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Oh wow, she is in poor shape. I see a lot of rubs on the ridge of her back scales, maybe a seam that’s been worn away? Please Post Pix of her restoration and Good luck in fixing her up!!
Melody wrote:Pam Thompson wrote:Dang, that girl’s older than I am! I suddenly feel very smallish in the world..
Mel, did you say original CLAY sculpture? I thought you made them out of clay, and then plaster? Are you meaning to tell me that the original family was all made entirely from soft clay?? If that be so, then you ARE a glutton for punishment! Yep.They were all in clay.I was just learning how to sculpt these! At first, I did all the details in soft clay (Water clay, no less). I started cleaning up the castings when we had to remove the seam lines, and figured out that it would be much better (though not faster, by any means)to put the detail into the gypsum casting instead.The details come out cleaner, and the sculpture can be sanded and buffed to a fine polish in gypsum. But it does take FOREVER to do. That is why I get out so few things.
On the clay ones, did you have to fire them? Water clay shrinks too (or expands, depending on H2O amount)–it would be really hard to get eyes to fit in them because the eye-sockets would always be changed size! How did you get around that problem?
-Which of the original sculpts were first done in clay? I can’t imagine making the emp out of water-based clay!
-So the original sculpts that were done in clay were all refined later by carving into the gypsum?
-Do you still have any of the original clays? Or maybe a casting done off of an original clay?Barrdwing: That poor girl!! 😯 What happened to her wings!?? It looks like someone dug her out of a dumpster somewhere–she’s so beat up! I thought my mother dragon was bad… She is near mint compared to this one (ok, well, maybe not)
Her poor wings, yeek. They’ve been through not one but two major accidents. I don’t even know what the first one was: it happened before I got her, and cost her the last third of both wings. When she was shipped to me, the seller sent her squeezed into a flat-rate Priority Mail box. She had a nice foam rubber pad under her, and lots of packing peanuts. Unfortunately the box must have been turned upside-down at some point, and something heavy put on top of it. The packing peanuts didn’t stop her from settling to the bottom, where a lot of the paint on her wings got rubbed off against the cardboard. Then the box got scrunched, and her wings collected a whole new set of breaks. 🙁
Well, I wanted a challenge . . . 🙄skigod377 wrote:You certainly got a challenge! Good luck! I hope you fix er up nice!
What material are you going to repair her with? It would be neat if we could see her repairs step by step!
Pam Thompson wrote:Melody wrote:Pam Thompson wrote:Dang, that girl’s older than I am! I suddenly feel very smallish in the world..
Mel, did you say original CLAY sculpture? I thought you made them out of clay, and then plaster? Are you meaning to tell me that the original family was all made entirely from soft clay?? If that be so, then you ARE a glutton for punishment! Yep.They were all in clay.I was just learning how to sculpt these! At first, I did all the details in soft clay (Water clay, no less). I started cleaning up the castings when we had to remove the seam lines, and figured out that it would be much better (though not faster, by any means)to put the detail into the gypsum casting instead.The details come out cleaner, and the sculpture can be sanded and buffed to a fine polish in gypsum. But it does take FOREVER to do. That is why I get out so few things.
Quote:On the clay ones, did you have to fire them? Water clay shrinks too (or expands, depending on H2O amount)–it would be really hard to get eyes to fit in them because the eye-sockets would always be changed size! How did you get around that problem?
No, I didn’t fire them. I used a clay called WED. It is designed to be used for making molds on, while it is still wet or leather hard. Since it doesn’t need to dry out, the shrinkage is less. I had to carve out the eye sockets in the plaster castings to fit our eyes better. The sockets needed to be much larger than I expected to accommodate the variations in the glass eye thicknesses.
Quote:Which of the original sculpts were first done in clay? I can’t imagine making the emp out of water-based clay!
The original line of animals,and the hatching, the female and the male dragon were finish detailed in clay. All of the original sculptures are still done in clay now; just not detailed in the clay.
Quote:.-So the original sculpts that were done in clay were all refined later by carving into the gypsum?
The animals were never detailed in gypsum, they are as they came out of the mold directly from the clay master, however the male and female dragons were later sanded down, given more detail and polished, to match the later dragons.
Quote:-Do you still have any of the original clays? Or maybe a casting done off of an original clay?
We do. Some got pitched, but I still have several. I think we kept most of the original castings, or molds..I don’t think we have the original clay dragons anymore, but I really don’t know for sure. Too many boxes.
Melody wrote:
Quote:What material are you going to repair her with? It would be neat if we could see her repairs step by step!
Honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t have much experience with this kind of repair. 😳 (I’m anticipating a storm of dismay at this point. A historical Windstone, in the hands of a greenhorn?) I plan to get some Apoxie Sculpt and experiment with it–off the dragon–to see if it can hold its form well enough to bridge that gap between wings and back. And there’s a whole pile of Breyer bodies that I’ve been planning to customize. They have now become my practice pieces. 😈 Some very peculiar plastic ponies may come out of this!
I guess I’m also trying to say that I won’t go dashing in on this project until I’m comfortable with the materials and techniques. So hopefully My Lady won’t suffer (I don’t mind being inexperienced, but I mind like crazy the thought of botching her restoration). And if I start getting in over my head, you folks will be the first to know! (After the cockatiels, who live in the crafts room and are learning some interesting words.) 😛 Right now I’m in the process of cleaning her up, which is taking a lot of slightly damp Q-tips and toothpicks. I’ll take more photos when she’s all clean.
Barrdwing wrote:Melody wrote:
Quote:What material are you going to repair her with? It would be neat if we could see her repairs step by step!
Honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t have much experience with this kind of repair. 😳 (I’m anticipating a storm of dismay at this point. A historical Windstone, in the hands of a greenhorn?) I plan to get some Apoxie Sculpt and experiment with it–off the dragon–to see if it can hold its form well enough to bridge that gap between wings and back. And there’s a whole pile of Breyer bodies that I’ve been planning to customize. They have now become my practice pieces. 😈 Some very peculiar plastic ponies may come out of this!
I guess I’m also trying to say that I won’t go dashing in on this project until I’m comfortable with the materials and techniques. So hopefully My Lady won’t suffer (I don’t mind being inexperienced, but I mind like crazy the thought of botching her restoration). And if I start getting in over my head, you folks will be the first to know! (After the cockatiels, who live in the crafts room and are learning some interesting words.) 😛 Right now I’m in the process of cleaning her up, which is taking a lot of slightly damp Q-tips and toothpicks. I’ll take more photos when she’s all clean.
And I’m sure there will be many willing minds on this forum to help you out! 😀
Apoxie clay is difficult stuff to work with. But is does smooth with water (a little). That is a plus.
I’m new to the forum and just happened upon this thread. I saw the pics of the grand old Mother that Barrdwing is endeavoring to restore to her former splendor. I am the proud owner of the same Mother, as well as her Hatching, and wish you the best of luck Barddwing.
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