, 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.Acetate pattern transfer
With the first side of the tail done, I transfer the pattern over to the other side. I use acetate sheets to trace the design and reverse it. It is a time-consuming process but very accurate.
Cleaning up
I’m starting to clean up the hair and body. I am also running dangerously low on clay.
Hair – no cheating
I am beginning to establish the movement of the hair. Hair is one of the most common cheat points in figurative sculpture. (The other is drapery.) You cannot get the human body wrong, or everyone will see it. However, hair and drapery are where you separate the good artist from the great. I intend to take the time and do something really amazing.
I have removed the left arm so I can get closer to the body. This is one of the pin-and-socket joints I designed into the armature.
Possible fin mechanism
This is a rough of a possible mechanism to power the undulating fins.
The movement is a crucial part of this work. I have decided for the “less is more” approach. The fins will be immobile about 80% of the time. When people first see her, the Silk Mermaid should simply be a large beautiful sculpture. Then, with glacial slowness, she will begin to move — a wide graceful flowing arc of silk and lace. She will flow briefly, and then with gentle care, slow to a stop. At some later point — five minutes, ten minutes — she will resume with a different fluttering motion, then again cease.
The point is to make the motion unpredictable. If her fins fluttered all the time, it would quickly become boring. If the same motion were performed repeatedly, again, pretty boring.
Another shot of the mechanism after the jump.
Time to start sculpting
I generally like to put a face on the piece first. It sets the tone for the rest of the body.
Applying the clay
I am using “Le Beau Touche” modeling clay from Chavant. This plasticine goes for approximately $4 a lb. It is a mid-level hardness formulated for northern climates. It is just the right density at room temperature, 65 degrees, to be pleasant to work with. In Texas it would melt.
To soften the clay, heat about 2 lbs of it in a microwave for two minutes. Then apply the clay with a spackle knife or trowel. I’m putting on about 1/16-inch and leaving little sparkles of foil showing. This reminds me of the depth of the clay.
I have tipped the mermaid down to get to the top of the hair.
A side shot after the jump.
Foil and hot glue
For the human part of the mermaid, I start with aluminum foil and hot glue. Aluminum foil is one of the best and fastest ways to sculpt really large pieces. It is possible to bulk out the human form in a few hours. Simply crumple the foil in a way that leaves the most entrapped air, then glue it to the cardboard. Build the figure slightly larger than you want. Then, using a rubber mallet, tap the surface to the correct dimensions. The crushed surface can hold a lot of weight.
My hot glue gun, the 3-M Scotch-Weld Hot Melt Applicator TC, goes for about $100 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 special shaped glue sticks available in 11-lb boxes. You can find great deals on the web.
Three more photos of the foiled sculpture (and my apartment) after the jump.
Metal lath
Metal lath is available at most concrete suppliers; cheap, lightweight, really strong. A warning, though: When you cut this stuff with a SawzAll, the edges become razor blades. Heavy gloves are essential!
I used concrete wire ties to bind the lath to the wire frame. By the way, if you increased the quarter-inch rod to half-inch rebar, you could make this sculpture in concrete for outdoor use — but it would weigh about a ton.
Tight fit
The armature in the studio (my one-room apartment). Yeah, it is pretty tight! But she can be swiveled and rotated, so it won’t be that hard.
Ready to move
I’ve removed all the nonessential cardboard, and now I’m ready to move the armature. As fragile as it looks, this armature can hold a lot of weight. I’ve reinforced each cross-section with additional quarter-inch rods supported from the main steel tube trussing.
Another photo of the fish body frame after the jump.
Armature
Here is the wire frame that establishes the shape of the fish. I have used 1-inch thin-wall square steel tube for the underlying structure.
In this picture you see a pin-and-socket arrangement. I welded a pair of small square pins to the torso side of the seam, and a receiving pair of larger square sockets to the fish side. One set simply fits inside the other, with gravity holding it in place.
This arrangement lets me break apart the big armature to into smaller pieces at the torso, the base of the tail, and each arm at the shoulder. I’m making this sculpture in my apartment, so this armature has to come up to my second-story apartment, in pieces, via the stairs, and fit through an ordinary man-sized door.
Photos of the complete armature and the tail section after the jump.
Timeline
For the technical folks out there, here is the timeline so far:
- Two days to build the maquette.
- One day to make cross sections off the maquette and transfer them to acetate.
- One day to steal cardboard from dumpsters around town. I need the big stuff without seams.
- One day to transfer sections from acetate to cardboard.
- Two days to design the steel armature and buy steel.
- Two days to weld the base.
- One day to glue the sections together and move them to the welding studio.
- Half a day to mount the cardboard cross-sections to the base.
- Four days to weld the rest of the body (as shown in the next posts).
Total so far: two weeks, plus a half day.
Starting to weld
A sculpture this size requires 1000+ lbs of clay and up to 800 pounds of molds. So whatever you do, the armature has to be able to hold a ton. Honestly, that is simply not that much — when you can weld!
(If you don’t have access to welding equipment, this work can also be done with wood, but it is a lot heavier. In fact, until about 50 years ago, all sculptures of this size were done with wood armatures.)
I welded this steel base and glued together the cardboard sections with hot glue. The wood struts keep them from flopping around. I folded out the centers of the small cross-sections to make them firmer.
More photos of the base after the jump.
Scaling up the model
To get the other smaller cross-sections, use a carpenter’s pin jig. The cross-sections are labeled on the body at “one foot” marks. The explanation, along with photos of the rest of the scaling procedure, appears after the jump.
Maquette acupuncture
Since I do not have the wealth to have my mermaid scanned and digitally cut from foam, I am doing this the old-fashioned, roll-up-your-sleeves, build-it-in-your-garage way.
It would cost $1,000 to have her scanned, $2,000 for the data manipulation so the CNC machine would work, and $14,000 to have her cut in foam. At that point I could apply clay to the surface of the foam and begin sculpting from there. So, $17,000 does the first quarter of the work. I can do it in steel in a few weeks for about $500.
It is necessary to get accurate cross-sections, or the Distortion Fairies will jinx your work. My cross-sections go around the body from the neck to the tail every 1 1/2 inches on the maquette, which will translate to one-foot increments in the completed sculpture. For the lateral line, place pins in the maquette right down its center.
More steps after the jump.