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Coral Mermaid (2006) - photo by Mike Edenfield

"If you are going to take your precious free time for months and build something, there is no excuse for second-rate work. You cannot claim client deadlines or lousy budget, since you have control over both of them.

"The opportunities to do the great defining pieces of your career come around once every couple of years. Are you going to waste those rare chances on a less-than-grand endeavor?"

Read "How it happened."

About Kim Graham

Kim has sculpted since the mid-1980s in a wide variety of media and sizes, ranging from fired clay figuratives to architectural ceramic pieces to 22-foot fiberglass dragons. The online Kim Graham Studios gallery shows some of her work. Her current interest is large-scale architectural pieces. Kim lives in a suburb of Seattle, Washington. She is accepting new commissions at kimsculptor (at) gmail (dot) com. (More about Kim Graham.)

Kim’s recommendations

Sculpting supplies

I use "Le Beau Touche" modeling clay from Chavant. This plasticine goes for approximately $4/pound. It is mid-level hardness, formulated for northern climates.

I make molds using these materials from Smooth-On corporation:

Mold Max 30 high-tear-strength silicone rubber
Plasti-Paste Trowelable Plastic
Thi-Vex II Silicone Thickener (thixotropic agent)

My supplier here in Washington state is Far West Materials.

(By the way, Smooth-On's site offers amazing must-see moldmaking video instructions. I wish I'd had these when I was starting out!)

I strengthen the mold rubber by adding small amounts of Fibermesh 150 e3 polypropylene multifilament fiber (often called "stealth fiber"), sold by concrete suppliers . Here in Seattle I use Glacier Northwest.

Glue gun

My hot glue gun, the 3M Scotch-Weld Hot Melt Applicator TC, costs about $100-140 and is well worth it. I’ve burned up seven ordinary $25 glue guns in the past two years. This orange beast can effortlessly put out several pounds of glue a minute. It requires specific shaped glue sticks available in 11-pound boxes. You can find great deals on the web.

Silk Mermaid > 2010 > June

Auckland (NZ) Dragon demo – June-July 2010

Posted by Allen | Art and design,Demonstration | Saturday 26 June 2010 5:38 pm

June 28 – July 10, 2010: Kim Graham has often exhibited the process of sculpting large-scale creatures at science fiction conventions and other public events. For Kim’s latest demonstration she is creating a large dragon in clay, live in public, in the center court of the Westfield shopping mall in Manukau City, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. (Here’s the Westfield mall on Google Maps.) Kim will be sculpting every day from June 28th to July 10th, starting at 10 AM daily. If you’re in Auckland New Zealand, stop by and watch!

Kim prepared the mall dragon sculpture’s armature in advance. She writes, “The first picture is the welded steel armature built over a rough cardboard cutout version. There will be about half a ton of clay on this, so it has to be pretty strong. It took two days to build.” [Click the photo for a larger version.]

“This is the plaster and burlap covering that will support the clay. I made it small enough that I can fill out the musculature without hitting the plaster. One day to build.” [Click the photo for a larger version.]

Stay tuned for Kim’s updates on her latest dragon!

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