  They must get out there and wipe the dust off regularly.  Good sign for the attention to detail they do otherwise as well.

Eagle outside of Parks Bronze is so clean!

I get so excited when I go to foundries and this time was no different except in one crucial way …. usually my initial excitement is replaced with stress due to all the corrections I have to make to the bronzes but here I am seen twirling around in a whirlwind of happiness.

Whirlwind of excitement getting to work with my new foundry.

Later, in my work in progress for Garden Reverie, I’ll share bronze process photos.  I love looking at sculptural works in the foundry and would have loved to share stunning patinas but was not allowed to take photos of other scuptor’s work.  The foundry said I would have to get permission from the artists.  Respect is given and that’s a plus!

Other high points to this foundry:

• Bronzes required very little refining. When I arrived at the foundry, my two bronzes looked great!  I’m used to circling with a black marker pen all the areas the metal chaser needs to give attention to but there was little to do.  This was partly due to the fact that they sent nice wax photos and then metal photos for me to critique, so that when I got there, little was left to do.  Their work is careful and conscientious.

• Plastic bags cover sculptures.  I’ve never seen a foundry that cover the finished sculptures with clear plastic bags so that dust does not accumulate and potentially mess up the patina.

• Foundry workers sweep for 10 minutes at end of each workday! I was shocked to see the metal guys with masks on and going to town, so to speak, with their big brooms sweeping the floor of metal dust and debris. You mean foundries can actually be clean?!

• Patineur Bart is fabulous!  He first requested that I send him photos of my patina idea for Garden Reverie so that he could start “thinking” about how he might approach doing the patina.  When I arrived, he didn’t want to leave my side, even though it was his lunch time, because he wanted to be there in case I had further questions or concerns.  I finally had to tell him it was okay to leave for his lunch and that I’d be okay with checking out the bronze and circling the things on it that needed some touchup.  He’s so nice!

•  We talked about the patina and he had already prepared a few test plates for us to begin a sample patina on.  This is so much better then working on the actual sculpture and then regretting your choice of patina later.  Here’s a pic of Bart beginning one of the test tiles.

Bart at Parks Bronze making a test tile sample.

Patina artist Bart worked meticulously on my patina.  He has a good artistic eye for subtle variances, color tones to create a mood and how a sculpture reads.  He analyzed carefully and thoughtfully and consulted with me along the way.  Soon I’ll be taking photos and share the patinas he created.  I can not imagine them being any better, he did a wonderful job.

• Bart made a final sample tile for reference.  I don’t have to worry about the next cast having a patina that will look a lot different because Bart made a final sample tile plate that has all the variances of tone for each patina.  I had a monochrome patina and a bronze with color patina and so he has two reference tiles to be kept on file for my Garden Reverie!  This is so much better then using photos or written notes alone to recreate the patina.

• Bronzes were mounted and felt tabs applied to bottom. Bronzes were waxed and mounted on the granite base with felt applied to bottom and this was all ready for me to take home.  Bart was polishing Garden Reverie very carefully like he really cared about it.  He then offered to bubble wrap them and then put them in a plastic bag for our trip home.  We said it wasn’t necessary as we had blankets to wrap them in.  He delivered my sculpture to our car and made sure that it was lying on the correct side of the sculpture for the trip home.  He waited for us to get in and then waved goodbye to us with a smile!   Service clear to the very end as we left!  Can’t ask for more with a foundry.  I highly recommend them for doing high quality work.

Foundry always has so much to look at.

The owner Steve Parks playfully sticks out his hand, to receive cash for our picture together.  Secretary Jackie plays along.  She is such a hardworking lady and carries many hats around that place, not just answering the phone.  In fact, we saw her with her telephone head set on and spruing wax on a sculpture (see her work apron on). In between calls, she works!  She’s very nice, honest and articulate- a good communicator- which is very important in a long distance foundry.

Owner Steve Parks (Jackie looks so innocent) is taking my whole life savings! lol

Finally, here are some pics of the semi-domesticated deer.  A herd of 12 deer were casually grazing in the back yard of some residence in Joseph, Oregon. They lie down in peace, unafraid.  We loved seeing them up close and it was like being at a wildlife park or imagining how Paradise would be with all the animals of the earth at peace with mankind, yay!

Herd of 12 deer gather like they live in Paradise at peace with people.

Deer peacefully lie down in back yard of Joseph, Oregon home.

In a nutshell, the goal is to find a foundry that can work in my absence and have me trust them to do all the things I need them to do and maintain good quality casts.This can be done with a foundry 2 hours away or much further away, it really doesn’t matter. The initial introduction needs to happen so that they know what is needed and desired. By documenting this info, the foundry can then reproduce the next sculpture cast to look the same.

Parks has one more cast to make and I have confidence they will do a good job on it as well. My good friend Lynda Sappington has been working with them for years and has great results. She’s the reason I tried out this fine foundry because of her recommendation. Thanks Lynda!

(See Garden Reverie’s finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos)

Once again, refining her figure is what I’ll be showing today but this time for her legs.  Keeping in mind the shape of the bones, such as in the knee, is important.  There are many complex features to a knee.  Two large bones join there and then a knee cap and tendons, muscle and fat all play a part.  When a knee is bent, the knee cap gets pulled downwards.  Our bodies are so wonderfully made and learning the intricacies of it is an ongoing process.  I keep several anatomy books close on hand to refer to while sculpting.

(See Garden Reverie’s finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos)

Her rough toes need much work, and her foot needs to be narrowed, among other things.

Each leg is removed and sculpted in detail.

Above, you see her size in relation to my hand.  She’s going to be about 16 ½” or thereabouts, with her black granite base.

Her finished leg and foot is ready to be attached to her body once again.

The crossed leg is relaxed, with a bulging calf muscle due to pressure put upon it from the other leg.  This relaxed leg is contrasted with a leg in flexion, with a contracted calf muscle and flexed foot.   There is a dichotomy ever present with this lady; her relaxed, dreamy state is contrasted with her physical need to support her coquettish pose through tension of limbs.

Next, I’ll show the process of sculpting the flower in her hair.

QCFA Blog Post #7 – Garden Reverie

Today I want to show how this arm and hand was more difficult to sculpt than the other hand.  Lining up her hand in the right position under her chin was part of the difficulty.

(See Garden Reverie’s finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos)

Here’s the rough sketch close-up photo to show how the hand first looked.

Unfinished hand

Positioning the pinky just right adds to the feminine flair.  Between that and feminine fingernails, I’m a happy camper as far at the hands are concerned.

Adjusting the pinky finger.

You can see the rough texture of the clay; the final pics show smooth skin.  This was brought about, in part, by brushing some liquid slip on the surface (slip is made up with no-grog [grit] clay).  Then I used various tools and techniques to further refine and smooth the skin.  Because I want a polished smooth skin bronze sculpture, the more I can do in the clay process the better, and will save on foundry labor and costs.

Registration marks for arm to align to.

Once again, I remove part of an arm and leave registration marks.  The jagged edge looks a bit morbid, but the uneven edge actually helps with lining up the arm once I reattach it.  I took the arm off and on many, many times before I had everything in place.  And then…. I cut it off again (but in a different place) for the mold process.

Hands are kept under plastic so they don’t dry out.

Since this is waterbased clay, the hands will dry out quickly, so they have to be kept under plastic as often as possible to slow down the drying.

Finger nail detail and lines on knuckles can be seen here.

Closeup of finished hand

Her four fingers needed to touch right under her chin and the thumb had to touch at the right spot on the neck.  This took a lot of coordinating and is difficult to do in waterbased clay where the fingers are delicate and can be broken off very easily.  There are features to waterbased clay I love and these outweigh the hardships I encounter.

Took time to line up hand under chin just right.

If her hand was too wide open, it looked like she was waving at you, which wasn’t the right effect.  By taking photos to help me “see” better, I was able to get the right gesture for the hand.  Comparing before and after photos is my number one tool for judging improvements.

Every day I took pics at the end (many times during working as well) and in the morning, while having breakfast, I reviewed those photos, comparing and observing what I liked and what I wanted to work on.   Many times I’d go into Photoshop and make mock-up alterations to see how I liked it, before sculpting on the actual figure.

Next I’ll share pics and comments about sculpting her legs.  Thanks for following along.

~Tamara

Garden Reverie’s work in progress blog posts are here.  (See Garden Reverie’s bronze photos) I’ll continue to add more steps showing her anatomy being refined on into molding, casting in bronze and patina.  

For now, I’m skipping ahead to the finished clay pics because I’m doing a pre-cast promotion (also available at my Napa gallery) for this sculpture.  She will be available in bronze by mid-April.

Garden Reverie

17″ Cast Bronze (images show clay prior to bronze casting)
Limited Edition of 50
Pre-Cast Price $4500 (limited to first 5 castings)
Afterwards the price will increase to $5100.

]]> http://tamarabonet.com/blog/2013/03/18/garden-reverie-finished-clay-pics/feed/ 24 http://tamarabonet.com/blog/2013/03/11/garden-reverie-sculpture-6/ http://tamarabonet.com/blog/2013/03/11/garden-reverie-sculpture-6/#comments Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:57:34 +0000 Tamara Bonet http://tamarabonet.com/blog/?p=1756  

 Garden Reverie Sculpture- #6 

The initial roughing in of the sculpture is finished.  Now on to refining the anatomy.From a distance her hands look as if they are finished and for a quick sketch type sculpture, they would be. I love a raw and unrefined sculpture with natural organic textures because it has energy to it; sometimes the artist’s tool or hand marks are seen.

I also love crisp and detailed modeling, like the classical sculpture of old, where the anatomy was carefully brought to its most pleasing fullness of shape. This is the style that I’ll work towards for Garden Reverie.

You can see here the texture in natural earth clay.  This clay is called Great White with grog (fired clay bits). Grog helps prevent blowups in the kiln because it enables trapped air to escape through the clay. It fires to maturity at Cone 6 in a kiln, so it’s a stoneware mid-range fire clay.  This is important info for me because I plan to fire her after making a mold for bronze.

By cutting off the hand, I can move it around in every angle to really sculpt it well.  A few registration marks will help to line it up again.

Here are some of the tools that I use when sculpting the hands.  The black tool is a hard wood with a very tight grain.  I carved the tool from the block of wood and then sanded it to a gloss finish.  Works well for burnishing/smoothing the clay.

Fingernails….  I love fingernails (but my foundry doesn’t, ha, ha- more difficulty in casting).  They add to the femininity and grace of her hand.  Since it’s out in the forefront, resting on her knee, I especially want it to look elegant and beautiful.

The lines in the hands need to be incised deeply enough so that when the wax and metal chasing are finished, the lines will still remain.  The bronze casting process tends to remove about 10% of overall detail.

Next I’ll be working on the other arm and hand.

If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.

 (See Garden Reverie’s finished clay pics and promotion and bronze photos)