1. Plaster is splashed on the clay bust
2. Mold is taken off the head
3. Mold is tied and plaster poured in
4. Mold is chipped off plaster bust
Sculpturing Is No Snap
After spending almost four years on the campus and hearing about all the snap courses given in the School of Fine Arts, I decided to go over and investigate just what kind of a rocket is being run on the third floor of Strong hall.
I contacted Elden Tefft, an instructor in the design department, and to'd him that the Daily Kansan was about to run an "expose" on fine arts students. I told him that I wanted the inside stuff, and he invited me over to take pictures of one of his students in Advance Sculpture.
I came out of our interview slightly splattered with clay and plaster, and a little bit wiser. After watching Eldena Brownlee, fine arts senior, at work for a few hours, I decided to stick to journalism.
The whole process of statue making starts with a glop of rather unappetizing looking sculptor's clay and a wooden block atop an iron stand. The clay is applied to the block piece by piece until it gets to a stage where it roughly resembles a head.
Here the model comes in, in this case, Mrs. Oscar Brownlee, and the mass of clay is shoved, scraped and pushed into a replica of the shape of the model's head. As I sat there and watched this hunk of clay took the form of Mrs. Brownlee's head.
The next stage is one I thought that I could be quite
proficient at. Dena got a couple of bowls of plaster, and with a flick of the fingers, splashed it all over the clay model she had spent hours working on. It looked sloppy, but interesting.
The plaster was allowed to harden; and then, as I closed my eyes, the plaster was broken in half. The two halves of the plaster made a perfect mold. The two halves of the mo'd were then put together and filled with plaster. When this was set, and I saw what Dena was about to do, I decided to stick to writing.
With mallet and chisel, the plaster cast is taken off the formed head. As Dena chipped away I had visions of an ear, the tip of the nose, or a bit of the chin falling on the floor. But lo and behold, the head came out in one shining white piece.
Then, with a set of tools that seemed to have been borrowed from a dentist's office, stray bits of plaster were taken off the head. The main work was finished, and the head was allowed to sit and dry.
The final step was to paint the head. This done, Dena's job was complete, and I don't know who gave the longest sigh of relief.
I learned my lesson. The only snap in sculpturing is the snapping of frayed nerve ends.
Picture story by Don Moser.
Mrs. Oscar Brownlee sits for Eldena Brownlee as Dena puts final touches on the clay model.
5. Imperfections are cleaned
6. The final product